Editing Tracy Kidder (section)

==Career==
Kidder wrote his first book, ''The Road to Yuba City: a Journey into the [[Juan Corona]] Murders'', while at the [[University of Iowa]]. ''[[The Atlantic|The Atlantic Monthly]]'' commissioned the work, and he continued writing as a freelancer for the magazine during the 1970s.<ref name=DLB />{{Rp|128}} ''The Road to Yuba City'' was a critical failure,<ref name=DLB />{{Rp|128, 137}} and Kidder said in a 1995 interview that

<blockquote>I can't say anything intelligent about that book, except that I learned never to write about a murder case. The whole experience was disgusting, so disgusting, in fact, that in 1981 I went to Doubleday and bought back the rights to the book. I don't want ''The Road to Yuba City'' to see the light of day again.<ref name=DLB />{{Rp|129}}</blockquote>

Kidder has said that, unlike many other writers, he was not much influenced by his Vietnam experience: "Of course, whenever you're in an experience like Vietnam, it is bound to influence your work; it's inevitable, but I really don't think it greatly shaped me as a writer."<ref name="DLB" />{{Rp|128}} His works for ''The Atlantic Monthly'' include several essays and short stories about the Vietnam War, including "The Death of Major Great" (1974), "Soldiers of Misfortune" (1978), and "In Quarantine" (1980). Writing in 1997, David Bennett rated these three pieces "among the finest reporting to come out of Vietnam."<ref name="DLB" />{{Rp|128}}

Kidder's second book, ''[[The Soul of a New Machine]]'' (1981), was much more successful than his first. His account of the complex community and environment of programming and computer development won the [[Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction]] in 1982. He has continued to write nonfiction books and articles, and these have been well received by the critics.<ref name=DLB />{{Rp|127}} Kidder's 2009 book, ''Strength in What Remains'', is a portrait of a man who survived the genocide in [[Burundi]].

He has explored a wide range of topics through his books: ''House'' (1985), a "biography" of a couple having their first house built, and the people involved in the project; ''Among Schoolchildren'' (1989), set in an elementary-school classroom in [[Holyoke, Massachusetts]], and reflecting on US education through the lives of these 20 children and their teacher (these two books were both bestsellers); and ''[[Old Friends (book)|Old Friends]]'' (1993), which explored the daily lives and personal growth of a pair of elderly men in a nursing home. His books have made "Notable" annual lists of ''The New York Times'' and received positive praise from critics, in addition to awards.

In fall 2010 Kidder was selected as the first A. M. Rosenthal Writer-in-Residence at the [[John F. Kennedy School of Government|Harvard Kennedy School]]'s [[Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy]]. At the center, he worked with his onetime editor at ''The Atlantic'', Richard Todd, on a book about writing, titled ''Good Prose: The Art of Nonfiction''.<ref>{{Cite web|url = http://www.randomhouse.com/acmart/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9781400069750|title = Random House website| date=July 27, 2023 }}</ref> He lectured to students and did research to identify his next narrative subject.