Journalist and author Nicholas Lemann began his career as a 17-year-old writer for an alternative weekly newspaper in his native New Orleans and went on to hold editorial and writing positions at The Harvard Crimson, the Washington Monthly, the Texas Monthly, The Washington Post, The Atlantic Monthly, and The New Yorker. Lemann was also dean of Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, where he launched initiatives in digital journalism, executive leadership for news organizations, investigative reporting, coverage of underreported global issues, and more.
Professional positions
- 1999–present: Staff writer and Washington correspondent, The New Yorker
- 1983–1998: National correspondent, The Atlantic Monthly
- 2003–2013: Joseph Pulitzer II and Edith Pulitzer Moore Professor of Journalism and Dean (now emeritus), Graduate School of Journalism, Columbia University
Notable publications
- Lemann, Nicholas. 2019. Transaction Man: The Rise of the Deal and the Decline of the American Dream. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
- Lemann, Nicholas. 2006. Redemption: The Last Battle of the Civil War. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
- Lemann, Nicholas. 1999. The Big Test: The Secret History of the American Meritocracy. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
- Lemann, Nicholas. 1991. The Promised Land: The Great Black Migration and How It Changed America. New York, NY: Vintage Books.
Degrees
- BA, American history and literature, Harvard University