Daniel Okrent (born April 2, 1948) is an American writer and

editor Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, visual, audible, or cinematic material used by a person or an entity to convey a message or information. The editing process can involve correction, condensation, organization, a ...

. He is best known for having served as the first

public editor A public editor is a position existing at some news publications; the person holding this position is responsible for supervising the implementation of proper journalism ethics within that publication. These responsibilities include identifying a ...

of ''

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 ...

'' newspaper, inventing Rotisserie League Baseball, and for writing several books (such as ''Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition'', which served as a major source for the 2011

Ken Burns Kenneth Lauren Burns (born July 29, 1953) is an American filmmaker known for his documentary films and television series, many of which chronicle American history and culture. His work is often produced in association with WETA-TV or the Nati ...

Lynn Novick Lynn Novick is an American director and producer of documentary films, widely known for her work with Ken Burns. Early life Novick was born in 1962, raised in New York City, and graduated from Horace Mann School in 1979. She graduated magna cum l ...

miniseries ''

Prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic b ...

)''. In November 2011, ''Last Call'' won the Albert J. Beveridge prize, awarded by the

American Historical Association The American Historical Association (AHA) is the oldest professional association of historians in the United States and the largest such organization in the world, claiming over 10,000 members. Founded in 1884, AHA works to protect academic free ...

to the year's best book of American history. His most recent book, published May 2019, is ''The Guarded Gate: Bigotry, Eugenics, and the Law That Kept Two Generations of Jews, Italians, and Other European Immigrants Out of America''.

Early life and education

Born to a

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

family in

Detroit, Michigan Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...

, Okrent graduated from

Cass Technical High School Cass Technical High School (simply referred to as Cass Tech) is a four-year Public magnet high school in Midtown Detroit, Michigan, United States. from the University Cultural Center Association, retrieved June 9, 1001 It was established in 19 ...

in Detroit in 1965 and from the

University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...

, where he worked on the university's student newspaper ''

The Michigan Daily ''The Michigan Daily'', also known as "''The Daily''", is the independent student newspaper of the University of Michigan published in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Established on September 29, 1890, the newspaper is financially and editorially independe ...

''.

Career

Most of his career has been spent as an editor, at such places as

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

;

Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich Harcourt () was an American publishing firm with a long history of publishing fiction and nonfiction for adults and children. It was known at different stages in its history as Harcourt Brace, & Co. and Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. From 1919 to 1 ...

; ''

Esquire Magazine ''Esquire'' is an American men's magazine. Currently published in the United States by Hearst, it also has more than 20 international editions. Founded in 1933, it flourished during the Great Depression and World War II under the guidance of ...

''; ''

New England Monthly ''New England Monthly'' was a magazine published in the Haydenville Historic District, of Williamsburg, Massachusetts, from 1984 to 1990. History and profile Founded in 1984 by Robert Nylen (publisher) and Daniel Okrent (editor), it won the N ...

''; ''

Life Magazine ''Life'' (stylized as ''LIFE'') is an American magazine launched in 1883 as a weekly publication. In 1972, it transitioned to publishing "special" issues before running as a monthly from 1978 to 2000. Since then, ''Life'' has irregularly publi ...

''; and Time, Inc. His book '' Great Fortune: The Epic of Rockefeller Center'' (Viking, 2003) was a finalist for the

Pulitzer Prize for History The Pulitzer Prize for History, administered by Columbia University, is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes that are annually awarded for Letters, Drama, and Music. It has been presented since 1917 for a distinguished book about the histor ...

. In October 2003, Okrent was named

for ''

'' following the

Jayson Blair Jayson Thomas Blair (born March 23, 1976) is a former American journalist who worked for ''The New York Times''. In May 2003, he resigned from the newspaper following the revelation of fabrication and plagiarism within his articles. In 2004, h ...

scandal. He held this position until May 2005. Okrent and

Peter Gethers Peter Gethers (born 1955) is an American publisher, screenwriter and author of television shows, films, newspaper and magazine articles, and novels; he is the author of several books, including the bestseller '' The Cat Who Went to Paris'', publi ...

, having acquired the theatrical rights to the site and name of the web series ''

Old Jews Telling Jokes ''Old Jews Telling Jokes'' is a web series launched in 2009 created and directed by Sam Hoffman and produced by Eric Spiegelman and Tim Williams for Jetpack Media, Inc. It has since gone on to garner millions of unique views over several original ...

'', co-wrote and co-produced a revue of that name. It opened at the

Westside Theatre The Westside Theatre is an off-Broadway performance space at 407 West 43rd Street between Ninth and Tenth Avenues in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. The building houses two auditoriums: the Upstairs Theatre, which ...

in Manhattan on May 20, 2012. From 2003–2008, he was chairman of the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery. He has been awarded honorary degrees by the University of Michigan and the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts. Since 2017, Okrent has been listed on the Advisory Board of the

Secular Coalition for America The Secular Coalition for America is an advocacy group located in Washington D.C. It describes itself as "protecting the equal rights of nonreligious Americans." The Secular Coalition has chapters in all 50 states and Puerto Rico, composed of lo ...

Okrent's Law

Okrent formulated what has become known as "Okrent's law" in an interview comment he made about his new job. It states: "The pursuit of balance can create imbalance because sometimes something is true", referring to the phenomenon of the press providing legitimacy to unsupported fringe viewpoints in an effort to appear even-handed.

Baseball

Okrent invented Rotisserie League Baseball, the best-known form of

fantasy baseball Fantasy baseball is a game in which the participants serve as owners and general managers of virtual baseball teams. The competitors select their rosters by participating in a draft in which all relevant Major League Baseball (MLB) players are ava ...

, in 1979. The name comes from the fact that he proposed the idea to his friends while dining at La Rôtisserie Française restaurant on New York City's East 52nd Street. Okrent's team in the Rotisserie League was called the "Okrent Fenokees", a pun on the

Okefenokee Swamp The Okefenokee Swamp is a shallow, 438,000-acre (177,000 ha), peat-filled wetland straddling the Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia–Florida line in the United States. A majority of the swamp is protected by the Okefenokee National Wildlife Ref ...

. He was one of the first two people inducted into the Fantasy Sports Hall of Fame. Okrent was still playing Rotisserie as of 2009 under the team name Dan Druffs. Despite having been credited with inventing fantasy baseball he has never been able to win a Rotisserie League. His exploits of inventing Rotisserie League Baseball were chronicled in ''Silly Little Game'', part of the

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

30 for 30 ''30 for 30'' is the title for a series of documentary films airing on ESPN, its sister networks, and online highlighting interesting people and events in sports history. This includes four "volumes" of 30 episodes each, a 13-episode series und ...

'' documentary series, in

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

. Okrent is also credited with inventing the baseball stat,

WHIP A whip is a blunt weapon or implement used in a striking motion to create sound or pain. Whips can be used for flagellation against humans or animals to exert control through pain compliance or fear of pain, or be used as an audible cue thro ...

. At the time he referred to it as IPRAT, signifying "Innings Pitched Ratio". In May 1981, Okrent wrote and ''

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with a circulation of over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellen ...

'' published "He Does It by the Numbers". This profile of the then-unknown

Bill James George William James (born October 5, 1949) is an American baseball writer, historian, and statistician whose work has been widely influential. Since 1977, James has written more than two dozen books about baseball history and statistics. His a ...

launched James's career as baseball's foremost analyst. In 1994, Okrent was filmed for his in-depth knowledge of baseball history for the

documentary ''

Baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

''. During the nine-part series, a red-sweater-wearing Okrent delivered a detailed analysis of the cultural aspects of the national pastime, including a comparison of the dramatic Game 6 of the

1975 World Series The 1975 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) 1975 season. The 72nd edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff played between the American League (AL) champion Boston Red Sox and the Nati ...

between the

Boston Red Sox The Boston Red Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Boston. The Red Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League East, East Division. Founded in as one of the Ameri ...

and

Cincinnati Reds The Cincinnati Reds are an American professional baseball team based in Cincinnati. The Reds compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League Central, Central Divisi ...

to the conflict and character development in

Russian novels Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

The Death of Print

In the late 1990s, as editor of new media at

Time Inc. Time Inc. (also referred to as Time & Life, Inc. later on, after their two onetime flagship magazine publications) was an American worldwide mass media corporation founded on November 28, 1922, by Henry Luce and Briton Hadden and based in New ...

, Okrent wrote about the future of magazine publishing. He believed that the advancement of digital technologies would make it easier for people to read newspapers, magazines and books online. In late 1999, Okrent made a prediction about the future of print media in the Hearst New Media Lecture at the Graduate School of Journalism of Columbia University. He told his audience:

Personal life

Okrent has participated in

LearnedLeague LearnedLeague is a web-based, invitation-only global quiz league operated by Seattle-based software engineer Shayne Bushfield under the pseudonym "Thorsten A. Integrity". As of March 2025, it has over 31,700 members worldwide. Structure Players a ...

under the name "OkrentD".. He is the uncle of the linguist

Arika Okrent Arika Okrent is an American linguist and writer of popular works on linguistic topics. Early life and education Okrent was born in Chicago to parents of Polish and Transylvanian descent. She was fascinated by languages beginning at an early age ...

Bibliography

* ''The Ultimate Baseball Book'' (co-editor, with Harris Lewine) (1979) * ''Nine Innings: The Anatomy of Baseball as Seen Through the Playing of a Single Game'' (1985) * ''Baseball Anecdotes'' (co-author, with Steve Wulf) (1987) * ''The Way We Were: New England Then, New England Now'' (1988) * '' Great Fortune: The Epic of Rockefeller Center'' (2003) * ''Public Editor #1'' (2006) * ''Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition'' (2010) * ''The Guarded Gate: Bigotry, Eugenics, and the Law That Kept Two Generations of Jews, Italians, and Other European Immigrants Out of America'' (2019)

Filmography

* ''

'' (1994), (2010) , Documentary , Directed by:

* ''

Sweet And Lowdown ''Sweet and Lowdown'' is a 1999 American comedy-drama mockumentary written and directed by Woody Allen. Loosely based on Federico Fellini's film ''La Strada'', the film tells the story of jazz guitarist Emmet Ray (played by Sean Penn) who falls ...

'' (1999) , Role of: A.J. Pickman , Comedy-Drama , Directed by:

Woody Allen Heywood Allen (born Allan Stewart Konigsberg; November 30, 1935) is an American filmmaker, actor, and comedian whose career spans more than six decades. Allen has received many List of awards and nominations received by Woody Allen, accolade ...

* ''

Wordplay Word play or wordplay (also: play-on-words) is a literary technique and a form of wit in which words used become the main subject of the work, primarily for the purpose of intended effect or amusement. Examples of word play include puns, phone ...

'' (2006) , Documentary , Directed by:

Patrick Creadon Patrick Creadon (born May 4, 1967) is an American filmmaker known for his work in documentaries. His first film, '' Wordplay'', profiled ''New York Times'' crossword editor Will Shortz and premiered at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival. The film ...

* ''

The Hoax ''The Hoax'' is a 2006 American comedy-drama film starring Richard Gere, directed by Swedish filmmaker Lasse Hallström. The screenplay by William Wheeler is based on the book of the same title by Clifford Irving. It recounts Irving's elaborate ...

'' (2007) , Role of: Real Publisher #1 , Comedy-Drama , Directed by:

Lasse Hallström Lars Sven "Lasse" Hallström (; born 2 June 1946) is a Swedish film director. He first became known for directing almost all the music videos by the pop music, pop group ABBA, but came to international attention with his 1985 feature film ''My L ...

* '' Silly Little Game'' (2010) , Documentary , Directed by: Lucas Jansen and Adam Kurland * ''

'' (2011) , Documentary , Directed by:

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Okrent, Daniel 1948 births American book editors American magazine editors Baseball writers Cass Technical High School alumni Living people Sportswriters from Michigan Sportswriters from New York (state) The New York Times public editors University of Michigan alumni Writers from Detroit Writers from New York City 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American male writers 20th-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers American male non-fiction writers Jewish American journalists The Michigan Daily alumni 21st-century American Jews Jewish American sportswriters Jews from Michigan Jews from New York (state)

Early life and education

Career

Okrent's Law

Baseball

The Death of Print

Personal life

Bibliography

Filmography

See also

References

External links