Neil Strauss

Neil Darrow Strauss, also known by the pen names Style and Chris Powles, is an American author, journalist and ghostwriter, with both American and Kittitian citizenship. He is best known for his best-selling book The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists, in which he describes his experiences in the seduction community in an effort to become a "pick-up artist." He is a contributing editor at Rolling Stone and also writes regularly for The New York Times.

Education and initial career

After graduating from high school at the Latin School of Chicago in 1987, Strauss attended Vassar College, then transferred to and subsequently graduated from Columbia University in 1991. While in school he began his career writing for Ear, an avant-garde magazine, and editing his first book, Radiotext(e), an anthology of radio-related writings for the postmodern publisher Semiotext(e). He moved on to The Village Voice, where he did everything from copy-editing to fact-checking before becoming a regular reporter and critic. He was invited by Jon Pareles to become a music critic at The New York Times where he wrote the Pop Life column and front-page stories on Wal-Mart's CD-editing policies, music censorship, radio payola, and the lost wax figures of country-music stars.