Joseph Lelyveld was in high leadership positions at The New York Times for twelve years, first as managing editor from 1990 to 1994,  and then, from 1994 to 2001, as executive editor, the top editorial job.  He was called back in 2003 to serve as interim executive editor between the departure of Howell Raines and the appointment of the current executive editor, Bill Keller. 

Previously, Lelyveld was foreign editor from 1987 until 1989.  He has been a correspondent for The New York Times in London, New Delhi, Hong Kong and Washington, D.C. and served twice as correspondent in South Africa.  He has been a staff writer and columnist for The New York Times Magazine, and a contributor to The New York Review of Books and The New Yorker.  His book on South Africa, "Move Your Shadow," (Times Books, 1985) won a Pulitzer Prize in 1986.  It also won awards from The Los Angeles Times, the Overseas Press Club and the Sidney Hillman Foundation.

Lelyveld was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, and moved with his family to Omaha, Nebraska before coming to New York.  He graduated from the Bronx High School of Science and from Harvard College in 1958. He joined The Times in 1962. He has won various awards for his reporting, including two George Polk Memorial Awards, and also has a Guggenheim Fellowship.

Lelyveld lives in New York and has two daughters.  His new book, "Omaha Blues:  A Memory Loop," will be published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux on April 6, 2005.