Jonathan Eig
{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2023}}
{{Short description|American journalist and biographer (born 1964)}}
{{Infobox writer
| embed =
| honorific_prefix =
| name = Jonathan Eig
| image = Jonathan Eig 5182916.jpg
| caption = Eig in 2019
| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1964|4|26}}
| birth_place = Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
| alma_mater = Northwestern University
| occupation = {{hlist|Journalist|biographer}}
| subjects = {{hlist|American history|sports}}
| spouse = Jennifer Tescher
| children = 3
| awards = Casey Award (2005)
Pulitzer Prize for Biography (2024)
| notable_works = King: A Life
}}
Jonathan Eig ({{IPAc-en|US|ˈ|aɪ|g}}; born April 26, 1964) is an American journalist and biographer. He is the author of six books, the most recent being King: A Life (2023), a Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of Martin Luther King Jr.{{cite web |last= Garner |first= Dwight |title=The New Definitive Biography of Martin Luther King Jr |url= https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/08/books/the-new-definitive-biography-of-martin-luther-king-jr.html |work=The New York Times |date= May 8, 2023 |access-date= May 19, 2023 }}
Biography
Eig was born in Brooklyn, New York, and grew up in Monsey, New York. He is Jewish.{{cite web|url=https://www.chicagomag.com/city-life/march-2018/after-ali-jonathan-eig-tackles-an-even-bigger-subject-martin-luther-king-jr/#:~:text=%E2%80%9CI%27m%20Jewish%20and%20that,it%27s%20mostly%20about%20story%2Dtelling. |title=After 'Ali,' Jonathan Eig Tackles An Even Bigger Subject: Martin Luther King, Jr.|first= Shia |last=Kapos|website=Chicago|date=March 7, 2018}} His father was an accountant and his mother was a stay-at-home mom and community activist. Eig began working for his hometown newspaper when he was 16. He attended Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism, graduating in 1986 with a bachelor's degree. After college he worked as a news reporter for the New Orleans Times-Picayune, The Dallas Morning News, Chicago magazine, and The Wall Street Journal. Eig has taught writing at Columbia College Chicago and lectures at Northwestern. He has written as a freelancer for many outlets, including The New York Times, Washington Post, and online edition of The New Yorker. He is married to Jennifer Tescher and has three children. He lives in Chicago.
Eig appeared on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart in May 2010.{{Cite news|url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/04/al-capone-wasnt-brought-d_n_562584.html|title=Al Capone Wasn't Brought Down By Eliot Ness, It Was The IRS: Author Jonathan Eig On Jon Stewart (VIDEO)|date=July 4, 2010|work=Huffington Post|access-date=December 8, 2017|language=en-US}} He has appeared in three PBS documentaries—Prohibition, Jackie Robinson and Muhammad Ali—made by Ken Burns and Florentine Films.{{Cite news|url=http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/ct-ae-ali-life-jonathan-eig-1126-story.html|title=Jonathan Eig's 'Ali' book may become a documentary by Ken Burns|last=Kogan|first=Rick|work=chicagotribune.com|date= November 22, 2017|access-date=December 8, 2017|language=en-US}}
In 2016, Eig appeared on AMC's The Making of the Mob: Chicago, talking about Al Capone.
Reception
In 2019, Men's Health magazine named Eig's book Ali: A Life the 23rd best sports book of all time.{{cite web|url=https://www.menshealth.com/entertainment/g26311249/best-sports-books/|title=33 Sports Books to Read Now That Sports Are (Mostly) Back|first1=Evan|last1=Romano|first2=Eric|last2=Lutz|date=June 1, 2020|website=Esquire|access-date=March 2, 2022}}
In 2020, Esquire magazine called Ali one of the 35 best sports books ever written.{{cite web|url=https://www.esquire.com/uk/culture/books/a22033403/best-sports-books-ever-written|title=The 33 Best Sports Books Ever Written|first1=Paul|last1=Wilson|first2=Will|last2=Hersey|date=January 11, 2022|website=Esquire|access-date=March 2, 2022}} Esquire also called Eig's book Luckiest Man one of the 100 best baseball books of all time.{{cite web|url=https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/books/g38201485/best-baseball-books-ever/|title=The 100 Best Baseball Books Ever Written|first=Alex|last=Belth|date=November 30, 2021|website=Esquire|access-date=March 2, 2022}}
Eig's first book was Luckiest Man: The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig (2005). Opening Day: The Story of Jackie Robinson's First Season was his second book. For his third book, Get Capone, Eig discovered thousands of pages of never-before-reported government documents on the government's case against Capone. The Birth of the Pill (2014), Eig's fourth book, told the story of the renegades who invented the first oral contraceptive.{{Cite news |last=Carmon |first=Irin |date=2014-10-08 |title=Masters of Sex |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/12/books/review/jonathan-eig-the-birth-of-the-pill-review.html |access-date=2024-07-21 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}} It was announced in 2016 that The Birth of the Pill had been optioned for television as a drama.{{Cite web |last=Andreeva |first=Nellie |date=2016-05-05 |title='Birth Of The Pill' Event Series With Denise DiNovi & R.J.Cutler In Works At Sonar |url=https://deadline.com/2016/05/birth-of-the-pill-tv-event-series-sonar-jonathan-eig-1201749643/ |access-date=2024-07-21 |website=Deadline |language=en-US}}
In a 2017 review of Ali: A Life, Joyce Carol Oates, writing for The New York Times, said: "This richly researched, sympathetic yet unsparing portrait of a controversial figure for whom the personal and the political dramatically fused could not come at a more appropriate time in our beleaguered American history…. As Muhammad Ali's life was an epic of a life so Ali: A Life is an epic of a biography. Much in its pages will be familiar to those with some knowledge of boxing but even the familiar may be glimpsed from a new perspective in Eig's fluent prose; for pages in succession its narrative reads like a novel — a suspenseful novel with a cast of vivid characters who prevail through decades and who help to define the singular individual who was both a brilliantly innovative, incomparably charismatic heavyweight boxer and a public figure whose iconic significance shifted radically through the decades as in an unlikely fairy tale in which the most despised athlete in American history becomes, by the 21st century, the most beloved athlete in American history."{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/28/books/review/jonathan-eig-muhammad-ali-biography.html|title=Muhammad Ali, Beginning to End for the First Time in a Book|last=Oates|first=Joyce Carol|date=November 28, 2017|work=The New York Times|access-date=December 8, 2017|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}
In 2023, Eig published a biography of Martin Luther King Jr., King: A Life. Reviewing the book for The New York Times, Dwight Garner stated that it "supplants David J. Garrow's 1986 biography Bearing the Cross as the definitive life of King".
Published works
- Luckiest Man: The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig (2005)
- Opening Day: The Story of Jackie Robinson's First Season (2007)
- Get Capone: The Secret Plot that Captured America's Most Wanted Gangster (2010)
- The Birth of the Pill: How Four Crusaders Reinvented Sex and Launched a Revolution (2014)
- Ali: A Life (2017)
- King: A Life (2023)
Awards
- 2005: Casey Award for best baseball book of the year, Luckiest Man{{cite web |title=CASEY Award |url=http://www.spitballmag.com/Casey-Award |publisher=Spitball: The Literary Baseball Magazine |access-date=March 24, 2010 |archive-date=March 3, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303174436/http://www.spitballmag.com/Casey-Award |url-status=dead }}
- 2014:: Washington Post "Best Books of the Year" for The Birth of the Pill{{Cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/book-review-the-birth-of-the-pill-and-the-reinvention-of-sex-by-jonathan-eig/2014/10/17/914acb3c-48c0-11e4-b72e-d60a9229cc10_story.html|title=Book review: The Birth of the Pill, and the reinvention of sex, by Jonathan Eig|first=Kate|last=Manning|date=October 17, 2014|newspaper=Washington Post|access-date=March 2, 2022}}
- 2015: Society of Midland Authors, non-fiction book of the year, The Birth of the Pill{{citation needed|date=February 2018}}
- 2017: NAACP Image Awards, finalist, Ali: A Life{{Cite news|url=https://www.naacp.org/latest/nominees-announced-49th-naacp-image-awards/|title=NAACP {{!}} Nominees Announced for 49th NAACP Image Awards|date=November 20, 2017|work=NAACP|access-date=December 8, 2017|language=en-US|archive-date=March 8, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210308133956/https://www.naacp.org/latest/nominees-announced-49th-naacp-image-awards/|url-status=dead}}
- 2017: William Hill Sports Book of the Year, best sports book, finalist, Ali: A Life{{Cite web|url=http://www.foyles.co.uk/news/2017-William-Hill-Shortlist|title=2017 William Hill Shortlist Announced|website=Foyles|language=en-GB|access-date=December 8, 2017}}
- 2018: Plutarch Award, best biography, finalist, Ali: A Life{{cite web|url=http://biographersinternational.org/bio-announces-finalists-for-the-2018-plutarch-award/|title=BIO Announces Finalists for the 2018 Plutarch Award|website=Biographers International|access-date=March 2, 2022|archive-date=February 9, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190209130555/http://biographersinternational.org/bio-announces-finalists-for-the-2018-plutarch-award/|url-status=dead}}
- 2018: PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports Writing, Literary Sports Writing, winner for Ali: A Life{{cite web |url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/awards-and-prizes/article/76113-pen-america-literary-awards-2018.html |title=Long Soldier, Zhang, Le Guin Win At 2018 PEN Literary Awards |work=Publishers Weekly |first=John |last=Maher |date=February 21, 2018 |accessdate=February 21, 2018}}{{cite web |url=https://pen.org/2018-winners/ |title=The 2018 PEN America Literary Awards Winners |publisher=PEN America |date=February 20, 2018 |accessdate=February 21, 2018}}{{cite web |url=https://publishingperspectives.com/2018/01/pen-america-translation-prize-multiple-competitions-finalists-2018/ |title=Industry Notes: PEN America's Finalists |work=Publishing Perspectives |first=Porter |last=Anderson |date=January 31, 2018 |accessdate=February 21, 2018}}
- 2018: The Times Biography of the Year, Sports Book Awards, London, for Ali: A Life{{cite web|title=Jonathan Eig's Ali: A Life wins Times Biography of the Year|url=https://www.thetimes.com/sport/article/jonathan-eigs-ali-a-life-wins-times-biography-of-the-year-dkhldppj2|date=June 8, 2018|author=|website=The Times|access-date=March 2, 2022}}
- 2018: Sports Book of the Year, British Sports Book Awards, for Ali: A Life{{cite web|url=https://sportsbookawards.com/history/previous-winners/|title=History {{!}} Previous Winners|website=Telegraph Sports Book Award|access-date=March 2, 2022}}
- 2018: New York Times Notable Book, for Ali: A Life
- 2023: New York Times Notable Book, for King: A Life
- 2023: National Book Awards, long list for King: A Life
- 2023: National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography, finalist for King: A Life{{cite web|url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/awards-and-prizes/article/94167-2024-national-book-critics-circle-awards-finalists-announced.html|title=2024 National Book Critics Circle Awards Finalists Announced|work=Publishers Weekly|first=Sophia|last=Stewart|date=January 25, 2024|access-date=April 6, 2024}}
- 2024: New-York Historical Society’s 2024 Barbara and David Zalaznick Book Prize for King: A Life{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/19/arts/martin-luther-king-jr-eig.html|title=Martin Luther King Jr. Biographer Wins American History Prize|work=The New York Times|first=Jennifer|last=Schuessler|date=March 19, 2024|access-date=April 4, 2024}}
- 2024: Pulitzer Prize for Biography, for King: A Life{{cite web|url=https://www.pulitzer.org/prize-winners-by-year/2024|title=2024 Pulitzer Prize Winners & Finalists |work=The Pulitzer Prizes|date=May 6, 2024|access-date=May 6, 2024}}
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- [http://www.jonathaneig.com/ Jonathan Eig] - official website
- [http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/May-2010/Get-Capone-St-Valentines-Day-Massacre-Jonathan-Eig/ The St. Valentine's Day Massacre] - Excerpt from Get Capone (Chicago Magazine, May 2010)
- {{C-SPAN|1024221}}
- Jonathan Eig [https://m.imdb.com/name/nm3905874/filmotype/self?ref_=m_nmfm_2] on IMDb
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Eig, Jonathan}}
Category:20th-century American Jews
Category:20th-century American journalists
Category:20th-century American writers
Category:21st-century American Jews
Category:21st-century American journalists
Category:21st-century American writers
Category:American male biographers
Category:American male journalists
Category:Columbia College Chicago faculty
Category:Jewish American sportswriters
Category:Medill School of Journalism alumni
Category:Northwestern University faculty
Category:People from Monsey, New York