John Darnton

John Darnton (born November 20, 1941) is an American journalist who wrote for the New York Times. He is a two-time winner of the Polk Award, of which he is now the curator, and the 1982 Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting. He also moonlights as a novelist, writing scientific and medical thrillers.

Journalism After graduating from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, Darnton joined The New York Times as a copyboy in 1966. Two years later, he became a reporter and for the next eight years he worked in and around New York City, including stints as the Connecticut correspondent during the Black Panther trials in New Haven, and as a City Hall reporter in the Lindsay and Beame administrations.

Since his initial success, Darnton has continued his fiction writing, in general sticking to thrillers with scientific and historical narratives: Neanderthal (1996), an overnight bestseller about a Harvard archeologist who goes missing The Experiment (1999), a "riveting medical thriller" whose plot involves cloning and life extension Mind Catcher (2002) deals with artificial intelligence and human consciousness The Darwin Conspiracy (2005) takes place in Victorian-era England and explores the life and work of Charles Darwin Black & White & Dead All Over (2008) is a roman à clef about a string of murders at a newspaper that is equal parts "page turner and media satire" In 2009, John Darnton was named curator of the George Polk Awards in 2008.

Personal life In 2011, he forayed into nonfiction, publishing Almost a Family, a memoir about growing up without a father that also dealt heavily with alcoholism. His father Byron "Barney" Darnton had been a New York Times war correspondent until he was killed off the coast of New Guinea while covering the Pacific War during World War II, when John was 11 months old and his brother Robert (now a renowned cultural historian) was three years old.