Biography

Eig was born in Brooklyn, New York and grew up in Monsey, New York

Monsey, New York

Monsey is a hamlet , in the Town of Ramapo, Rockland County, New York, United States located north of the state of New Jersey; east of Suffern; south of Airmont and west of Nanuet...

. He attended Northwestern University

Northwestern University

Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston and Chicago, Illinois, USA. Northwestern has eleven undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools offering 124 undergraduate degrees and 145 graduate and professional degrees....

’s Medill School of Journalism

Medill School of Journalism

The Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications is a constituent school of Northwestern University which offers both undergraduate and graduate programs. It has consistently been one of the top-ranked schools in Journalism in the United States...

, graduating in 1986.

His first newspaper job was with the New Orleans Times-Picayune

New Orleans Times-Picayune

The Times-Picayune is a daily newspaper published in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA.-History:Established as The Picayune in 1837 by Francis Lumsden and George Wilkins Kendall, the paper's initial price was one picayune—a Spanish coin equivalent to 6¼¢ .Under Eliza Jane Nicholson, who inherited the...

. Eig is a former staff writer for The Wall Street Journal

The Wall Street Journal

The Wall Street Journal is an American English-language international daily newspaper. It is published in New York City by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corporation, along with the Asian and European editions of the Journal....

, and he remains a contributing writer there. Eig has also written for "The New York Times

The New York Times

The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

", Esquire

Esquire (magazine)

Esquire is a men's magazine, published in the U.S. by the Hearst Corporation. Founded in 1932, it flourished during the Great Depression under the guidance of founder and editor Arnold Gingrich.-History:...

, The New Republic

The New Republic

The magazine has also published two articles concerning income inequality, largely criticizing conservative economists for their attempts to deny the existence or negative effect increasing income inequality is having on the United States...

, Men's Health

Men's Health (magazine)

Men's Health , published by Rodale Inc. in Emmaus, Pennsylvania, United States, is the world’s largest men’s magazine brand, with 44 editions around the world. It is also the best-selling men's magazine on U.S. newsstands. It covers fitness, nutrition, sexuality, lifestyle and other aspects of...

, and other publications. He writes a monthly sports column for Chicago Magazine.

In 2005, he published his first book, Luckiest Man: The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig, which the New York Times Book Review said "stands in the first rank of sports biographies." In 2007, he published Opening Day: The Story of Jackie Robinson's First Season, which was named one of the best books of the year by the Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, and Sports Illustrated. In 2010, he published Get Capone, which Ken Burns called "fresh and utterly dazzling" and the New York Times Book Review called a "gore-spattered thriller."

Eig has taught writing at Columbia College Chicago

Columbia College Chicago

Columbia College Chicago is one of the largest art colleges in the United States with nearly 12,000 students pursuing degrees within 120 undergraduate and graduate programs...

 and lectures at Northwestern. He has spoken to audiences on various topics in the United States, including as the keynote speaker at the 2005 Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture at the National Baseball Hall of Fame. He has also traveled the country speaking to organizations raising money for the fight against Lou Gehrig

Lou Gehrig

Henry Louis "Lou" Gehrig , nicknamed "The Iron Horse" for his durability, was an American Major League Baseball first baseman. He played his entire 17-year baseball career for the New York Yankees . Gehrig set several major league records. He holds the record for most career grand slams...

’s Disease (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis , also referred to as Lou Gehrig's disease, is a form of motor neuron disease caused by the degeneration of upper and lower neurons, located in the ventral horn of the spinal cord and the cortical neurons that provide their efferent input...

), and was honored on the field at Yankee Stadium

Yankee Stadium

Yankee Stadium was a stadium located in The Bronx in New York City, New York. It was the home ballpark of the New York Yankees from 1923 to 1973 and from 1976 to 2008. The stadium hosted 6,581 Yankees regular season home games during its 85-year history. It was also the former home of the New York...

 for his work in raising awareness of the disease.

His most recent book, "Get Capone", is based on newly released IRS records and thousands of pages of never-before-released Justice Department files on the investigation of Al Capone

Al Capone

Alphonse Gabriel "Al" Capone was an American gangster who led a Prohibition-era crime syndicate. The Chicago Outfit, which subsequently became known as the "Capones", was dedicated to smuggling and bootlegging liquor, and other illegal activities such as prostitution, in Chicago from the early...

. Get Capone was released April 27, 2010, by Simon & Schuster. The New York Times Book Review called it a "blood-spattered thriller." It received a starred review from Publishers Weekly and rave reviews in dozens of newspapers. Eig appeared on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart in May 2010.

On January 12, 2010, the Chicago Police Department reopened the 1939 murder case of Edward O'Hare to set the record straight about the role O’Hare played in Capone’s conviction based on documents uncovered by Eig and detailed in "Get Capone."

Published works

• Luckiest Man: The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig
  Lou Gehrig
  Henry Louis "Lou" Gehrig , nicknamed "The Iron Horse" for his durability, was an American Major League Baseball first baseman. He played his entire 17-year baseball career for the New York Yankees . Gehrig set several major league records. He holds the record for most career grand slams...
  
  (2005)
• Opening Day: The Story of Jackie Robinson
  Jackie Robinson
  Jack Roosevelt "Jackie" Robinson was the first black Major League Baseball player of the modern era. Robinson broke the baseball color line when he debuted with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947...
  
  ’s First Season (2007)
• Get Capone: The Secret Plot that Captured America's Most Wanted Gangster (2010)

External links

• Get Capone official website
• Jonathan Eig official website
• Essay on biographies by Jonathan Eig
• Jonathan Eig on Simon & Schuster website
• Eig interview by Tavis Smiley
• Excerpt from Get Capone and audio interview with Eig