TRACY KIDDER - Author
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Recognized as one of America’s leading writers of non-fiction, Tracy Kidder has won numerous literary awards, including the Pulitzer Prize and the American Book Award. Born in New York City, he attended Phillips Academy and Harvard University. After graduating with a B.A. in 1967, he served a full tour of duty in Vietnam.

Tracy Kidder photo by Jose Ramon Garcia

Mr. Kidder has published many books on topics ranging from public school systems to rural nursing homes. He also is a contributing editor to The Atlantic. An Atlantic assignment to cover the Juan Corona mass-murder trial in California led to his first published book, The Road to Yuba City, released in 1974. And in the late 1970’s, at his editor’s suggestion, he set to work on his blockbuster, The Soul of a New Machine, a book that was celebrated for its insight into the world of corporate high-technology America. With its compelling sense of momentum and its “up close and personal” style, the book rocketed to the top of the best-seller list and garnered both the Pulitzer Prize and the American Book Award in 1982.

The Soul of a New Machine was followed by House, an account of the construction of a private home in 1985, Among Schoolchildren, a narrative of one year in the life of a fifth-grade class and its teacher in 1989 (Robert F. Kennedy Book Award) and Old Friends, a study of old age and friendship in 1993. In Home Town, published in 1999, Kidder presents an insider’s view of Northampton, Massachusetts, a picture-postcard New England city that is home to Smith College. His latest book, Mountains Beyond Mountains, captures two crises, tuberculosis and AIDS, through the eyes of a single-minded physician bent on improving the health of some of the poorest people on the planet. The story of Dr. Paul Farmer, a major force in revolutionizing international health, follows Farmer’s quests to establish clinics and hospitals, his compassion for the poor, his inner circle of true believers and, ultimately, his success in helping stem the tide of new HIV and TB infections in poorer areas.