ALUMNI NEWS
SERVICE AWARD
Ben Mezrich ’87 Alumni Achievement Award
Risk and Reward
P
by Linda Maxwell Stefanelli ’62
ick up any Ben Mezrich book, ploded. It spent 63 weeks on the New York fiction or nonfiction, and you Times Bestseller List and sold over two can count on an adrenalinmillion copies – then Kevin Spacey called.” pumping, can’t-put-it-down narrative that Mr. Mezrich hung up on the awardwill transport you to worlds you never winning actor, thinking it was a prank imagined. Since 1996, he has published call, but after they finally connected, twelve books, including the blockbuster Mr. Spacey bought the movie rights and bestsellers, Bringing Down the House: starred in the film adaptation. The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Who “I never set out to be a nonfiction Took Vegas for Millions and The Accidental writer,” Mr. Mezrich says. “The thing Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook, a that surprised me most in my career was Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal, definitely The Social Network,” he says of which were adapted into the movies the film that last year won four Golden 21 and The Social Network, respectively. Globes and was nominated for eight Ben Mezrich ’87 Mr. Mezrich’s success is matched by Academy Awards, winning three, includthe courage and perseverance it took to achieve it. He always ing Best Adapted Screenplay. “When I sat down to write a thrillknew he wanted to be a writer, and after graduating magna cum er about the founding of Facebook, nowhere in my head was laude from Harvard, he locked himself in a Boston apartment I thinking, okay, it’s going to end up being an Oscar-winning and whipped out seven manuscripts in two years – and endured movie. It never dawned on me.” no less than 190 rejection slips. Desperate, he was on the verge Mr. Mezrich may be surprised at his success, but his former of giving up and enrolling in law school when his first novel, PDS teachers are not. Threshold, was accepted for publication. He wrote five more “I loved his wit and imagination, and simply tried to encourage thrillers in quick succession and established a niche in the him to write in his own way,” Judy Michaels says. “It felt as though medical/science fiction market. he needed to have the freedom to find his own way as a writer.” “I was just kind of plugging along,” he says. “Then I met the “Each week I would assign a piece of writing, and each week M.I.T. kids. They had tons of money and I could never figure Ben would do something totally different from what I’d asked for,” out why they had all this money – always in hundred dollar recalls English Teacher Steve Lawrence. “I would say, ‘Gee, Ben, bills. I went to one of the guy’s houses and in his laundry was continued on page 23 $250,000 in hundred dollar bills!” It turned out the students were part of disciplined team that The Mezrich Family Chair used an intricate card-counting system to beat the odds at blackWas it coincidence, genetics or a patiently executed prank? What jack. Although card counting is entirely legal, if detected, players prompted six members of the Mezrich family to choose the exact are barred from the casinos – or worse. “So I joined the blackjack team for six months to write their same seat during Russian class over a span of 14 years? story,” Mr. Mezrich says. He got a taste of the adrenalin rush “Students tend to claim a particular seat which, over time, becomes they experienced when he played the part of a high roller, board‘theirs,’ but this was bizarre,” says Tassie Turkevich Skvir ’62 who taught ing a flight to Las Vegas with $250,000 strapped to his body, Russian in the Colross library. “The first day of class, Jon Mezrich ’84 and hitting the casinos with the rest of the team. made a beeline for the right back corner seat and occupied it through“It’s really fun when you find a story and you sort of dive into out the year. He was followed by his brothers Ben ’87 and Josh ’89, it and find yourself in some gangster bar in Japan or running and, a few years later, by their cousins, Abe ’94, Aliza ’91 and Mark ’98, through Vegas being chased by security,” he says. “Bringing Down and each and every one commandeered the same exact seat.” the House ended up being my first nonfiction book and it just exSPRING 2012 • PRINCETON DAY SCHOOL • 21