Tracy Kidder

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John Tracy Kidder (November 12, 1945 – March 24, 2026) was an American writer of nonfiction books. He received the Pulitzer Prize for The Soul of a New Machine (1981), about the creation of a new computer at Data General Corporation. Kidder received praise and awards for other works, including Mountains Beyond Mountains (2003), a biography of physician and anthropologist Paul Farmer, the founder of Partners in Health. Kidder was considered a literary journalist because of the strong story line and personal voice in his writing. He cited as his writing influences John McPhee, A. J. Liebling, and George Orwell. In a 1984 interview he said, "McPhee has been my model. He's the most elegant of all the journalists writing today, I think." He wrote in a 1994 essay, "In fiction, believability may have nothing to do with reality or even plausibility. It has everything to do with those things in nonfiction. I think that the nonfiction writer's fundamental job is to make what is true believable."

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