b.1950
David Maraniss is a
non-fiction author,
Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, and associate editor at
The Washington Post. Maraniss' articles on
Bill Clinton during the 1992 presidential campaign won him the Pulitzer Prize for national reporting in 1993.
Maraniss is best known for his two in-depth biographies; First In His Class, about the life of Bill Clinton before he became President, and When Pride Still Mattered, a beautifully written cultural biography of NFL legend Vince Lombardi.
Maraniss, the son of a newspaper editor, grew up in Madison, Wisconsin and moved to Washington, D.C. in 1977. He has lived there since -- though a few of the intervening years were spent in Austin, Texas where he was the Post's southwestern bureau chief. He is married and has two grown children.
An interesting trivia note: Maraniss believes he and his immediate family are the only Maranisses in the country. The name is apparently unique -- a derivation of "marrano," a word given to Spanish Jews during the Inquisition.
The Books of David Maraniss
The Prince of Tennessee: The Rise of Al Gore (2000) with Ellen Nakashima
Power & the Presidency (2000)
When Pride Still Mattered (1999)
The The Clinton Enigma A Four-And-A-Half Minute Speech Reveals This President's Entire Life (1998)
First in His Class (1995)
Tell Newt To Shut Up with Michael Weisskopf