57: Jonathan Eig
Source: Chicago Tribune
About Jonathan
Jonathan Eig is a bestselling author whose writing has given the world insights into some of the most influential minds of our time.
Jonathan was born in Brooklyn and grew up in Monsey, New York. Raised by an accountant and a community activist, he would be imbued with an almost contradictory set of skills that would amalgamate to establish the inquisitive yet authoritative voice that hundreds of thousands of readers have come to love.
As a young kid, Jonathan spent hours reading the Rockland County Journal News. Comics were his gateway drug, followed by sports, and at age 16, Jonathan started writing for the paper. His first story was about his junior high school ski trip to Sterling Mountain, New York. It may not have the scoop of a lifetime, but Jonathan was hooked.
After polishing his journalistic skills at Northwestern University, where he also worked on the Daily Northwestern, Jonathan went on to work as a reporter for The New Orleans Times-Picayune (pi-kuh-yoon), The Dallas Morning News, Chicago Magazine, and The Wall Street Journal. Meanwhile, his writing career continued its unstoppable ascent.
Although Jonathan’s parents contend that his claim to fame is appearing in a Jeopardy question (solved correctly for $200), his list of achievements is the literary equivalent of a career criminal’s rap sheet: long, diverse, and impressive. With multiple New York Times bestsellers, awards from Esquire, ESPN, National Book Awards, and at least one book hailed as a must read by Barack Obama, there is no shortage of recommendations for the man’s work. (Although his parents would still argue that Jeopardy supersedes all of these.)
Perhaps his greatest recognition, however, is being named a “master storyteller” by Ken Burns, the legendary filmmaker and documentarian who is arguably one of the most qualified people of our time to bestow that title.
Jonathan doesn’t just explore the past, though. He’s gotten into shaping the future. In 2020, he kicked off his foray into children’s books, publishing the first few entries in the Lola Jones series, inspired by his daughter.
But my favorite part of the man’s bio is the role of his Jewish faith in informing his work. Especially given recent events, we are often reminded that the Jewish people share a history of oppression with African Americans, which, incidentally, is why so many Jewish people were involved in the civil rights movement. For Jonathan, it’s all about storytelling, specifically how slavery and its aftermath are central to our story as a nation.
From exploring the mavericks of generations past to shaping the minds of the future… it’s all in a day’s work for the man who may or may not wear a blazer to his home office.