Jonathan Eig

Jonathan Eig is an American journalist and biographer. He worked as a writer and editor in The Wall Street Journal’s Chicago bureau and as executive editor of Chicago magazine. His books examine sporting figures, public personalities, and major developments in American history.

His first sports biographies covered baseball players Lou Gehrig and Jackie Robinson. He later wrote Ali: A Life, drawing on interviews and previously unreleased records to examine Muhammad Ali’s boxing career and public life. His biography King: A Life, about Martin Luther King Jr., won the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for Biography.

Eig’s other subjects include Al Capone and the development of the contraceptive pill. He has also written books for children, including stories featuring Lola and accounts intended for younger readers. Score for Imagination places a soccer game at the centre of a story about girls seeking the chance to participate.

For King: A Life, Eig used newly available FBI records alongside other documentary sources and interviews. The biography examines King’s family background, relationships with fellow activists, and personal difficulties as well as his role in the civil rights movement.

Baseball Books

Luckiest Man: The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig: Eig traces Lou Gehrig’s life from his New York childhood to his career with the Yankees and his diagnosis with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Interviews and personal letters provide material about Gehrig’s relationship with his mother, his marriage to Eleanor, and his association with Babe Ruth. The biography also examines his consecutive-games record, the early effects of his illness, and the circumstances surrounding his final years.

Opening Day: The Story of Jackie Robinson's First Season: This account follows Jackie Robinson’s 1947 season with the Brooklyn Dodgers, from his arrival in the major leagues through the team’s pennant and World Series appearance. Eig examines the racism Robinson encountered, his relationships with teammates and opponents, and the pressures on a player assigned a wider social role. Archival research and interviews also reassess familiar stories associated with Robinson and baseball’s integration.

Boxing Books

Ali: A Life: Eig reconstructs Muhammad Ali’s life using interviews, government records, and recordings, following him from childhood in segregated Louisville to international sporting and political prominence. The biography covers his boxing career, conversion to Islam, opposition to military service in Vietnam, and personal relationships. It also considers the physical consequences of continuing to fight, placing his public statements and sporting achievements alongside his private uncertainties and later neurological condition.

Soccer Books for Children

Score for Imagination: Lola and her friends want to join a soccer game, but the boys initially refuse to include them. The girls respond by using their playing skills and planning together, eventually contributing to the team’s success. This children’s story uses the match to explore participation, assumptions about who belongs on a team, and the practical value of cooperation when the players have a shared sporting objective.

Other Writing

Eig’s wider nonfiction includes Get Capone, an account of the federal investigation of Al Capone, and The Birth of the Pill, about the people involved in developing oral contraception. King: A Life uses interviews and archival records to examine the civil-rights leader’s family, activism, religious life, and conflicts with government surveillance. These books form a separate part of his work from his baseball and boxing biographies.