Dale Maharidge (born 24 October 1956) is an American author, journalist and academic best known for his collaborations with photographer Michael Williamson. Maharidge and Williamson's book '' And Their Children After Them'' won the

Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction The Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes that are awarded annually for the "Letters, Drama, and Music" category. The award is given to a nonfiction book written by an American author and published duri ...

in 1990. It was conceived as a revisiting of the places and people depicted in

Walker Evans Walker Evans (November 3, 1903 – April 10, 1975) was an American photographer and photojournalist best known for his work for the Farm Security Administration (FSA) documenting the effects of the Great Depression. Much of Evans' work from ...

's and James Agee's '' Let Us Now Praise Famous Men''. Also with Williamson, Maharidge wrote ''Journey to Nowhere: The Saga of the New Underclass,'' which singer-songwriter Bruce Springsteen has credited as an influence for songs such as "

Youngstown Youngstown is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio, and the largest city and county seat of Mahoning County. At the 2020 census, Youngstown had a city population of 60,068. It is a principal city of the Youngstown–Warren metropolitan area, which ...

" and " The New Timer". Born in Ohio, Maharidge was a staff writer for ''

The Plain Dealer ''The Plain Dealer'' is the major newspaper of Cleveland, Ohio, United States. In fall 2019, it ranked 23rd in U.S. newspaper circulation, a significant drop since March 2013, when its circulation ranked 17th daily and 15th on Sunday. As of Ma ...

'' and the ''

Sacramento Bee ''The Sacramento Bee'' is a daily newspaper published in Sacramento, California, in the United States. Since its foundation in 1857, ''The Bee'' has become the largest newspaper in Sacramento, the fifth largest newspaper in California, and the 2 ...

''. It was while at the ''Bee'' that he formed his partnership with Williamson, who was a news photographer for the paper. The pair have traveled and lived among the rural poor as they documented the underside of American prosperity. Maharidge has also contributed to publications including ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its ...

'' and ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

''. In 2011, he published ''Someplace Like America: On the Road with Workers, 1980-2010''. His latest project is ''Bringing Mulligan Home: The Other Side of the Good War'' which was published in March 2013. Maharidge attended

Cuyahoga Community College Cuyahoga Community College (Tri-C) is a public community college in Cuyahoga County, Ohio. Founded in 1963, it is the oldest and largest public community college within the state. Tri-C schedules on the semester basis, and offers over 1,000 co ...

, Cleveland State University, and

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

, the latter as a

Nieman Fellow The Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University awards multiple types of fellowships. Nieman Fellowships for journalists A Nieman Fellowship is an award given to journalists by the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University ...

. He has taught journalism at Stanford University and is currently a tenured professor of journalism at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

. He lives in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

and

Petrolia, California Petrolia is an unincorporated community in Humboldt County, California, northeast of Cape Mendocino, at an elevation of above sea level, within ZIP Code 95558, and area code 707. Petrolia was the site of the first oil well drilled in Califor ...

Selected works

Books by Dale Maharidge include * ''Journey to Nowhere: The Saga of the New Underclass'' (1985) * '' And Their Children After Them: The Legacy of Let Us Now Praise Famous Men: James Agee, Walker Evans, and the Rise and Fall of Cotton in the South'' (1989) * ''Yosemite: A Landscape of Life'' (1990) * ''The Last Great American Hobo'' (1993) * ''The Coming White Minority: California's Eruptions and the Nation's Future (1996) * ''

Homeland A homeland is a place where a cultural, national, or racial identity has formed. The definition can also mean simply one's country of birth. When used as a proper noun, the Homeland, as well as its equivalents in other languages, often has ethn ...

'' (2004) * ''Denison, Iowa: Searching for the Soul of America Through the Secrets of a Midwest Town'' (2005). * ''Someplace Like America, Tales from the New Great Depression'' (2011). Foreword by Bruce Springsteen. May 2011. * ''Leapers'' (2012). A novella. * ''Bringing Mulligan Home: The Other Side of the Good War'' (2013), a

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

book. * '' And Their Children After Them: The Legacy of Let Us Now Praise Famous Men: James Agee, Walker Evans, and the Rise and Fall of Cotton in the South'' (30th Anniversary Edition) ( Seven Stories Press, 2019) Audiobooks by Dale Maharidge include * ''The Dead Drink First'' (2019)

References

External links

Profile at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism

Gazeteer on ''Denison, Iowa''

Western Knight Center for Specialized Journalism

Dale Maharidge’s Chronicles of U.S. Working Poor Inspire Music of Bruce Springsteen
— video interview by ''

Democracy Now! ''Democracy Now!'' is an hour-long American TV, radio, and Internet news program hosted by journalists Amy Goodman (who also acts as the show's executive producer), Juan González, and Nermeen Shaikh. The show, which airs live each weekday at ...

'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Maharidge, Dale 1956 births Living people American male journalists American travel writers American reporters and correspondents Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction winners Writers from Cleveland 20th-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers Columbia University faculty Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism faculty Journalists from Ohio People from Humboldt County, California 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American male writers