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Ben Yagoda

Ben Yagoda (born February 22, 1954) is an American writer and educator. He is a professor of journalism and English at the University of Delaware.

Ben Yagoda

(1954-02-22) February 22, 1954

Early life[edit]

Born in New York City to Louis Yagoda (1909–1990), a labor mediator and arbitrator with the New York State Mediation Board, visiting lecturer at the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations, and a former organizer for the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, and Harriet (née Lewis),[1][2] he grew up in New Rochelle, New York. He entered Yale University to study English in 1971 and graduated in 1976 with a bachelor of arts. He later earned an M.A. in American civilization at the University of Pennsylvania, in 1991.[3]

Career[edit]

He became a freelance journalist for publications such as The New Leader, The New York Times, Newsweek, and Rolling Stone. He has published a number of books including About Town: The New Yorker and the World it Made.


Besides his work as a journalism and English professor at the University of Delaware, Yagoda also writes occasionally for a New York Times blog about the English language.[4]

Personal life[edit]

Yagoda resides in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, with his wife. They have two daughters.

: A Biography (Alfred A. Knopf, 1993, ISBN 0-394-58512-7)

Will Rogers

The Art of Fact: A Historical Anthology of Literary Journalism (, 1997, ISBN 0-684-83041-8), co-edited with Kevin Kerrane

Scribner

About Town: The New Yorker and the World It Made (Scribner, 2000,  0-684-81605-9)

ISBN

The Sound on the Page: Style and Voice in Writing (, 2004, ISBN 0-066-21417-3)

HarperResource

When You Catch an Adjective, Kill It: The Parts of Speech, for Better and/or Worse (, 2007, ISBN 0-767-92077-5)

Broadway Books

Memoir: A History (, 2008, ISBN 1-594-48886-X)

Riverhead Books

How to Not Write Bad: The Most Common Writing Problems and How to Avoid Them (Riverhead Books, 2013,  1-594-48848-7)

ISBN

The B-Side: The Death of and the Rebirth of the Great American Song (Riverhead Books, 2015, ISBN 1-594-48849-5)

Tin Pan Alley

Edit this at Wikidata

Official website

on C-SPAN

Appearances

on Charlie Rose

Ben Yagoda

at IMDb

Ben Yagoda

Special Collections, University of Delaware Library, Newark, Delaware.

Ben Yagoda papers

Ben Yagoda, at Slate, August 26, 2005, announcing retirement from freelance journalism

"My Life as a Hack. It was glorious. Now it's over"