James B. Steele (born January 3, 1943) is an American investigative journalist and author. With longtime collaborator Donald L. Barlett he has won two Pulitzer Prizes, two National Magazine Awards and five George Polk Awards during their thirty five years of service at the Philadelphia Inquirer, Time, and Vanity Fair. The duo are frequently referred to as Barlett and Steele.
Steele was born in Hutchinson, Kansas and was raised in Kansas City, Missouri. He graduated from the University of Missouri–Kansas City and began his career at the Kansas City Times, where he covered politics, labor and urban affairs. In 1970 he joined the Philadelphia Inquirer, where he would begin his collaboration with Barlett.
In a 1972 collaboration for The Philadelphia Inquirer, Steele and Barlett pioneered the use of computers for the analysis of data on violent crimes. Twenty years later, they co-authored the series America: What Went Wrong? for The Inquirer, which was named as one of the 100 best pieces of journalism of the 20th century by the New York University School of Journalism. Rewritten into book form, America: What Went Wrong? became a No. 1 New York Times bestseller. It is one of seven books Steele and Barlett have published. In 1989, he and Barlett won the Pulitzer Prize for their reporting on the Tax Reform Act of 1986.
Barlett and Steele were hired by Vanity Fair to be contributing editors on the understanding that they would contribute two articles each year. They were available for this new assignment after Time determined that they had insufficient space for the time of long journalistic investigations. In 2007, Barlett and Steele were featured in the PBS documentary series, Exposé: America's Investigative Reports, in an episode entitled "Friends In High Places."
Steele is married and has a daughter.
Read more about James B. Steele: Books, Newspaper Articles, Magazine Articles
Famous quotes containing the words james b, james and/or steele:
“Have a sense of piety ever on your mind, and be ever mindful that this is subject to no change, but will last you as long as life and support you in death. Elevate your soul by prayer and by contemplation without mystical enthusiasm.”
—James Boswell (17401795)
“Habit is thus the enormous fly-wheel of society, its most precious conservative agent. It alone is what keeps us all within the bounds of ordinance, and saves the children of fortune from the envious uprisings of the poor.”
—William James (18431916)
“There is no ordinary Part of humane Life which expresseth so much a good Mind, and a right inward Man, as his Behaviour upon Meeting with Strangers, especially such as may seem the most unsuitable Companions to him: Such a Man when he falleth in the Way with Persons of Simplicity and Innocence, however knowing he may be in the Ways of Men, will not vaunt himself thereof; but will the rather hide his Superiority to them, that he may not be painful unto them.”
—Richard Steele (16721729)