The Schlosser Legacy

Right: Herbert Schlosser with his wife


Many people across the globe have read Eric Schlosser’s books “The Fast Food Nation” and “Reefer Madness” but do not truly know his history and how he got to be one of best authors in the country. This article is about how this man came to be and how he got to be who he is today.

Eric Schlosser was born on August 17, 1979 in New York City. Eric’s father, Herbert Schlosser, was originally a Wall Street Lawyer who turned into a newscaster. Eric eventually left “the big apple” for Los Angeles in his pursuit to become a head in the broadcasting world, and eventually in 1974, he became the president of NBC. As Eric aged he became more and more interested in writing and literature. He enrolled at the Colleges at Princeton and Oxford and majored in American History and British Imperial History. Upon graduating college, Schlosser wrote the play Americans in 1985, which is set to the theme of American Imperialism in the early 20th century. Although this play was not immediately accepted, it was eventually produced in 2003 and is currently being performed out of the United States. After deciding to get out of fictional writing, Schlosser became a journalist for The Atlantic Monthly in Boston. During his career at the magazine company he became very well known. He earned the national Magazine Award for reporting in his two series article “Reefer Madness” and “Marijuana and the Law” in 1994. He then won the Sidney Hillman award for the article “In the Strawberry Fields” in 1995. Besides writing for the Atlantic Monthly, Schlosser wrote for Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair, The Nation, and The New Yorker. Then in 2001, Eric Schlosser wrote The Fast Food Nation, which became a New York Times Best-Seller for three years. Originally, “Fast Food Nation” began as a two part article for The Rolling Stone but quickly escalated into one of the most well written documentaries of recent time. “Fast Food Nation” even became a movie in 2006 which was directed by Richard Linklater. During the time of the “Fast Food Nation” craze, Schlosser wrote the book “Reefer Madness” which was a continuation of his earlier articles “Reefer Madness” and “Marijuana and the Law”.

Currently, Schlosser resides with his wife Shauna Redford, Robert Redford’s daughter, and two children in California. He is currently working on a book about control and the American Penitentiaries. Eric Schlosser has helped many understand the way things work and it is in this article that we can truly see how he came to be the journalist he is today.