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 Nonfiction 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 du ...

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 Resettlement Administration and the Farm Security Administration (FSA) documenting the effects of the Great ...

's and

James Agee James Rufus Agee ( ; November 27, 1909 – May 16, 1955) was an American novelist, journalist, poet, screenwriter and film critic. In the 1940s, writing for ''Time'', he was one of the most influential film critics in the United States. His autob ...

'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 Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen (born September 23, 1949) is an American Rock music, rock singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Nicknamed "the Boss", Springsteen has released 21 studio albums spanning six decades; most of his albums feature th ...

has credited as an influence for songs such as "

Youngstown Youngstown is a city in Mahoning County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Ohio, 11th-most populous city in Ohio with a population of 60,068 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The Mahoning ...

" 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; it is a major national newspaper. In the fall of 2019, it ranked 23rd in U.S. newspaper circulation, a significant drop since March 2013, when its circulation ranked 17th daily an ...

'' 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. The magazine was first known fo ...

'' and ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

''. 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 college, public Community colleges in the United States, community college in Cuyahoga County, Ohio. Founded in 1963, it is the oldest and largest public community college within the state. Not unti ...

Cleveland State University Cleveland State University (CSU) is a public research university in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It was established in 1964 and opened for classes in 1965 after acquiring the entirety of Fenn College, a private school that had been in oper ...

, and

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

, the latter as a Nieman Fellow. He has taught journalism at

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

and is currently a tenured professor of journalism at

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

. He lives in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

and

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

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 national or ethnic 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 ethnic natio ...

'' (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 (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

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 TV, radio, and Internet news program based in Manhattan and hosted by journalists Amy Goodman (who also acts as the show's executive producer), Juan González, and Nermeen Shaikh. The show, which airs live ...

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