October 29: Editor of the New Yorker

David Remnick, editor of The New Yorker since 1998, was born in Hackensack, New Jersey on this date in 1958. He began his career in journalism as a staff writer at the Washington Post in 1982, and served for four years as the paper’s Moscow correspondent, which inspired his 1993 Pulitzer Prize-winning book, Lenin’s Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire. He has written five books since, including studies of Muhammad Ali and Barack Obama. Since Remnick took over as New Yorker editor, the magazine has earned thirty-seven National Magazine Awards, restored itself to business health, launched a major New York cultural festival, and maintained its reputation as the country’s best general-interest publication — by far. “It is a strange and wonderful piece of business.” —David Remnick