Jump to content

Ben Yagoda

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ben Yagoda
Yagoda speaking at the Third Coast Audio Festival, 21 October 2005
Born(1954-02-22)February 22, 1954(age 70)
Alma materYale University;
University of Pennsylvania
Notable credit(s)The New Leader,The New York Times,Newsweek,Rolling Stone

Ben Yagoda(born February 22, 1954) is an American writer and educator. He is a professor ofjournalismand English at theUniversity of Delaware.

Early life

[edit]

Born inNew York Cityto Louis Yagoda (1909–1990), a labor mediator and arbitrator with the New York State Mediation Board, visiting lecturer at theCornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations,and a former organizer for theAmalgamated Clothing Workers of America,and Harriet (née Lewis),[1][2]he grew up inNew Rochelle,New York.He enteredYale Universityto study English in 1971 and graduated in 1976 with a bachelor of arts. He later earned an M.A. in American civilization at theUniversity of Pennsylvania,in 1991.[3]

Career

[edit]

He became a freelance journalist for publications such asThe New Leader,The New York Times,Newsweek,andRolling Stone.He has published a number of books includingAbout Town:The New Yorkerand the World it Made.

Besides his work as ajournalismand English professor at theUniversity of Delaware,Yagoda also writes occasionally for aNew York Timesblog about the English language.[4]

He currently has a monthly podcast calledThe Lives They're Living with Ben Yagoda.

Personal life

[edit]

Yagoda resides inSwarthmore,Pennsylvania,with his wife. They have two daughters.

Selected bibliography

[edit]
  • Will Rogers:A Biography(Alfred A. Knopf,1993,ISBN0-394-58512-7)
  • The Art of Fact: A Historical Anthology of Literary Journalism(Scribner,1997,ISBN0-684-83041-8), co-edited withKevin Kerrane
  • About Town: The New Yorker and the World It Made(Scribner, 2000,ISBN0-684-81605-9)
  • The Sound on the Page: Style and Voice in Writing(HarperResource,2004,ISBN0-066-21417-3)
  • When You Catch an Adjective, Kill It: The Parts of Speech, for Better and/or Worse(Broadway Books,2007,ISBN0-767-92077-5)
  • Memoir: A History(Riverhead Books,2008,ISBN1-594-48886-X)
  • How to Not Write Bad: The Most Common Writing Problems and How to Avoid Them(Riverhead Books, 2013,ISBN1-594-48848-7)
  • The B-Side: The Death ofTin Pan Alleyand the Rebirth of the Great American Song(Riverhead Books, 2015,ISBN1-594-48849-5)

Notes

[edit]
  1. ^McFadden, Robert D. (5 September 1975)."School Talks Mediator".The New York Times.
  2. ^Fowler, Glenn (15 November 1990)."Louis Yagoda, 81, Ex-Arbitrator; Assisted in Major Labor Disputes".The New York Times.
  3. ^"People".Department of English.University of Delaware. Archived fromthe originalon 6 September 2015.Retrieved19 August2015.
  4. ^Ben Yagoda blog postsatThe New York Times
[edit]