Neil Darrow Strauss, also known by the pen names Style and Chris Powles, is an American
author, journalist and ghostwriter, with both American and Kittitian citizenship.
He is best known for his best-selling book The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of
Pickup Artists, where he describes his experiences in the seduction community in an effort to
become a "pick-up artist".
He is a contributing editor at Rolling Stone and also writes regularly for The New York
Times.
Education and initial career After graduating from high school at the Latin
School of Chicago in 1987, Strauss attended Vassar College, then transferred to and subsequently
graduated from Columbia University in 1991.
While in school he began his career writing for Ear, an avant-garde magazine, and editing
his first book, Radiotext(e), an anthology of radio-related writings for the postmodern
publisher Semiotext(e).
He moved on to the Village Voice, where he did everything from copy-editing to fact-checking
before becoming a regular reporter and critic.
He was invited by Jon Pareles to become a music critic at The New York Times where he
wrote the Pop Life column and front-page stories on Wal-Mart’s CD-editing policies, music
censorship, radio payola, and the lost wax figures of country-music stars.
He was then invited by Jann Wenner to become a contributing editor at Rolling Stone where
he wrote cover stories on Kurt Cobain, Madonna, Tom Cruise, Orlando Bloom, the Wu-Tang Clan,
Gwen Stefani, Stephen Colbert, and Marilyn Manson.
He won the ASCAP Deems Taylor Award for his coverage of Kurt Cobain's suicide for Rolling
Stone and his profile of Eric Clapton in The New York Times Arts & Leisure section.
Strauss also contributed to Esquire, Maxim, Spin, Entertainment Weekly, Details, and The
Source in addition to writing liner notes for albums by Nirvana and others.
He has also appeared in Beck's music video Sexx Laws which also featured Jack Black,
and he made a brief appearance as a cancer patient in episode 4, season six of Curb Your
Enthusiasm.
The Game and the seduction community After leaving The New York Times to ghostwrite
Jenna Jameson's memoirs, Strauss joined a sub-culture of pick-up artists known as the
seduction community, creating the persona of "Style" in 2001 and pseudonym of "Chris
Powles", eventually publishing an article in the New York Times about his experiences
in 2004.
In 2005, he published The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists, a book
about his transformation into "Style", a pickup artist under the tutelage of Mystery.
In addition to documenting his experiences with pickup artists like Mystery, Steve P,
Rasputin, Ross Jeffries, and numerous others, it also describes his seductive interactions
with celebrities including Britney Spears, Tom Cruise, and Courtney Love.
The book made a month-long appearance in the New York Times bestsellers list in September–October
2005, and reached the #1 position on Amazon.com immediately after its release in the United
States.
Strauss appeared on various TV shows, including The View and ABC Primetime, and he participated
in many book signings.
It was optioned to be made into a film by Spyglass Entertainment, with Chris Weitz adapting
and producing.
Alexandra Jacobs noted there was an awkward switch between misogynistic comments and feeble
self-awareness and also wrote "But he does come to perceive one curious thing about the
P.U.A.'s: They seem far more interested in spending time with fellow P.U.A.'s, amassing,
refining and discussing the game, than actually getting to know women.
Call them S.L.B.'s".
After publishing the book, Strauss temporarily retired as a pickup artist and settled with
a longtime girlfriend Lisa Leveridge, who played guitar in Courtney Love's all-female
band The Chelsea.
An article in the Sunday Mirror, suggested that Leveridge broke up with Strauss in February
2006 to date Robbie Williams.
Strauss denied the Williams rumor, but confirmed his breakup with Leveridge on his mailing
list a few months later.
His follow-up book, a controversial graphic novel How to Make Money Like a Porn Star,
came out in 2006 on September 26.
By 2006 Neil Strauss also came out with "Shoot", a short film about becoming a rockstar that
he co-wrote, directed and performed in.
That same year, in collaboration with Dave Navarro and Entourage writer Cliff Dorfman,
he created a one-hour TV drama The Product for FX.
In 2007, he released a follow-up to The Game, Rules of the Game, a two-book boxed set.
Strauss has continued to be involved with pickup artistry through his dating coaching
company Stylelife Academy, founded in 2007.
Most of the coaching is done by employed coaches, rather than Strauss himself, though he does
make appearances at yearly conferences and in some video products sold by the company.
In 2012, Strauss released a board game/party game as a follow up to "The Game" and "Rules
of the Game" called "Who's Got Game?
The Game with Benefits."
On August 31, 2013, Strauss married the model Ingrid De La O, whom he met in 2010.
Before the wedding, he held a funeral-themed bachelor's party, laying to rest his 'Style'
persona.
Emergency and subsequent writing On March 4, 2009, The New York Times wrote
that Strauss had started his own publishing company, Igniter, as an imprint of HarperCollins.
Igniter's first title was The Man Behind the Nose, published in 2010.
It was followed by Satan Is Real: The Ballad of the Louvin Brothers, published in 2012.
Strauss's book, Emergency: This Book Will Save Your Life, for which he spent three years
amongst survivalists, tax-dodgers, billionaire businessmen, and the government itself, was
hailed by Rolling Stone as an "escape plan" for the current world crisis.
It entered the New York Times bestseller list at #3.
The rights to the movie were picked up by Columbia, with Robert Downey Jr. attached
as a producer and likely star.
In 2010, Strauss received the James Joyce Award from the Literary & Historical Society
of University College Dublin.
Neil Strauss's latest book entitled Everyone Loves You When You're Dead: Journeys Into
Fame and Madness was also a New York Times bestseller.
Released March 15, 2011, the book is a compilation of 228 celebrity vignettes conducted throughout
Strauss's career as a pop culture journalist.
Bibliography Radiotext(e) editor, with Dave Mandl
The Long Hard Road Out of Hell with Marilyn Manson ISBN 0-06-098746-4
The Dirt with Mötley Crüe ISBN 0-06-098915-7 Don't Try This At Home with Dave Navarro ISBN
0-06-039368-8 ISBN 0-06-098853-3 How to Make Love Like a Porn Star: A Cautionary
Tale with Jenna Jameson ISBN 0-06-053909-7 The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of
Pickup Artists ISBN 0-06-055473-8 How to Make Money Like a Porn Star, illustrated
by Bernard Chang ISBN 0-06-088405-3 Rules of the Game ISBN 0-06-154045-5
Emergency: This Book Will Save Your Life ISBN 0-06-089877-1
Everyone Loves You When You're Dead: Journeys Into Fame and Madness ISBN 0-06-154367-5
References
External links Neil Strauss – Official Website
Neil Strauss on Twitter