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Pete Hamill (born 1935) is a prominent American journalist, novelist, and short story writer. He is currently on the staff of The New Yorker.
Hamill was born in the Park Slope section of Brooklyn as the oldest of seven children of Catholic immigrants from Belfast, Northern Ireland. He attended Catholic schools as a child, primarily Holy Name of Jesus Grammar School followed by a scholarship to the prestigious Regis High School in NYC, which he left at the age of 16 to work in the Brooklyn Navy Yard as a sheet metal worker, and then joined the United States Navy. His brothers Denis and John Hamill are also writers. Denis Hamill writes for the New York Daily News (see [1])
In the early 1950s, he studied at the School of Visual Arts. In 1960, Hamill began working as a reporter for the New York Post. In subsequent years, he became one of the city's best known reporters, as columnist for the Post, the New York Daily News, and Newsday. As a foreign correspondent, he covered wars in Vietnam, Nicaragua, Lebanon and Northern Ireland. In different periods, Hamill was editor-in-chief of both the New York Post and the New York Daily News. His work landed him on the master list of Nixon political opponents.
Hamill published two collections of journalism, a book about the relationship of tools to art, and a book about New York City, along with Why Sinatra Matters, an essay on the music of the late singer. His articles have also appeared in the Village Voice, Esquire, Vanity Fair, Playboy and New York.
Hamill has also written fiction, producing eight novels and two collections of short stories. He also published a memoir, A Drinking Life, which detailed how he overcame his alcoholism.
Fox Broadcasting Company has introduced a television show for the 2007-2008 season, "New Amsterdam," which bears a noticeable resemblance to the novel, Forever. It's not yet clear if this is just a coincidence.