Pulitzer Prize winner Richard Ben Cramer has passed away.
He was the author of a number of books, including What It Takes: The Way to the White House and Joe DiMaggio. The journalist was a finalist or winner for the Pulitzer Prize four times: 1979, 1981, 1995, 1996. His Middle East reporting won the international reporting prize in 1979.
Here’s a tribute to his presidential election book, What It Takes: “It’s insufficient to say that Cramer’s 1,047-page tour de force on the 1988 presidential race is the best book ever written about a campaign. It is that. But what makes it so valuable, so rewarding, just so much damn fun is that it illustrates why politics and journalism is so much damn fun … as with a classic movie, aficionados have their favorite characters in their favorite scenes that they love to watch again and again.” (Photo via)