Maureen Dowd Biography

Maureen Dowd received the Pulitzer Prize for commentary in 1999, with the Pulitzer committee particularly citing her columns on the impeachment of Bill Clinton after his affair with Monica Lewinsky. Dowd joined the New York Times as a reporter in 1983, after writing for Time magazine and the now-defunct Washington Star. At the Times she was nominated for a 1992 Pulitzer Prize for national reporting, then became a columnist for the paper’s editorial page in 1995. In the following years her acid wit and withering attacks on Clinton and his accusers made Dowd a national media celebrity. In 2004 she released her first book, a collection of columns titled Bushworld: Enter at Your Own Risk. Her second book followed in 2005: Are Men Necessary?: When Sexes Collide. Dowd earned a bachelor’s degree from Catholic University in 1973.