Daniel Lang (writer)

Daniel Lang
Photograph © Carl Mydans
Born	May 30, 1913 New York City
Died	November 17, 1981(1981-11-17) (aged 68)
Nationality	United States
Education	B.A. University of Wisconsin
Occupation	author and journalist
Known for	staff writer for The New Yorker Magazine
Spouse(s)	Margaret Altschul
Parent(s)	Fanny and Noosan Lang
Family	Frank Altschul (father-in-law) Arthur Altschul (brother-in-law)

Daniel Lang (May 30, 1913 – November 17, 1981) was an American author and journalist. He worked as a staff writer for The New Yorker Magazine from 1941 until his death in 1981.

Daniel Lang was born on the Lower East Side of New York City to Fanny and Noosan Lang, Hungarian Jewish immigrants. He was raised by his mother and half-sister, Bella Cohen. These early years are described in a semi-autobiographical short story, "The Robbers," by Daniel, and in "Streets, A Memoir of the Lower East Side," written by Bella.

By the time Lang reached high school age, he and his mother had moved to Brooklyn, where he attended Erasmus Hall High School, graduating in 1929. Following high school, he worked for several years, then entered the University of Wisconsin on scholarship, receiving his BA in 1936.

After graduation, Lang worked as a government Works Progress Administration sociologist in the South. His life ambition was to write, however, and he soon found a job at The New York Post. During this time he met Margaret Altschul, a reporter for the New York Journal-American, whom he married in 1942. They were married for 39 years, living and raising their three daughters in New York City.

Recalling Lang's appearance at the New Yorker, former New Yorker editor William Shawn wrote, "He arrived in our offices one day in 1941, shortly before the United States entered the Second World War, with an impressive sheaf of clippings of articles he had written for the New York Post. He was immediately taken onto the staff and soon wrote his first Reporter-at-Large piece on the British American Ambulance Corps.

Lang served as war correspondent for the New Yorker in Italy, France and North Africa. Following the war, he observed and reported on atomic testing. Problems raised by nuclear testing concerning the moral responsibility of scientists remained a keen interest and the topic of many articles over the years. During the Vietnam War era, he became absorbed by the ethical choices raised by this conflict and was one of the first reporters to expose military atrocities against the Vietnamese civilian population. Toward the end of his writing career, he interviewed aging Germans, former Flakhelfer, about their role in the Third Reich, returning to his focus on how individuals can become implicated in evil through denial and the refusal to acknowledge reality.