Judith Harris

Archaeology has been a leitmotif of my work as a professional journalist in Italy since 1967. Work on a half-hour TV documentary on Pompeii, however, showed me that the story of its rediscovery is thrilling, but not easy to tell. Then and there I set out to find a fresh way to introduce the Vesuvian sites to interested readers: through the eyes of the people who had created the second life of Pompeii. Their excitement at rediscovery kindles ours.
Judith’s biography

Judith Harris's newest book

Judith Harris’s newest book The Monster in the Closet, A Midwest Memoir, was published in 2012 by American History Press.

Read more about the book here

The Monster in the Closet

When Rome-based journalist and author Judith Harris set out on her roller coaster ride deep into the past, she had a handful of names, and nothing more. She ended up discovering pirates and Puritans, steamy sex exposed in a l7th century court in New England and even a close family connection to Abe Lincoln. None of this fascinating detail was known to anyone in her family, or could have been. As a result, she says, "I became the archaeologist of myself."

Read more about the book here

‘Judith Harris outs the Monster in the Closet in an exhilarating time travelogue that takes us into recent and past history. With engaging immediacy her writing gives an overview of American life with telling accounts that range from the Puritans’ arrival through an unusual portrayal of Lincoln, and on to the fate of her family’s romantic English painting rediscovered in the Art Institute of Chicago.’
Milton Gendel, art historian