Category Archives: Essays

Lily (from the The Widower’s Notebook)

Posted on October 29, 2021 by Jonathan

For NATIONAL CAT DAY I could not think of anything better than posting this drawing I made of my last cat, Lily, along with this excerpt about her from my memoir THE WIDOWER’S NOTEBOOK (Penguin Books). It’s a bit long but… Beside Joy’s main closet Read more…

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Meeting Mama Cass

Posted on September 18, 2021 by Jonathan

Got out my pencils to sketch Cass Elliot on her birthday. Below, something I wrote when I was just out of graduate school, living in Brooklyn (before it was fashionable), and heard that Cass Elliot had died. I remember feeling as if one my friends Read more…

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Criminal Element Article – Jonathan’s Circuitous Road to Crime

Posted on August 18, 2021 by Jonathan

Jonathan Santlofer is a bestselling author, artist, and art forger—or um…”replicator.” Jonathan discusses his unlikely career path while exploring a history of art crimes, forgeries, and more. His new book, The Last Mona Lisa, is a seductive new suspense novel about the 1911 theft of Read more…

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Lit Hub: On Men and Grief: Dispatches from my Book Tour

Posted on August 24, 2018 by Jonathan

A hand goes up from the back of the room. It is an unexpected full house in a southern bookstore where I have been invited to talk about my memoir, The Widower’s Notebook. The man, late middle age, salt and pepper hair, says, “My best Read more…

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The Sunday Times of London – In a Time of Grief, Turning to Art

Posted on July 16, 2018 by Jonathan

Here’s an essay The Times and The Sunday Times of London, asked me to write about The Widower’s Notebook. Read the original article here. Friday, August 16, 2013 appeared to be a normal day. My wife, Joy, had undergone minor out-patient knee surgery — the Read more…

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The Line-Up: Hollywood Murder

Posted on May 4, 2015 by Jonathan

Hey folks. A piece I wrote re-imagining the Lana Turner / Johnnny Stampanato murder case, in the voices of the participants, is on The Lineup today. I did a few sketches to accompany it as well. Please have a look. I hope you enjoy it. Read more…

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2Young2Die

Posted on August 8, 2014 by Jonathan

  I just saw Philip Seymour Hoffman’s posthumous last film, “A Most Wanted Man.” And maybe it’s too easy to say in retrospect but it was like watching a man on a suicide mission, chain-smoking, wheezing, overweight, rarely making eye contact with the camera as if Read more…

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Catching Up & Going Ape

Posted on July 28, 2014 by Jonathan

Dear friends, It’s been a long time since I have written anything on my website and I apologize. It was a necessary break for personal reasons. But I have been working and will tell you just a few of things I’ve been up to. For Read more…

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“Picasso Baby” or Pop Meets Performance (and Guess Who Wins?)

Posted on August 7, 2013 by Jonathan

Pop. Of course. How could it not? I mean Jay Z versus Marina Abramovic? Gimme a break. Though their stare contest is pretty amusing. And it was kind of genius to have her in the mix: performance meets performance! I could kick myself for not Read more…

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Vintage Magazine Quarterly – Visual Essay

Posted on August 6, 2013 by Jonathan

I’m very proud to be part of the 4th issue of Vintage Magazine, the brainchild of Ivy Baer Sherman, and the most glorious, beautiful and amazing magazine (so much more than that; think, ART), modeled after the brilliant and short-lived Flair Magazine of the early Read more…

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