Discover the Best Books Written by Nicholas D. Kristof

Nicholas Donabet Kristof (born April 27, 1959) is an American journalist and political commentator. A winner of two Pulitzer Prizes, he is a regular CNN contributor and an op-ed columnist for The New York Times. Born in Chicago, Kristof was raised in the rural community of Yamhill, Oregon, the son of two professors at Portland State University. After graduating from Harvard University, where he wrote for The Harvard Crimson, Kristof intermittently interned at The Oregonian. He joined the staff of The New York Times in 1984.

Kristof is a self-described progressive. According to The Washington Post, Kristof "rewrote opinion journalism" with his emphasis on human rights abuses and social injustices, such as human trafficking and the Darfur conflict. Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa described Kristof as an "honorary African" for shining a spotlight on neglected conflicts in the continent.

Kristof was born in Chicago, Illinois, and grew up on a family sheep farm and cherry orchard in Yamhill, Oregon. He is the son of Jane Kristof (née McWilliams) and Ladis "Kris" Kristof (born Władysław Krzysztofowicz; 1918-2010), both long-time professors at Portland State University in Portland, Oregon. His father was born to Polish and Armenian parents in the Chernivtsi, former Austria-Hungary, who immigrated to the United States after World War II. 

Kristof graduated from Yamhill Carlton High School as student body president and school newspaper editor. He attended Harvard College, where he was a Phi Beta Kappa graduate. At Harvard, he studied government, interned at Portland's The Oregonian, and worked for The Harvard Crimson newspaper. According to a profile of him, "Alums recall Kristof as one of the brightest undergraduates on campus."

After Harvard, he studied law as a Rhodes Scholar at Magdalen College, Oxford. He earned his law degree with first-class honors and won an academic prize. He studied Arabic in Egypt for the 1983–84 academic year at The American University in Cairo. He has a number of honorary degrees.

After joining The New York Times in 1984, initially covering economics, Kristof worked as a correspondent for the company in Los Angeles, Hong Kong, Beijing, and Tokyo. He became associate managing editor of The New York Times, responsible for Sunday editions. His columns have often focused on global health, poverty, and gender issues in the developing world. In particular, since 2004, he has written dozens of columns about Darfur and visited the area 11 times.

Kristof's biography says he has traveled to more than 150 countries. Jeffrey Toobin of CNN and The New Yorker, a Harvard classmate, has said: "I'm not surprised to see him emerge as the moral conscience of our generation of journalists. I am surprised to see him as the Indiana Jones of our generation of journalists."