J. Anthony Lukas

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Jay Anthony Lukas (April 25, 1933–June 5, 1997) was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist and author, probably best known for his 1985 book Common Ground: A Turbulent Decade in the Lives of Three American Families, a classic study of race relations and school busing in Boston, Massachusetts, as seen through the eyes of three families—one upper middle-class white, one working class white and one African-American.^[1]

Lukas graduated from Harvard University in 1955, and began his journalism career at the Baltimore Sun, then moved to the New York Times. He stayed at the New York Times for nine years, working as a roving reporter. He quit the news-reporting job to pursue a career in book and magazine writing, becoming known for writing intensely researched nonfiction works.

It was in 1997, while his last book, Big Trouble, was undergoing final revisions, that he committed suicide by hanging himself with a bathrobe sash. He had been diagnosed with depression about ten years earlier.^[2]

[edit] Prizes

Lukas won his first Pulitzer for his 1967 New York Times article "The Two Worlds of Linda Fitzpatrick." The article documented the life and violent death of a teenager from a wealthy Greenwich, Connecticut family who became involved in drugs and the hippie movement. He was awarded his second Pulitzer for Common Ground,^[3] which also won the National Book Award,^[4] and the National Book Critics Circle Award.^[5]

Lukas was also awarded a George Polk Award in Local Reporting^[6] in 1967.

Lukas is now the namesake of the Lukas Prize Project, which is co-administered by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and the Nieman Foundation at Harvard University. The project was established in 1998 to reward American nonfiction writers. The project gives three awards annually: the J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize, the Mark Lynton History Prize, and the J. Anthony Lukas Work-in-Progress Award.^[7]

[edit] References

1. ^ Lukas, J. Anthony (1985). Common ground: a turbulent decade in the lives of three American families. New York: Vintage Books. ISBN 0-394-74616-3. 
2. ^ Carvajal, Doreen. "Survived By His Book", New York Times, 1997-10-12. Retrieved on April 24, 2006.
3. ^ The Pulitzer Prize Winners. The Pulitzer Prizes. Retrieved on April 24, 2006.
4. ^ National Book Award Winners, 1980–1989. National Book Foundation. Retrieved on April 24, 2006.
5. ^ Past Winners. National Book Critics Circle. Retrieved on April 24, 2006.
6. ^ The George Polk Awards for Journalists
7. ^ The Lukas Prize Project. Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. Retrieved on April 24, 2006.