J. Anthony Lukas
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Jay Anthony Lukas (April 25, 1933-June 5, 1997) was a Pulitzer Prize winning American journalist and author, probably best known for his 1985 book titled "Common Ground: A Turbulent Decade in the Lives of Three American Families," a study of race relations and school busing in Boston, Massachusetts.
Lukas graduated from Harvard University in 1955, and began his journalism career at the Baltimore Sun, then moved to the New York Times. He stayed at the NY Times for nine years, working as a roving reporter. He quit the news-reporting job to pursue a career in book and magazine writing, becoming known for writing intensely researched nonfiction works.
It was in 1997, while his last book was undergoing final revisions, that he committed suicide by hanging himself with a bathrobe sash. He had been diagnosed with depression about 10 years earlier.
Pulitzer Prizes
Lukas won his first Pulitzer for his 1967 New York Times article "The Two Worlds of Linda Fitzpatrick." The article documented the life and violent death of a teenager from a wealthy Greenwich, Connecticut family who became involved in drugs and the hippie movement. He was awarded the second Pulitzer for "Common Ground: A Turbulent Decade in the Lives of Three American Families." This book also won the National Book Award and the National Critics Book Circle Award.