Pulitzer winner went deep for his stories
Did not hesitate to take on public figures
WASHINGTON — Richard Ben Cramer, a fearless and dedicated author and reporter who won a Pulitzer Prize for his journalism and wrote the classic U.S. presidential campaign book What It Takes, has died. He was 62.
Cramer died Monday at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore from complications of lung cancer, his agent, Philippa Brophy, said. Cramer lived with his wife, Joan, on Maryland’s Eastern Shore.
Cramer won the 1979 Pulitzer Prize for international reporting from the Middle East while with the Philadelphia Inquirer, where he worked for seven years. He was known for an in-depth reporting style that involved spending significant time with the subjects he profiled and recreating scenes with vivid colour and dialogue. His 1986 profile of Ted Williams in Esquire magazine traced the arc of the hitter’s career — including his personal relationships and feelings on fame — from early days to post-baseball life in the Florida Keys.
“It was forty-five years ago, when achievements with a bat first brought him to the nation’s notice, that Ted Williams began work on his defence. He wanted fame, and wanted it with a pure, hot eagerness that would have been embarrassing in a smaller man. But he could not stand celebrity. This is a b--ch of a line to draw in America’s dust,” Cramer wrote.
Many readers knew him best for 1992’s What It Takes: The Way to the White House, a 1,000-page narrative of the 1988 presidential race that was equally heartfelt and irreverent. It is often ranked with Timothy Crouse’s The Boys on the Bus and Theodore H. White’s The Making of the President as masterpieces of political reporting. Cramer delved into the lives and careers of the candidates, explaining how eventual winner George H.W. Bush had early in his political career resisted the urging by advisers to speak openly about his war record or the death of his young daughter from leukemia — personal topics he later discussed movingly during his presidential campaign.
White House spokesman Jay Carney called Cramer the greatest political journalist ever and said What It Takes captured affectionate portraits of the candidates.
“They are appreciative of each individual, their qualities and their failings. But everything is done with great affection for the process, and the individuals. It’s a joy to read. So, if you haven’t already, go get it,” he said.
Cramer did not hesitate to take on public figures, whether politicians or athletes. His 2000 biography of DiMaggio, Joe DiMaggio: The Hero’s Life, made bestseller lists and offered a complex, multi-faceted portrayal of his life and career, revealing a sour and often unlikeable man behind the facade of grace and elegance. In recent years, he had been working on a biography of another New York Yankees star, Alex Rodriguez. But the project was abandoned last year and the publisher, the Hachette Book Group, sued to recoup Cramer’s $550,000 advance.