Richard Ben Cramer
- Johns Hopkins University
- Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism
- Journalist
- Author
- Screenwriter
- Carolyn White (divorced)
- Joan Smith
Richard Ben Cramer (June 12, 1950 – January 7, 2013) was an American journalist, author, and screenwriter. He was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting in 1979 for his coverage of the Middle East.
Biography
Cramer was born and raised in Rochester, New York, the son of Brud and Blossom Cramer.[1] He graduated from Brighton High School in 1967. He wrote for Trapezoid, the school's student newspaper, after he was cut from the baseball team.[2] He earned a bachelor's degree in liberal arts in 1971 from Johns Hopkins University where he was also a writer and editor for The Johns Hopkins News-Letter. Unable to land a job at The Baltimore Sun, he instead attended the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism where he received a master's degree one year later in 1972.[3]
Cramer worked as a journalist at several publications, including The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Baltimore Sun, Esquire Magazine, and Rolling Stone. He won a Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting in 1979 for his coverage of the Middle East as a foreign correspondent for The Philadelphia Inquirer and was a finalist for the same Prize in 1981.[4] His work as a political reporter culminated in What It Takes: The Way to the White House, an account of the 1988 presidential election that is considered one of the seminal journalistic studies of presidential electoral politics. His next book, Joe DiMaggio: The Hero's Life, was a New York Times bestseller in 2000. He was an avid New York Yankees fan and lived on the Eastern Shore of Maryland.[4] His final published book was How Israel Lost: The Four Questions, about the ways in which the Israeli occupation has corrupted the country's original vision.
Cramer wrote and narrated several well-known documentary films, often in collaboration with filmmaker Thomas Lennon: The Choice '92 (PBS Frontline, 1992), Tabloid Truth (PBS Frontline, 1994) and The Battle Over Citizen Kane (PBS The American Experience, 1995), which premiered at Sundance Film Festival and was nominated for an Academy Award. He co-wrote and narrated a film about Joe DiMaggio, The Hero's Life, produced by long-time collaborator Mark Zwonitzer, based on Cramer's book. He contributed to the scripts of two PBS series, The Irish in America: Long Journey Home (1998), and The Supreme Court (2007.)
Richard Ben Cramer died at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore of complications from lung cancer on January 7, 2013, at age 62. Cramer lived in Chestertown, Maryland, with his second wife, Joan. Besides his wife he is survived by a daughter, Ruby, from his first marriage to Carolyn White.[5]
Books
- Ted Williams: The Seasons of the Kid (1991)
- What It Takes: The Way to the White House (1992)
- Bob Dole (1994)
- Joe DiMaggio: The Hero's Life (2000)
- What Do You Think of Ted Williams Now? A Remembrance (2002)
- How Israel Lost: The Four Questions (2004)
References
- ^ Cramer, Richard Ben (2000). Joe DiMaggio:The Hero's Life. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster. p. Dedication. ISBN 0-684-85391-4.
- ^ ""Richard Ben Cramer, award-winning journalist and Brighton native, dies," The Associated Press, Tuesday, January 8, 2013". Archived from the original on October 6, 2014. Retrieved January 9, 2013.
- ^ "Rasmussen, Frederick N. "Richard Ben Cramer, Pulitzer Prize winner, dies at 62," The Baltimore Sun, Wednesday, January 9, 2013". Archived from the original on February 6, 2013. Retrieved January 9, 2013.
- ^ a b "Richard Ben Cramer - Meet The Writers". Barnes and Noble. Archived from the original on April 8, 2009. Retrieved January 11, 2010.
- ^ "Richard Cramer, Wrote of Presidential Race, Dies at 62". New York Times. Retrieved 8 January 2013.
External links
External videos | |
---|---|
Booknotes interview with Cramer on What It Takes, July 26, 1992, C-SPAN | |
Presentation by Cramer on How Israel Lost, June 24, 2004, C-SPAN |
- Appearances on C-SPAN
- "The Man Inside the Hopefuls' Heads" By Martha Sherrill Washington Post, July 6, 1992
- "The Book that Defined Modern Campaign Reporting" By Ben Smith Politico, December 30, 2010
- "What Do You Think of Ted Williams Now?"
- "Can The Best Mayor Win?"
- "The Ballad of Johnny France"
- "Know Your Way Home"
- "Fore Play"
- "A Native Son's Thoughts"
- "Serious Business: Richard Ben Cramer Remembers Yankee Stadium"
- "The DiMaggio Nobody Knew"
- v
- t
- e
- Laurence Edmund Allen (1942)
- Ira Wolfert (1943)
- Daniel De Luce (1944)
- Mark S. Watson (1945)
- Homer Bigart (1946)
- Eddy Gilmore (1947)
- Paul W. Ward (1948)
- Price Day (1949)
- Edmund Stevens (1950)
- Keyes Beech, Homer Bigart, Marguerite Higgins, Relman Morin, Fred Sparks & Don Whitehead (1951)
- John M. Hightower (1952)
- Austin Wehrwein (1953)
- Jim G. Lucas (1954)
- Harrison E. Salisbury (1955)
- William Randolph Hearst Jr., J. Kingsbury-Smith & Frank Conniff (1956)
- Russell Jones (1957)
- Staff of The New York Times (1958)
- Joseph Martin & Philip Santora (1959)
- A. M. Rosenthal (1960)
- Lynn Heinzerling (1961)
- Walter Lippmann (1962)
- Hal Hendrix (1963)
- Malcolm W. Browne & David Halberstam (1964)
- J. A. Livingston (1965)
- Peter Arnett (1966)
- R. John Hughes (1967)
- Alfred Friendly (1968)
- William Tuohy (1969)
- Seymour M. Hersh (1970)
- Jimmie Lee Hoagland (1971)
- Peter R. Kann (1972)
- Max Frankel (1973)
- Hedrick Smith (1974)
- William Mullen (1975 shared)
- Ovie Carter (1975 shared)
- Sydney H. Schanberg (1976)
- Henry Kamm (1978)
- Richard Ben Cramer (1979)
- Joel Brinkley & Jay Mather (1980)
- Shirley Christian (1981)
- John Darnton (1982)
- Thomas L. Friedman & Loren Jenkins (1983)
- Karen Elliott House (1984)
- Joshua Friedman, Dennis Bell & Ozier Muhammad (1985)
- Lewis M. Simons, Pete Carey & Katherine Ellison (1986)
- Michael Parks (1987)
- Thomas L. Friedman (1988)
- Bill Keller & Glenn Frankel (1989)
- Nicholas D. Kristof & Sheryl WuDunn (1990)
- Caryle Murphy & Serge Schmemann (1991)
- Patrick J. Sloyan (1992)
- John F. Burns & Roy Gutman (1993)
- Staff of The Dallas Morning News (1994)
- Mark Fritz (1995)
- David Rohde (1996)
- John F. Burns (1997)
- Staff of The New York Times (1998)
- Staff of The Wall Street Journal (1999)
- Mark Schoofs (2000)
- Ian Denis Johnson & Paul Salopek (2001)
- Barry Bearak (2002)
- Kevin Sullivan & Mary Jordan (2003)
- Anthony Shadid (2004)
- Kim Murphy & Dele Olojede (2005)
- Joseph Kahn & Jim Yardley (2006)
- Staff of The Wall Street Journal (2007)
- Steve Fainaru (2008)
- Staff of The New York Times (2009)
- Anthony Shadid (2010)
- Clifford J. Levy & Ellen Barry (2011)
- Jeffrey Gettleman (2012)
- David Barboza (2013)
- Jason Szep & Andrew R. C. Marshall (2014)
- Staff of The New York Times (2015)
- Alissa J. Rubin (2016)
- Staff of The New York Times (2017)
- Clare Baldwin, Andrew R.C. Marshall & Manuel Mogato (2018)
- Maggie Michael, Maad al-Zikry & Nariman El-Mofty (2019)
- Staff of Reuters including Wa Lone & Kyaw Soe Oo (2019)
- Staff of The New York Times (2020)
- Megha Rajagopalan, Alison Killing & Christo Buschek (2021)
- Staff of The New York Times including Azmat Khan (2022)
- Staff of The New York Times (2023)