Editing Caleb Carr (section)

== Early years and education==
Carr was born on August 2, 1955, in Manhattan,<ref name="NYTimes-Obit"/><ref name="WaPoObit"/> one of three sons born to [[Beat Generation]] figure [[Lucien Carr]] and Francesca von Hartz.<ref name=":38"/> Lucien's close circle of friends included [[William Burroughs]], [[Jack Kerouac]], and [[Allen Ginsberg]], whom Lucien had known since his college days. Their frequent presence in the Carr household affected Carr's future career: "They were noisy drunks that were a disruption. They made me determined never to be a fiction writer".<ref>{{Cite web|title = Carr trouble – Books – Entertainment – theage.com.au|url = http://www.theage.com.au/news/books/carr-trouble/2005/11/05/1130823432052.html|website = www.theage.com.au|access-date = January 29, 2016|date = November 6, 2005|archive-date = October 24, 2015|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20151024093631/http://www.theage.com.au/news/books/carr-trouble/2005/11/05/1130823432052.html|url-status = live}}</ref> This reaffirmed an earlier sentiment in a 1997 interview, where he stated that, as a child, he "wanted nothing less than to be a fiction writer".<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|last=Garner|first=Dwight|date=October 4, 1997|title=The Salon Interview, Caleb Carr|url=http://www.salon.com/1997/10/04/cov_si_04carr/|access-date=January 29, 2016|website=Salon|archive-date=January 31, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160131125840/http://www.salon.com/1997/10/04/cov_si_04carr/|url-status=live}}</ref>

Carr received his primary education from [[St. Luke's School (Manhattan)|St. Luke's School]] in [[Greenwich Village]] and his secondary education from [[Friends Seminary]], also in downtown New York City.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|title = Ezequiel Vinao: Merlin the Opera (about Caleb Carr)|url = http://merlin.tloneditions.com/about_Caleb_Carr.html|website = merlin.tloneditions.com|access-date = January 29, 2016|archive-date = August 12, 2016|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160812013819/http://merlin.tloneditions.com/about_Caleb_Carr.html|url-status = live}}</ref> Carr's interest in military history did not help him fit in at Friends Seminary, a [[Quaker]] school. He was an excellent student, but he was guilty of pranks like setting off [[cherry bomb]]s in the school lavatories. When he discovered that his school transcript was marked "Socially Undesirable", he was "stunned". "We had guys in our school who dealt [[opium]] and [[cocaine]] out of their lockers, and the teacher would take them aside and have conversations". The designation was enough to keep him out of [[Harvard]].<ref name=":0" /> He attended [[Kenyon College]], in [[Gambier, Ohio]], from 1973 to 1975 and returned to New York City in 1975 to complete his education at [[New York University]], where, in 1977, he was awarded a [[Bachelor of Arts]] in military and diplomatic history.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":3">Purdy, Matthew. [https://www.nytimes.com/1994/05/19/garden/on-the-lower-east-side-with-caleb-carr-writing-to-flee-the-past.html "On the Lower East Side With: Caleb Carr; Writing to Flee the Past"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180618152253/https://www.nytimes.com/1994/05/19/garden/on-the-lower-east-side-with-caleb-carr-writing-to-flee-the-past.html |date=June 18, 2018 }}, ''[[The New York Times]]'', May 19, 1994. Accessed November 7, 2007. "Caleb Carr inhabits two New Yorks. There is the New York of 1994, where he lives alone in a somewhat messy Lower East Side walkup."</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url = https://www.pbs.org/wnet/newyork/series/interview/carr_frame.html |title = Caleb Carr: Interview Gallery |website = thirteen.org |publisher = [[WNET]] |access-date = August 25, 2017 |archive-date = November 25, 2012 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20121125155336/http://www.pbs.org/wnet/newyork/series/interview/carr_frame.html |url-status = live }}</ref>

Much of Carr's fiction deals with violence perpetrated by people whose behavior has its origins in childhood abuse.<ref name=":38">{{Cite web|title = Time Traveler|url = http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20108377,00.html|website = [[People (magazine)|People]]|access-date = January 29, 2016|archive-date = March 5, 2016|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160305204934/http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20108377,00.html|url-status = live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title = BookPage Interview|url = http://www.oocities.org/hollywood/boulevard/2739/AngelInterview3.html|website = www.oocities.org|access-date = January 31, 2016|archive-date = February 1, 2016|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160201054501/http://www.oocities.org/hollywood/boulevard/2739/AngelInterview3.html|url-status = live}}</ref> His father, whose famously turbulent childhood ended in a conviction for [[manslaughter]], inflicted physical and emotional abuse upon his wife and children. Caleb remembered being singled out for his father's beatings: "He was enormously threatened by me, from the time I was a child—threatened by my tendency to speak what I perceived. [[Alcoholics]] don't tend to like children like that." The physical and verbal abuse fueled by alcohol and rage didn't stop even after Caleb's parents divorced when he was eight.<ref name="theage.com.au">{{Cite web|title = Carr trouble – Books – Entertainment – theage.com.au|url = http://www.theage.com.au/news/books/carr-trouble/2005/11/05/1130823432052.html?page=2|website = www.theage.com.au|access-date = January 29, 2016|date = November 6, 2005|archive-date = May 20, 2018|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20180520054734/https://www.theage.com.au/news/books/carr-trouble/2005/11/05/1130823432052.html?page=2|url-status = live}}</ref> Carr did not learn about his father's crime until he was 18. He recalls being shocked, "but not exactly surprised".<ref name="theage.com.au"/>

The frequent presence of Kerouac, Ginsberg, and Burroughs in the Carr home was a "little unnerving". "They could be perfectly nice people one-to-one", Carr told ''[[Salon (magazine)|Salon]]'' in a 1997 interview. "Kerouac was a very nice man. Allen could be a very nice guy. Burroughs was a little strange for a child. But they weren't children people. You needed to be grown up to be around them if you wanted to not be terrified. What they were up to was not gonna make any child reassured."<ref name=":1" />

After the Carrs' divorce, Kerouac proposed marriage to Caleb's mother, but she turned him down and afterwards married writer John Speicher. Carr's new stepfather was another heavy drinker, and Carr made weekly visits to Lucien. "There was a lot of craziness in the family," Carr remembered, "and a lot of alcoholism among the adults." Speicher had three daughters from a previous marriage, and they and the three Carr brothers bonded, a group that Caleb would label "the dark Brady Bunch". They spent most summers at a house in [[upstate New York]], originally bought by Carr's maternal grandparents, then owned by his mother.<ref name=":7" /> "When the adults weren't around it was a place of great solace. When they were, it was a place of great exploration because being in the house too much wasn't an option."<ref name=":0" />

Likewise, when the family was back in New York City, Caleb spent as much time as possible away from their apartment.<ref>{{Cite web |title =Man Possessed |date =November 3, 1997 |url =http://www.weeklywire.com/ww/11-03-97/chicago_bookfeat.html |website =Weekly Wire |access-date =January 31, 2016 |first =Sam |last =Jemielity |archive-date =April 3, 2016 |archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20160403153248/http://www.weeklywire.com/ww/11-03-97/chicago_bookfeat.html |url-status =live }}</ref> Among his favorite havens, other than the streets of Manhattan themselves, were the city's movie theaters. He at first preferred classic and then war movies, and became increasingly interested in military history. "Part of it was a desire to find violence that was, in the first place, directed toward some sort of purposeful end, and second, governed by a definable ethical code. And I think it's fairly obvious why I would want to do that", he told [[New York (magazine)|''New York'' magazine]] in 1994.<ref name=":0" />