Dennis McDougal | |
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| Born | November 25, 1947 Pasadena, California |
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| Genre | non-fiction, fiction, biography |
| Notable works | Privileged Son, Bob Dylan |
| Website | |
| www | |
Dennis McDougal (born November 25, 1947) is an American author and newspaper journalist. He has been called "L.A.'s No. 1 muckraker."[1] His book, Privileged Son, was described as "illuminating reading for anyone interested in 20th-century Los Angeles or modern-day newspapering" by The New York Times.[2] A native of Southern California, he lives near Memphis, Tennessee.
McDougal is originally from Pasadena, California. After attending public school in the Los Angeles suburb of Lynwood, he received a bachelor of arts degree in English from University of California, Los Angeles, where he later earned a master's degree in journalism.
From 1967 to 1969, McDougal was on active duty with the Naval Reserves. He served aboard the U.S.S. Annapolis in the South China Sea.[3] In an interview with blogger Luke Ford, McDougal recalls his experience, much of which formed the basis for his first fiction novel The Candlestickmaker, published in 2011:
...The captain of our ship had a predilection for taking the recruiting slogan – join the Navy and see the world – seriously. We'd go out and do our 30–60 days tossing messages back and forth from the mainland to Hawaii and then we'd go on R&R. We did that a lot. He took us all over the Far East.[4]
Before turning his attention full-time to writing books in 1993, McDougal reported on the glitzy and occasionally corrupt aspects of Hollywood as a staff writer for ten years at the Los Angeles Times, while previously working as a staff writer for The Riverside Press-Enterprise (1973–77) and The Long Beach Press-Telegram (1977–1981). From 2002 to 2006, he worked as a contributor for The New York Times.
In 2007, the controversy surrounding his book Privileged Son: Otis Chandler And The Rise And Fall Of The Los Angeles Times Dynasty—the newspaper McDougal once worked for—was discussed in an interview with McDougal on NPR's Morning Edition.[5] The New York Times in a review called McDougal's book "illuminating reading for anyone interested in 20th-century Los Angeles or modern-day newspapering."[2]
Between books, McDougal was a producer for CNN during the O.J. Simpson trial, where he was responsible for tracking down witnesses, relatives, and acquaintances for interviews as well as documents and public records for use on camera as the trial unfolded.
A longtime contributor to TV Guide,[6] McDougal's last piece covered the murderous saga of actor Robert Blake and Bonny Lee Bakley.[7][8]
In 2014, Turner Publishing Co. released McDougal's biography of Bob Dylan, Dylan: The Biography.Perfect Sound Forever magazine wrote that "McDougal answers many questions about Dylan's life and times and provides insight about it.[9]
In 1982, McDougal was awarded a John S. Knight Fellowship at Stanford University and spent a year teaching and studying in Japan and Canada, as well as at the Palo Alto campus.[10]
He has earned more than 50 honors, including a 1984 National Headliner Award[11] and several Associated Press awards.[6]
As of 2023, McDougal is the author of 12 books:[12]
