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Jeffrey Zaslow

American author, biographer and newspaper columnist (1958–2012)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 2, 2026
Entity authorityQ4353515 ↗
Source-derived summary

Jeffrey Lloyd Zaslow (October 6, 1958 – February 10, 2012) was an American author and journalist, and a columnist for The Wall Street Journal.

Zaslow was widely known as a coauthor of books, and the sole author of numerous books.

Early life and education

Zaslow was born in 1958 in Broomall, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia, one of four children of Naomi and Harry Zaslow. His father was a real estate investor. His family was Jewish. He attended Marple Newtown High School, where he was student council president his senior year. He wrote for the school paper and was in school plays while in junior high, starring in You Can't Take It with You. After graduating from Carnegie Mellon University in 1980 with a degree in creative writing, Zaslow began his professional writing career at the Orlando Sentinel.

Career

Zaslow first worked at the Orlando Sentinel, as a writer for that newspaper's Florida magazine. He then was a staff writer for the Wall Street Journal from 1983 to 1987 and columnist at the Chicago Sun-Times from 1987 to 2001.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Jeffrey Zaslow” is american author, biographer and newspaper columnist (1958–2012). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Jeffrey, Zaslow and American, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA useful biographical orientation record, particularly for establishing names, roles and a first chronology. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1958, 2012, 1980, 1983—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1958-10-06. For this dossier, Jeffrey, Zaslow and American is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “american author, biographer and newspaper columnist (1958–2012)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 2, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4353515. VIAF identifies the subject as 60644122. The Library of Congress control number is n88202021. 4 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1958, 2012, 1980 and 1983.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Jeffrey Zaslow”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Jeffrey Zaslow primary sources, Jeffrey Zaslow archive and Jeffrey research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Jeffrey Zaslow”?
  2. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Jeffrey Zaslow” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.