Thomas Hauser

Thomas Hauser was born in New York and attended both college (1967) and law school (1970) at Columbia. After graduating from law school, he clerked for a federal judge until November 1971, when he started work as a litigator for the Wall Street law firm of Cravath Swaine & Moore.

In 1977, Hauser began to write. Since then, he has authored 45 books on subjects ranging from professional boxing to Beethoven. His first book -- Missing -- was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, Bancroft Prize, and National Book Award, and served as the basis for the Academy-Award-winning film starring Jack Lemmon and Sissy Spacek. The Beethoven Conspiracy -- Hauser’s thriller about the search for a lost Beethoven symphony -- won the prestigious Prix Lafayette, awarded biannually in France to the outstanding book by an American. Subsequently, Hauser co-authored Final Warning: The Legacy of Chernobyl, again demonstrating his ability to explain and bring to life events of complexity and importance; an ability which has secured his reputation as a responsible and reliable social critic. The film version of Final Warning starred Jon Voight and Jason Robards.

Hauser’s most celebrated work to date is Muhammad Ali: His Life And Times -- the definitive biography of the most famous man on earth. Like Missing, the Ali book was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. The British edition was honored with the William Hill Book of the Year Award in England. Subsequently, Ali and Hauser co-authored HEALING: A Journal of Tolerance And Understanding and criss-crossed the country, meeting with student audiences on their subject. For their efforts to combat bigotry and prejudice, they were named as co-recipients of the 1998 Haviva Reik Award.

In recent years, Hauser's writing has focused on the sport and business of professional boxing. His award-winning investigative articles and his testimony before the United States Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation were hailed within the boxing industry as a significant force for change. In 2004, Hauser was honored by the Boxing Writers Association of America, which bestowed upon him the Nat Fleischer Award for Career Excellence in Boxing Journalism.

Hauser’s books are read worldwide in eighteen languages. He has written articles for The New Yorker, The New York Times, and numerous other publications and was retained by the Encyclopedia Britannica to author its entries on Muhammad Ali and Arnold Palmer. He lives in Manhattan.