Common Ground

A two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize, J. Anthony Lukas is best known for his writings about the social upheaval of the 1960's and 70's. Lukas was a reporter for The New York Times when he won his first Pulitzer in 1968 for "The Two Worlds of Linda Fitzpatrick." The story tells of a teenager from an affluent Connecticut family who was beaten to death with her hippie boyfriend after turning to a life of drugs in the East Village. In 1971, Lukas followed with "Don't Shoot, We Are Your Children!" a book which examined the country's growing generation gap through the eyes of 10 youths. His second Pulitzer was awarded in 1985 for the book "Common Ground: A Turbulent Decade in the Lives of Three American Families," which focused on the furor that erupted over court-ordered school busing in Boston during the 1970's.

Lukas was a graduate of Harvard University and the Free University of Berlin. As a reporter for the Times, he was assigned to the Congo, India, New York and Chicago. He contributed articles to Gentleman's Quarterly, Rolling Stone, Harper's, The New Republic, and Psychology Today, among others. Throughout his career he held various teaching positions at Columbia, Yale, Harvard and Boston University. Lukas also hosted a radio program in New York from 1973 to 1974.

Lukas was born in New York City in 1933. He married Linda Healey in 1982. His last work, "Big Trouble," which he completed shortly before his death, is a book about a turn-of-the-century murder trial in the West. Lukas committed suicide in June 1997, at the age of 64.

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