What Tracy Kidder Stood For
Tracy Kidder, who died last week at the age of 80, was a longtime contributor to The Atlantic and a writer of articles and books that served for many readers as timeless exemplars of what nonfiction writing could be. A headline announcing his death—Kidder, it said, “turned unlikely subjects into bestsellers”—had it right but also had it wrong. A number of Kidder’s books, such as The Soul of a New Machine and Mountains Beyond Mountains, did indeed become best sellers.



























