User:Eye Tooth/Marshall Blonsky

Marshall Blonsky (born February 24, 1938 in Kansas City, Missouri) is an American writer, professor, and semiotician.

Blonsky attended Yale College, where he graduated Scholar of the House, magna cum laude, in 1959. In 1971, Blonsky received his master’s in writing from Johns Hopkins; in ‘74, he received his M.Phil. in English and comparative literature from Columbia University; and in ‘79, obtained his Ph.D., again in comparative literature at Columbia, under the direction of Paul de Man.

Blonsky has taught at The New School in New York since 1973, where he introduced semiotics to its first generation of students; as well as at New York University (1988-1997), Vassar College, and Cooper Union.

In 1985, Blonsky published On Signs (Johns Hopkins University Press/Basil Blackwell), a widely used text on semiotics, which became a VLS bestseller. In 1989 he wrote the text for Private Property by the photographer Helmut Newton, published by Schirmer/Mosel in Munich and republished in the February ‘98 issue of Taiwan Playboy. In 1992 he published American Mythologies (preface by Umberto Eco), landing Blonsky on The Charlie Rose Show, Pozner & Donahue, Good Morning America, Oprah and others. He has also commented on NBC Nightly News, CNN News Hour, Hard Copy, and National Public Radio on subjects as varied as shopping to Umberto Eco to O.J. Simpson. He has been quoted in such publications as The New Yorker, The New York Times, Financial Times and U.S. News & World Report on subjects as diverse as cowboy boots, Monica Lewinsky’s name, the meaning of the Marlboro Man and the portrayal of youth on Times Square billboards.

Marshall Blonsky has been profiled in The New York Times (June 1996), Smithsonian Magazine (September 1993), The Washington Post/Style (July 1992), and in Europe by such magazines as Europeo, Pubblicità Italia, and Panorama.