Penguin Speakers Bureau

Ben Tarnoff has worked at Lapham’s Quarterly and his writing has appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle. He graduated from Harvard in 2007 and currently lives in New York City.

A Counterfeiter's Paradise is Ben Tarnoff’s first book, published in February 2011 by The Penguin Press. The New York Times says of the author, “Tarnoff, a first-time author, expertly sketches biographical vignettes . . . Absorbing material, yes, but what elevates [A Counterfeiter's Paradise] from the novelty shelf is Tarnoff’s skillful interweaving of the counterfeiter’s work and America’s revolving enchantment with and disavowal of paper money.” NPR describes the book as “the conversational synthesis of its author’s exhausting research. The book is Ben Tarnoff’s first, and in it he has parsed through what must have been only intermittently charming primary sources. He’s extracted the gold from the ore and presented it with narrative panache and an eye for fun historical facts.” The Washington Post calls [A Counterfeiter's Paradise] a “delightful history lesson in American financial customs . . . [an] admirable and altogether charming book . . . I’d read [A Counterfeiter's Paradise]again and again before handing it to my brother and uncle for their information and amusement.”

 

 

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Ben Tarnoff Interview
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The New York Times

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Ben Tarnoff Interview
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Ben Tarnoff Interview
Amazon