Joshua Prager (writer)

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Joshua Prager
BornJoshua Harris Prager
Eagle Butte, South Dakota, United States
OccupationAuthor, journalist
NationalityAmerican
Education Columbia University (BA)
Alma mater Ramaz School
Notable works The Echoing Green
Parents Kenneth Prager (father)
Relatives Dennis Prager (uncle)
Prager's voice

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

Contents

Early life

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

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]

Prager has written for publications including Vanity Fair , [14] [15] The New York Times, [7] and The Wall Street Journal, where he was a senior writer for eight years. [16] 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. [17] 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. [18]

In 2016, Prager published 100 Years: Wisdom From Famous Writers on Every Year of Your Life, a book of quotations designed by Milton Glaser. [19]

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). [20] The book was a finalist for the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction, [21] as well as the 2021 National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction. [22]

Prager has lectured at venues including TED and Google, [16] [23] and has received fellowships from the Nieman Foundation for Journalism [24] as well as the Fulbright Program. [25]

Personal life

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. [26] Prager is married and has two daughters.[ citation needed ]

Selected works

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<i>The Echoing Green</i> (book) Nonfiction book by Joshua Prager

The Echoing Green: The Untold Story of Bobby Thomson, Ralph Branca and the Shot Heard Round the World is a nonfiction book written by Joshua Prager and originally published by Pantheon Books in 2006. The book centers on the 1951 New York Giants scheme to read opposing catchers' finger signals relayed from catcher to pitcher with a telescope in the center-field clubhouse during the latter part of the 1951 Major League Baseball season. This led to baseball's famous Shot Heard 'Round the World, when Bobby Thomson hit a three-run homer in the bottom of the ninth inning against Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher Ralph Branca, resulting in winning the three game playoff series and the National League (NL) pennant, with a 5–4 win over the Dodgers. "It's been described as the greatest baseball game ever played, and you don't have to be a baseball fan to mark the anniversary." The book expands on an article that Prager wrote in 2001 for the Wall Street Journal.

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<i>The Family Roe: An American Story</i>

The Family Roe: An American Story is a 2021 book, written by Joshua Prager. The book is a biographical account of Norma McCorvey, known as "Jane Roe" in the 1973 landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade. The Roe case, which established a woman's constitutional right to an abortion, is one of the most controversial opinions in American jurisprudence. The Family Roe was a finalist for the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction.

References

  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. 1 2 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 (18 January 2013). "The Accidental Activist". Vanity Fair.
  15. ↑ Prager, Joshua (19 January 2017). "Roe v. Wade's Secret Heroine Tells Her Story". Vanity Fair.
  16. 1 2 TEDTalentSearch (26 June 2012). "Joshua Prager: My personal half-life". Archived from the original on 2021-12-19. Retrieved 21 November 2018– via YouTube.
  17. ↑ Half-life Archived 2013-03-15 at the Wayback Machine
  18. ↑ The sound of one finger typing, Haaretz
  19. ↑ Prager, Joshua (19 April 2016). "Wisdom from great writers on every year of life". www.ted.com. Retrieved 2016-05-04.
  20. ↑ 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.
  21. ↑ "The Pulitzer Prizes - The Family Roe: An American Story". The Pulitzer Prizes. Retrieved 2022-05-10.
  22. ↑ "The Family Roe by Joshua Prager: 2021 Nonfiction Finalist". National Book Critics Circle. 2022-03-14. Retrieved 2022-05-03.
  23. ↑ "Authors@Google: Josh Prager". 16 May 2008. Archived from the original on 2021-12-19. Retrieved 21 November 2018– via YouTube.
  24. ↑ "2 AP staffers among 24 selected as Nieman Fellows" . Retrieved 21 November 2018.
  25. ↑ "Untitled Document". Archived from the original on 2013-02-02. Retrieved 2013-02-24.
  26. ↑ Prager, Joshua."A Movie Stokes My Memories", The Wall Street Journal , November 30, 2007.
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