Jeffrey Zaslow
Jeffrey Zaslow is an American journalist and a columnist for The Wall Street Journal. He is also the author or coauthor of several bestselling books: The Last Lecture (2008) with Randy Pausch, Highest Duty: My Search for What Really Matters[1] with Capt. Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger (2009), and The Girls from Ames (2009).
[edit] Biography
Zaslow’s Wall Street Journal column, "Moving On", focuses on life transitions and often attracts wide media interest. That was certainly the case in September 2007, after Zaslow attended the final lecture of Carnegie Mellon University Professor Randy Pausch. Zaslow’s column about the talk sparked a worldwide phenomenon. Tens of millions of people have since viewed footage of the lecture on the Internet and on TV.
The book by Pausch and Zaslow, translated into 48 languages, was a #1 New York Times best-seller, spending more than 110 weeks on the list. Media coverage included The Oprah Winfrey Show and an ABC special hosted by Diane Sawyer. More than 5 million copies of the book are in print in the U.S. (www.TheLastLecture.com)
The Girls from Ames is a nonfiction book about a group of friends who grew up together in Ames, Iowa. It was billed by the publisher (Gotham Books) as "the inspiring true story of eleven girls and the ten women they became." (www.GirlsFromAmes.com) It spent 16 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, rising as high as #3.
Highest Duty was co-written by Zaslow with Capt. Sullenberger, who famously landed US Airways Flight 1549 in the Hudson River on January 15, 2009. The book debuted at # 3 on the New York Times list.
In 2011, Zaslow collaborated with veteran astronaut Mark Kelly and his wife, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, on their memoir, Gabby: A Story of Courage and Hope. An hour-long ABC TV special hosted by Diane Sawyer was announced for November 14, 2011, the evening before the book’s release.
Jeff also recently wrote The Magic Room: A story about the love we wish for our daughters, due for publication in January 2012. The nonfiction narrative is set at a small-town Michigan bridal shop, and looks at the lives of a handful of brides (and their parents) who’ve journeyed to the store’s “Magic Room.”
Zaslow first worked at the Orlando Sentinel, as a writer for that newspaper's Florida magazine. He then wrote for the Wall Street Journal from 1983 to 1987, when he wrote a front-page feature about a competition to replace Ann Landers at the Chicago Sun-Times. He entered to get an angle for his story, and won the job over 12,000 other applicants. He worked as a columnist at the Sun-Times from 1987 to 2001.
While working at the Sun-Times, Zaslow received the Will Rogers Humanitarian Award. Zaslow was honored for using his column to run programs that benefited 47,000 disadvantaged Chicago children. His annual singles party for charity, Zazz Bash, drew 7,000 readers a year and resulted in 78 marriages.
Zaslow’s TV appearances have included The Tonight Show, Oprah, Larry King Live, 60 Minutes, Today, and Good Morning America.
A Broomall, Pennsylvania native born in 1958, Zaslow attended Marple Newtown High School and is a 1980 graduate of Carnegie Mellon University, where he majored in creative writing. His wife, Sherry Margolis, is a TV news anchor with WJBK television in Detroit. They have three daughters: Jordan, Alex and Eden.
