Community hub
Recent from talks
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
Tracy Kidder
John Tracy Kidder (November 12, 1945 – March 24, 2026) was an American writer of nonfiction books. He received the Pulitzer Prize for The Soul of a New Machine (1981), about the creation of a new computer at Data General Corporation. Kidder received praise and awards for other works, including Mountains Beyond Mountains (2003), a biography of physician and anthropologist Paul Farmer, the founder of Partners in Health.
Kidder was considered a literary journalist because of the strong story line and personal voice in his writing. He cited as his writing influences John McPhee, A. J. Liebling, and George Orwell. In a 1984 interview he said, "McPhee has been my model. He's the most elegant of all the journalists writing today, I think."
He wrote in a 1994 essay, "In fiction, believability may have nothing to do with reality or even plausibility. It has everything to do with those things in nonfiction. I think that the nonfiction writer's fundamental job is to make what is true believable."
John Tracy Kidder was born in New York City on November 12, 1945. He graduated from Phillips Academy in 1963. He attended Harvard College, originally majoring in political science, but switching to English after taking a course in creative writing from Robert Fitzgerald. He received a BA degree from Harvard in 1967.
Receiving an ROTC commission, he entered the United States Army, rising to the rank of first lieutenant. He served as a military intelligence officer in Vietnam from 1967 to 1969, receiving a Bronze Star, but did not see combat. After returning from Vietnam, he wrote for some time, including an unpublished war novel, Ivory Fields, and was admitted to the Iowa Writers' Workshop. He received an MFA degree from the University of Iowa in 1974.
Kidder wrote his first book, The Road to Yuba City: A Journey into the Juan Corona Murders, while at the University of Iowa. The Atlantic Monthly commissioned the work, and he continued writing as a freelancer for the magazine during the 1970s. The Road to Yuba City was a critical failure, and Kidder said in a 1995 interview that
I can't say anything intelligent about that book, except that I learned never to write about a murder case. The whole experience was disgusting, so disgusting, in fact, that in 1981 I went to Doubleday and bought back the rights to the book. I don't want The Road to Yuba City to see the light of day again.
He said that, unlike many other writers, he was not much influenced by his Vietnam experience: "Of course, whenever you're in an experience like Vietnam, it is bound to influence your work; it's inevitable, but I really don't think it greatly shaped me as a writer." His works for The Atlantic Monthly include several essays and short stories about the Vietnam War, including "The Death of Major Great" (1974), "Soldiers of Misfortune" (1978), and "In Quarantine" (1980). Writing in 1997, David Bennett rated these three pieces "among the finest reporting to come out of Vietnam".
Hub AI
Tracy Kidder AI simulator
(@Tracy Kidder_simulator)
Tracy Kidder
John Tracy Kidder (November 12, 1945 – March 24, 2026) was an American writer of nonfiction books. He received the Pulitzer Prize for The Soul of a New Machine (1981), about the creation of a new computer at Data General Corporation. Kidder received praise and awards for other works, including Mountains Beyond Mountains (2003), a biography of physician and anthropologist Paul Farmer, the founder of Partners in Health.
Kidder was considered a literary journalist because of the strong story line and personal voice in his writing. He cited as his writing influences John McPhee, A. J. Liebling, and George Orwell. In a 1984 interview he said, "McPhee has been my model. He's the most elegant of all the journalists writing today, I think."
He wrote in a 1994 essay, "In fiction, believability may have nothing to do with reality or even plausibility. It has everything to do with those things in nonfiction. I think that the nonfiction writer's fundamental job is to make what is true believable."
John Tracy Kidder was born in New York City on November 12, 1945. He graduated from Phillips Academy in 1963. He attended Harvard College, originally majoring in political science, but switching to English after taking a course in creative writing from Robert Fitzgerald. He received a BA degree from Harvard in 1967.
Receiving an ROTC commission, he entered the United States Army, rising to the rank of first lieutenant. He served as a military intelligence officer in Vietnam from 1967 to 1969, receiving a Bronze Star, but did not see combat. After returning from Vietnam, he wrote for some time, including an unpublished war novel, Ivory Fields, and was admitted to the Iowa Writers' Workshop. He received an MFA degree from the University of Iowa in 1974.
Kidder wrote his first book, The Road to Yuba City: A Journey into the Juan Corona Murders, while at the University of Iowa. The Atlantic Monthly commissioned the work, and he continued writing as a freelancer for the magazine during the 1970s. The Road to Yuba City was a critical failure, and Kidder said in a 1995 interview that
I can't say anything intelligent about that book, except that I learned never to write about a murder case. The whole experience was disgusting, so disgusting, in fact, that in 1981 I went to Doubleday and bought back the rights to the book. I don't want The Road to Yuba City to see the light of day again.
He said that, unlike many other writers, he was not much influenced by his Vietnam experience: "Of course, whenever you're in an experience like Vietnam, it is bound to influence your work; it's inevitable, but I really don't think it greatly shaped me as a writer." His works for The Atlantic Monthly include several essays and short stories about the Vietnam War, including "The Death of Major Great" (1974), "Soldiers of Misfortune" (1978), and "In Quarantine" (1980). Writing in 1997, David Bennett rated these three pieces "among the finest reporting to come out of Vietnam".