{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2022}} {{Short description|American author}} '''William Novak''' (born 1948)<ref>{{cite web |url= http://authors.simonandschuster.com/William-Novak/73275491 |title= William Novak |publisher= Simon & Schuster |accessdate= June 11, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120515231807/http://authors.simonandschuster.com/William-Novak/73275491 |archive-date=15 May 2012}}</ref> is an American author who has co-written or ghostwritten numerous celebrity memoirs for people including Lee Iacocca, Nancy Reagan,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://business-and-science.de/ghostwriter-von-nancy-reagan|title=Ghostwriter von Nancy Reagan – Business And Science|language=de-DE|access-date=2016-09-20}}</ref> and Magic Johnson.<ref name= ghost>{{cite web |url= https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-09-17-vw-968-story.html |title= Ghost to the Stars : William Novak Is the Invisible Writer Behind Memoirs by Lee Iacocca, Nancy Reagan and—Soon—Magic Johnson |first= Josh |last= Getlin |work= Los Angeles Times |date= September 17, 1992 |access-date= June 11, 2016}}</ref> He is also the editor, with Moshe Waldoks, of ''The Big Book of Jewish Humor''.<ref name=joke>{{cite web |url= https://www.jta.org/2006/11/19/life-religion/features/jewish-joke-book-turns-25 |title= Jewish joke book turns 25 |first= Uriel |last= Heilman |date= November 19, 2006 |publisher= Jewish Telegraphic Agency |accessdate= June 11, 2016}}</ref> He has also written several "private" books, which he described in a 2015 essay for ''The New York Times''.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/07/11/writing-books-very-few-will-read/ |first= William |last= Novak |title= Writing Books Very Few Will Read |date= July 11, 2015 |accessdate= June 11, 2016}}</ref>
He is the father of actor and writer B. J. Novak and composer Jesse Novak. He is Jewish.<ref name=ghost/><ref name=joke/>
==Books== * ''High Culture: Marijuana in the Lives of Americans''. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1980, {{ISBN|9780394503950}} * ''The Great American Man Shortage and Other Roadblocks to Romance (and What to Do About It)''. New York: Rawson Associates, 1983, {{ISBN|0892562307}} * Lee A. Iacocca with William Novak, ''Iacocca: An Autobiography''. New York: Bantam Books, 1984, {{ISBN|9780553050677}} * Sydney Biddle Barrows with William Novak, ''Mayflower Madam: The Secret Life of Sydney Biddle Barrows'', New York: Arbor House, 1986, {{ISBN|0877957223}} * Herb Schmertz with William Novak. ''Good-Bye to the Low Profile: The Art of Creative Confrontation'', Boston: Little, Brown, 1986, {{ISBN|0316773662}} * Tip O'Neill with William Novak, ''Man of the House: The Life and Political Memoirs of Speaker Tip O'Neill'', New York: Random House, 1987, {{ISBN|0394552016}} * Nancy Reagan with William Novak, ''My Turn: The Memoirs of Nancy Reagan''. New York: Random House, 1989, {{ISBN|0394563689}} * Earvin "Magic" Johnson with William Novak, ''My Life'', New York: Random House, 1992, {{ISBN|0679415696}} * Oliver L. North with William Novak, ''Under Fire: An American Story'', New York: HarperCollins, {{ISBN|0060183349}} * Claire Sylvia with William Novak, ''A Change of Heart: A Memoir'', Boston: Little, Brown, 1997, {{ISBN|0316821497}} * ''An Incredible Dream: Ralph Roberts and the Story of Comcast''. Philadelphia: Comcast Corporation, 2012, {{ISBN|9781451675351}} * Max Kargman with William Novak, ''The Education of Max Kargman'', Boston: Foundation Books, 2003. * Susan Whitman Helfgot with William Novak, ''The Match: Complete Strangers, A Miracle Face Transplant, Two Lives Transformed'', New York: Simon & Schuster, 2010, {{ISBN|9781439195482}}
===As editor=== * William Novak and Moshe Waldoks, ''The Big Book of Jewish Humor''. New York: Harper & Row, 1981, {{ISBN|9780060148942}} * William Novak and Moshe Waldoks with Donald Altschiller, ''The Big Book of New American Humor: The Best of the Past 25 Years''. New York: HarperPerennial, 1990, {{ISBN|9780060965518}} * ''Die Laughing: Killer Jokes for Newly Old Folks'', New York: Touchstone, 2016, {{ISBN|9781501150791}}
==References== {{Reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Novak, William}} Category:1948 births Category:American male non-fiction writers Category:Jewish American non-fiction writers Category:Ghostwriters Category:Living people Category:21st-century American Jews
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