Lee Mortimer

Born in 1904, Lee Mortimer built a career as an American newspaper columnist, radio commentator, lecturer, and author. He became widely known for writing about crime and urban nightlife, blending reporting with the brisk, sensational style that drew large audiences in the 1940s and 1950s.

He is best remembered for books written with Jack Lait, including the controversial Washington Confidential, part of a series that promised readers an insider’s look at corruption, vice, and political intrigue. The books were commercial hits and helped define a strain of hard-boiled, scandal-focused nonfiction that was especially popular in postwar America.

Mortimer died in 1963. His work remains a vivid example of a period when newspaper columnists could become national celebrities, and when crime reporting, gossip, and political commentary often mixed together on the page.