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Joshua Prager (writer)

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Joshua Prager
BornJoshua Harris Prager
Eagle Butte, South Dakota, U.S.
OccupationAuthor, journalist
EducationRamaz School
Columbia University (BA)
Notable worksThe Echoing Green, The Family Roe: An American Story
ParentsKenneth Prager (father)
RelativesDennis Prager (uncle)
Prager's voice

Joshua Harris Prager (born 1971)[citation needed] is an American journalist and author.

Early life

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Joshua Harris Prager was born in a Jewish family in Eagle Butte, South Dakota. Prager is the son of Columbia University physician and medical ethics expert Kenneth Prager, and the nephew of commentator Dennis Prager.[1] He attended the Moriah School in Englewood, New Jersey, the Ramaz High School in Manhattan,[2] and Columbia College, where he studied music theory, graduating in 1994.[3][4]

Literary career

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Prager often writes of historical secrets. He found the reclusive heir of Margaret Wise Brown, author of the classic children's book Goodnight Moon.[5] He confirmed the decades-long rumor that the New York Giants had stolen signs en route to the 1951 pennant.[6] He revealed that baseball pitcher Ralph Branca (pitcher in the aforementioned baseball game) was born to a Jewish mother.[7] He named the only anonymous winner in the history of the Pulitzer Prizes, the Iranian photographer Jahangir Razmi.[8] He revealed the suicides of the parents of Swedish humanitarian Raoul Wallenberg.[9] He identified the anonymous patron in the famous book Joe Gould's Secret.[10] He identified Shelley Lynn Thornton as the unknown child of the plaintiff Jane Roe (Norma McCorvey), whose conception in 1969 led to the landmark case Roe v. Wade.[11][12] He revealed the unknown story of law professor Warren Seavey who admitted to Harvard Law School World War II veterans who didn’t apply to the school or had questionable credentials.[13] He revealed the unknown story and suicide of gymnast George Eyser who won six medals in the 1904 Olympics despite a wooden leg.[14]

Prager has written for publications including Vanity Fair,[15][16] The New York Times,[7] and The Wall Street Journal, where he was a senior writer for eight years.[17] His first book, The Echoing Green: The Untold Story of Bobby Thomson, Ralph Branca and the Shot Heard Round the World, is about the Shot Heard 'Round the World, which occurred during a famous 1951 baseball playoff game between the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Giants.[citation needed]. His second book, Half Life: Reflections from Jerusalem on a Broken Neck is about the road accident in Israel that left him paralyzed.[18] He describes his rehabilitation and recovery from the accident; how he tracked down his fellow passengers and the widow of the bus driver who was killed in the accident; and his meeting with the truck driver, who rambled on about his own suffering and expressed no remorse for his actions.[19]

In 2016, Prager published 100 Years: Wisdom From Famous Writers on Every Year of Your Life, a book of quotations designed by Milton Glaser.[20]

Prager's fourth book, The Family Roe: An American Story, was published in 2021. It tells the story of Roe v. Wade and its plaintiff, Jane Roe (Norma McCorvey).[21] The book was a finalist for the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction,[22] as well as the 2021 National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction.[23]

Prager has lectured at venues including TED and Google,[17][24] and has received fellowships from the Nieman Foundation for Journalism[25] as well as the Fulbright Program.[26]

Personal life

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In May 1990, Prager was paralyzed in a road accident in Israel when a truck driver rammed into the minibus in which he was riding.[27] Prager is married and has two daughters.[citation needed]

Selected works

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  • Prager, Joshua (2021). The Family Roe: An American Story. W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0-393-24772-5.

References

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  1. ^ Ford, Luke. Article on Dennis Prager, LukeFord.net (March 13, 1998).
  2. ^ Cohen, Irwin. "Baseball Is Dull Only To Those With Dull Minds", The Jewish Press, February 7, 2007. "The best book you can get about Thomson's homer, the 1951 season, the players, sign-stealing and more is Joshua Prager's The Echoing Green. Prager, who grew up in New Jersey, went to Moriah Day School, Ramaz High School and spent a year in yeshiva after high school before going on to college and a writing career with The Wall Street Journal."
  3. ^ http://joshuaprager.com/wsj Archived 2012-01-01 at the Wayback Machine"Joshua Prager grew up in New Jersey and studied music theory at Columbia College."
  4. ^ "Columbia College Today". www.college.columbia.edu. Retrieved 2022-04-27.
  5. ^ Joshua Prager (September 8, 2000). "Runaway Money". Wall Street Journal. p. A1. Archived from the original on September 28, 2007.
  6. ^ Joshua Prager (January 31, 2001). "Inside Baseball". Wall Street Journal. p. A1. Archived from the original on January 13, 2013.
  7. ^ a b Joshua Prager (August 14, 2011). "For Branca, an Asterisk of a Different Kind". New York Times.
  8. ^ Joshua Prager (December 2, 2006). "A Chilling Photograph's Hidden History". Wall Street Journal. p. A1.
  9. ^ Joshua Prager (February 28, 2009). "The Wallenberg Curse". Wall Street Journal. p. A1.
  10. ^ Joshua Prager (February 11, 2014). "A Decades Long Literary Mystery is Solved". Vanity Fair.
  11. ^ Prager, Joshua (September 9, 2021). "The Roe Baby". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on June 24, 2022. Retrieved September 9, 2021.
  12. ^ Prager, Joshua (2021). The Family Roe: An American Story. W. W. Norton & Company. p. 672. ISBN 978-0393247718.
  13. ^ Prager, Joshua (2022-12-22). "A Harvard Law professor broke the rules to let in WWII vets. They made 'the best class there ever was.'". BostonGlobe.com. The Boston Globe. Retrieved 2022-12-23.
  14. ^ Prager, Joshua (2024-06-03). "A Forgotten Turner Classic". The American Scholar. Retrieved 2024-06-25.
  15. ^ Prager, Joshua (18 January 2013). "The Accidental Activist". Vanity Fair.
  16. ^ Prager, Joshua (19 January 2017). "Roe v. Wade's Secret Heroine Tells Her Story". Vanity Fair.
  17. ^ a b TEDTalentSearch (26 June 2012). "Joshua Prager: My personal half-life". Archived from the original on 2021-12-19. Retrieved 21 November 2018 – via YouTube.
  18. ^ Half-life Archived 2013-03-15 at the Wayback Machine
  19. ^ The sound of one finger typing, Haaretz
  20. ^ Prager, Joshua (19 April 2016). "Wisdom from great writers on every year of life". www.ted.com. Retrieved 2016-05-04.
  21. ^ Giridharadas, Anand (2021-09-09). "The Epic Life of the Woman Behind Roe v. Wade". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-04-29.
  22. ^ "The Pulitzer Prizes - The Family Roe: An American Story". The Pulitzer Prizes. Retrieved 2022-05-10.
  23. ^ "The Family Roe by Joshua Prager: 2021 Nonfiction Finalist". National Book Critics Circle. 2022-03-14. Retrieved 2022-05-03.
  24. ^ "Authors@Google: Josh Prager". 16 May 2008. Archived from the original on 2021-12-19. Retrieved 21 November 2018 – via YouTube.
  25. ^ "2 AP staffers among 24 selected as Nieman Fellows". Retrieved 21 November 2018.[dead link‍]
  26. ^ "Untitled Document". Archived from the original on 2013-02-02. Retrieved 2013-02-24.
  27. ^ Prager, Joshua."A Movie Stokes My Memories",The Wall Street Journal, November 30, 2007.
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