{{Short description|American writer of literary nonfiction (born 1944)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=February 2026}} {{Infobox writer | name = Suzannah Lessard | birth_name = Suzannah Terry Lessard | birth_date = {{birth date|1944|12|1}} | birth_place = New York, U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|2026|1|29|1944|12|1}} | death_place = New York City, U.S. | occupation = Writer | nationality = American | genre = Non-fiction | awards = Whiting Award (1995) | parents = John Ayres Lessard<br>Alida Mary White | relatives = Stanford White (great-grandfather) | spouse = Noel Brennan<br>David Soeiro }}
'''Suzannah Terry Lessard''' (December 1, 1944 – January 29, 2026) was an American writer of literary nonfiction. Lessard served as a staff writer for ''The New Yorker'' and one of the original editors of the ''Washington Monthly.'' Throughout her nearly 50 years as a writer and editor, Lessard wrote two memoirs, reportorial pieces, essays, and opinion pieces both personally and professionally.
== Early life and career == Lessard was born on December 1, 1944, to John Ayres Lessard and Alida Mary Lessard ({{Nee|White}}).<ref name="whoswho">{{cite book |last1=Who |first1=Marquis Who's |title=Who's Who of American Women, 1997-1998 |date=December 1996 |publisher=Marquis Who's Who |isbn=978-0-8379-0422-1 |page=2455 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4vLNkPFGO_UC&q=LESSARD,+SUZANNAH+TERRY,+writer;+b.+Islip |language=en |quote=LESSARD, SUZANNAH TERRY, writer; b. Islip, N.Y., Dec. 1, 1944; d. John Ayres and Alida Mary (White)}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Lessard |first1=Suzannah |title=The Architect of Desire: Beauty and Danger in the Stanford White Family |date=23 January 2013 |publisher=Random House Publishing Group |isbn=978-0-307-83048-7 |page=52 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=S-kp5082UWoC&dq=born+1944&pg=PT52 |access-date=25 January 2021 |language=en}}</ref><ref name=green>{{Cite news |last=Green |first=Penelope |date=2026-02-07 |title=Suzannah Lessard Dies at 81; Stanford White Descendant Who Wrote a Haunting Family Memoir |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/07/books/suzannah-lessard-dead.html |access-date=2026-02-07 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> Her birthplace is reported variously as Islip, New York,<ref name="whoswho"/> or Smithtown, New York.<ref name=green /> She is the great-granddaughter of architect Stanford White.<ref name="nyt1996">{{cite news |last1=Jaleshgari |first1=Ramin P. |title=Stanford White And His Life Under Scrutiny Of Descendant (Published 1996) |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/09/22/nyregion/stanford-white-and-his-life-under-scrutiny-of-descendant.html |access-date=25 January 2021 |work=The New York Times |date=22 September 1996}}</ref> She has taught at Columbia School of the Arts, Wesleyan University, The New School, George Mason University, George Washington University, and Goucher College.<ref name="new school">{{Cite web |title=Lessard, Suzannah |url=http://www.newschool.edu/writing/faculty.aspx?id=25504 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081218104648/http://www.newschool.edu/writing/faculty.aspx?id=25504 |archive-date=December 18, 2008 |website=The New School}}</ref>
She was one of the first editors of the ''Washington Monthly'' from 1971 to 1974.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Suzannah Lessard |url=https://washingtonmonthly.com/inside/bio/slessard.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090428050948/https://washingtonmonthly.com/inside/bio/slessard.html |archive-date=April 28, 2009 |website=Washington Monthly}}</ref> For 20 years she was a staff writer at ''The New Yorker''.<ref name="new school" /> She has also published in ''The New York Times Magazine'', ''Architectural Record'', ''Architectural Digest'', ''The Wilson Quarterly'' and ''Harvard Design Magazine''.{{Citation needed|date=February 2026}}
== Personal life and death == Lessard was the great-granddaughter of Stanford White, the architect who designed Madison Square Garden.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Lessard |first=Suzannah |date=1996-07-01 |title=Stanford White’s Ruins |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1996/07/08/stanford-whites-ruins |access-date=2026-02-07 |work=The New Yorker |language=en-US |issn=0028-792X}}</ref> She was also one of five sisters who grew up in a cottage on Long Island, which was owned by the family since the 17th century. In her 1996 memoir ''The Architect of Desire'', she recounts that on New Year's Day, 1989, after much inner turmoil, she gathered with her siblings, who all recounted being abused by their father.<ref name=green />
She married David Soeiro, an attorney, in 1974. They had a son, Julian Soeiro. Lessard and Soeiro later divorced. Lessard later married Noel Brennan, and resided in New York with her, until Lessard's death.<ref name="green" />
Lessard died from complications of endometrial cancer at a hospital in Manhattan, New York, on January 29, 2026, at the age of 81.<ref name=green />
== Awards and honors == * 1995 Whiting Award<ref>{{Cite web |title=Suzannah Lessard |url=https://www.whiting.org/awards/winners/suzannah-lessard |access-date=February 7, 2026 |website=Whiting Foundation}}</ref> * 2003 Mark Lynton History Prize, ''Mapping the New World: An Inquiry into the Meaning of Sprawl''<ref name="Lukas">{{cite web|title=J. Anthony Lukas Prize Project winners|url=http://www.nieman.harvard.edu/NiemanFoundation/Awards/AwardsAtAGlance/JAnthonyLukasPrizeProject/Winners.aspx|publisher=Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard|accessdate=16 March 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110710092258/http://www.nieman.harvard.edu/NiemanFoundation/Awards/AwardsAtAGlance/JAnthonyLukasPrizeProject/Winners.aspx|archive-date=July 10, 2011|url-status=dead}}</ref>
===Fellowships=== *2001–2002 Fellowship at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C.<ref>{{Cite web |date=May 14, 2001 |title=Center Announces Fellows for 2001-2002 |url=https://www.wilsoncenter.org/article/center-announces-fellows-for-2001-2002 |access-date=February 7, 2026 |website=Wilson Center}}</ref> *2002–2003 Jenny McKean Moore Fellowship for creative non-fiction, at George Washington University<ref>{{Cite web |title=Jenny McKean Moore Professorship |url=https://english.columbian.gwu.edu/jenny-mckean-moore-professorship |access-date=February 7, 2026 |website=Department of English, Columbian College of Arts & Sciences |publisher=George Washington University}}</ref>
== Works == Lessard was the author of the critically acclaimed{{By whom|date=February 2026}} memoir, ''The Architect of Desire: Beauty and Danger in the Stanford White Family'' (1996).
Her next book, ''The View From a Small Mountain: Reading the American Landscape'', was published in 2017.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books/about/The_View_from_a_Small_Mountain.html?id=eDPjCgAAQBAJ"Google Books"]</ref>
In 2019, Lessard published ''The Absent Hand: Reimagining Our American Landscape'', which Michael Kimmelman described as "thoughtful, exquisitely written collection of interconnected essays".<ref>{{Cite news|last=Kimmelman|first=Michael|date=2019-04-18|title=A Meditation on Our Relationship to the Landscapes We Inhabit|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/18/books/review/absent-hand-suzannah-lessard.html|access-date=2021-07-03|issn=0362-4331}}</ref>
===Anthologies=== * {{cite book| chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fj4HiiK73N8C&dq=Suzannah+Lessard&pg=PA137| chapter=The Luxury of Order| title=If These Walls Could Talk: Thoughts of Home| editor=Elaine Greene| publisher=Sterling Publishing Company, Inc.| year= 2006| isbn= 978-1-58816-611-1 }}
== References == {{reflist}}
== External links == * [http://www.bombsite.com/issues/57/articles/2003 "Suzannah Lessard and Honor Moore", ''BOMB 57'', Betsy Sussler, Fall 1996] * [http://www.whiting.org/awards/winners/suzannah-lessard#/ Profile at The Whiting Foundation] * {{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/10/30/garden/purging-the-nightmare-of-a-storied-estate.html?pagewanted=all| title=AT LUNCH WITH: Suzannah Lessard: Purging the Nightmare Of a Storied Estate| author= DOREEN CARVAJAL| date= October 30, 1996| work=The New York Times }} * {{cite book| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hHkyYkCDa9EC&dq=Suzannah+Lessard&pg=PA57| title=Borderlines: autobiography and fiction in postmodern life writing| author=Gunnthórunn Gudmundsdóttir| publisher=Rodopi| year= 2003| isbn= 978-90-420-1145-8 }} * {{cite book| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zq-n6ZQSVZYC&dq=Suzannah+Lessard&pg=PA13| title=Elites: choice, leadership and succession |editor=João de Pina-Cabral |editor2=Antónia Pedroso de Lima| publisher=Berg Publishers| year= 2000| isbn= 978-1-85973-399-8 }}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Lessard, Suzannah}} Category:1944 births Category:2026 deaths Category:21st-century American biographers Category:21st-century American essayists Category:American women biographers Category:Writers from New York (state)