William Novak (born 1948) is a Canadian–American author who has co-written or ghostwritten numerous celebrity memoirs for people including

Lee Iacocca Lido Anthony "Lee" Iacocca ( ; October 15, 1924 – July 2, 2019) was an American automobile executive best known for the development of the Ford Mustang, Continental Mark III, and Ford Pinto cars while at the Ford Motor Company in the 1960s, an ...

Nancy Reagan Nancy Davis Reagan (; born Anne Frances Robbins; July 6, 1921 – March 6, 2016) was an American film actress and First Lady of the United States from 1981 to 1989. She was the second wife of president Ronald Reagan. Reagan was born in N ...

, and

Magic Johnson Earvin "Magic" Johnson Jr. (born August 14, 1959) is an American former professional basketball player. He is often regarded as the greatest point guard of all-time and has been compared with Stephen Curry. Johnson played 13 seasons in the ...

. He is also the editor, with

Moshe Waldoks Moshe Waldoks is an American rabbi who co-edited The Big Book of Jewish humor, Jewish Humor. Background and Family Waldoks was born on July 17, 1949, in Toledo, Ohio to Holocaust survivors who arrived from displaced person’s camps surroundin ...

, of ''The Big Book of Jewish Humor''. He has also written several "private" books, which he described in a 2015 essay for ''

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 ...

''. He is the father of actor and writer B. J. Novak and composer

Jesse Novak Jesse Novak is an American composer, best-known for his work scoring television shows, including ''The Mindy Project'', ''BoJack Horseman'', ''Tuca & Bertie'', ''The Baby-Sitters Club'', and '' Superstore''. He is the brother of actor and producer ...

. He is Jewish.

Books

* ''High Culture: Marijuana in the Lives of Americans''. New York:

Alfred A. Knopf Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. () is an American publishing house that was founded by Alfred A. Knopf Sr. and Blanche Knopf in 1915. Blanche and Alfred traveled abroad regularly and were known for publishing European, Asian, and Latin American writers in ...

, 1980, * ''The Great American Man Shortage and Other Roadblocks to Romance (and What to Do About It)''. New York: Rawson Associates, 1983, *

Lee A. Iacocca Lido Anthony "Lee" Iacocca ( ; October 15, 1924 – July 2, 2019) was an American automobile executive best known for the development of the Ford Mustang, Continental Mark III, and Ford Pinto cars while at the Ford Motor Company in the 1960s, an ...

with William Novak, '' Iacocca: An Autobiography''. New York:

Bantam Books Bantam Books is an American publishing house owned entirely by parent company Random House, a subsidiary of Penguin Random House; it is an imprint of the Random House Publishing Group. It was formed in 1945 by Walter B. Pitkin, Jr., Sidney B. ...

, 1984, *

Sydney Biddle Barrows Sydney Biddle Barrows (born January 14, 1952) is an American businesswoman and socialite who became known as an escort agency owner under the name Sheila Devin; she later became known as "The Mayflower Madam". She has since become a management co ...

with William Novak, ''Mayflower Madam: The Secret Life of Sydney Biddle Barrows'', New York:

Arbor House Arbor House was an independent publishing house founded by Donald Fine in 1969. Specializing in hard cover publications, Arbor House published works by Hortense Calisher, Ken Follett, Cynthia Freeman, Elmore Leonard and Irwin Shaw before being ac ...

, 1986, *

Herb Schmertz Herbert "Herb" Schmertz (March 22, 1930January 17, 2018) was a vice president of public affairs for the Mobil Corporation whose advocacy for sponsoring programs on PBS significantly influenced the relationship between PBS and major corporations. ...

with William Novak. ''Good-Bye to the Low Profile: The Art of Creative Confrontation'', Boston:

Little, Brown Little, Brown and Company is an American publishing company founded in 1837 by Charles Coffin Little and James Brown in Boston. For close to two centuries it has published fiction and nonfiction by American authors. Early lists featured Emily D ...

, 1986, *

Tip O'Neill Thomas Phillip "Tip" O'Neill Jr. (December 9, 1912 – January 5, 1994) was an American politician who served as the 47th speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1977 to 1987, representing northern Boston, Massachusetts, as ...

with William Novak, ''Man of the House: The Life and Political Memoirs of Speaker Tip O'Neill'', New York:

Random House Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Germ ...

, 1987, *

with William Novak, '' My Turn: The Memoirs of Nancy Reagan''. New York: Random House, 1989, *

Earvin "Magic" Johnson Earvin "Magic" Johnson Jr. (born August 14, 1959) is an American former professional basketball player. He is often regarded as the greatest point guard of all-time and has been compared with Stephen Curry. Johnson played 13 seasons in the ...

with William Novak, ''My Life'', New York: Random House, 1992, *

Oliver L. North Oliver Laurence North (born October 7, 1943) is an American political commentator, television host, military historian, author, and retired United States Marine Corps lieutenant colonel. A veteran of the Vietnam War, North was a National Secu ...

with William Novak, '' Under Fire: An American Story'', New York:

HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News Cor ...

, * Claire Sylvia with William Novak, ''A Change of Heart: A Memoir'', Boston: Little, Brown, 1997, * ''An Incredible Dream: Ralph Roberts and the Story of

Comcast Comcast Corporation (formerly known as American Cable Systems and Comcast Holdings),Before the AT&T merger in 2001, the parent company was Comcast Holdings Corporation. Comcast Holdings Corporation now refers to a subsidiary of Comcast Corpora ...

''. Philadelphia: Comcast Corporation, 2012, * Max Kargman with William Novak, ''The Education of Max Kargman'', Boston: Foundation Books, 2003. * Susan Whitman Helfgot with William Novak, ''The Match: Complete Strangers, A Miracle Face Transplant, Two Lives Transformed'', New York:

Simon & Schuster Simon & Schuster () is an American publishing company and a subsidiary of Paramount Global. It was founded in New York City on January 2, 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. As of 2016, Simon & Schuster was the third largest publ ...

, 2010,

As editor

* William Novak and Moshe Waldoks, ''The Big Book of Jewish Humor''. New York:

Harper & Row Harper is an American publishing house, the flagship imprint of global publisher HarperCollins based in New York City. History J. & J. Harper (1817–1833) James Harper and his brother John, printers by training, started their book publishin ...

, 1981, * William Novak and Moshe Waldoks with Donald Altschiller, ''The Big Book of New American Humor: The Best of the Past 25 Years''. New York:

HarperPerennial Harper Perennial is a paperback imprint of the publishing house HarperCollins Publishers. Overview Harper Perennial has divisions located in New York, London, Toronto, and Sydney. The imprint is descended from the Perennial Library imprint found ...

, 1990, * ''Die Laughing: Killer Jokes for Newly Old Folks'', New York:

Touchstone Touchstone may refer to: * Touchstone (assaying tool), a stone used to identify precious metals * Touchstone (metaphor), a means of assaying relative merits of a concept Entertainment * ''Touchstone'' (album), a 1982 album by Chick Corea * T ...

, 2016,

References

1948 births American non-fiction writers Jewish American writers Ghostwriters Living people 21st-century American Jews {{US-nonfiction-writer-stub