It’s the birthday of celebrated journalist J. Anthony Lukas (1933-1997), whose meticulous, tenacious, intelligent reporting brought him not one but two Pulitzer Prizes. (In your FACE, everyone who has won only one measly Pulitzer.) Lukas’ first Pulitzer was in 1968 for a New York Times article, “The Two Worlds of Linda Fitzpatrick,” which investigated the life and violent death of a wealthy teenage girl from Connecticut living a secret second life of drugs and hippies in New York City. His second Pulitzer was awarded for his book, Common Ground: A Turbulent Decade in the Lives of Three American Families (1985), which investigated families affected by Boston’s school busing crisis. This book also won the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award. (In your FACE, everyone whose books…and so on and so forth.)

Lukas was born in New York and studied at Harvard, graduating in 1955, then served in the Army. He landed at the Baltimore Sun and later at the New York Times and spent time reporting from the Congo and from India, returning in 1967 to focus on divisive issues in American society. His work on the Watergate scandal, Nightmare: The Underside of the Nixon Years, is one of the most highly respected accounts of Watergate.

Lukas was incredibly assiduous about verifying every fact he used and was deeply sympathetic to the individuals he interviewed, even staying in touch with a couple of sisters he had interviewed for Common Ground, calling to ask how they were, attending their mother’s funeral, and encouraging them to finish school and go on to college and graduate school.

Lukas had recently finished a new book, Big Trouble: A Murder in a Small Western Town Sets Off a Struggle for the Soul of America, when he committed suicide at the age of 64. He had long battled depression and was anxious that the book, which is about a labor leader on trial in the early 20th century for murdering a former governor, wasn’t good enough. E. L. Doctorow called the book “a work of scrupulous and significant reportage.”

It’s also the birthday of novelist Padgett Powell (b. 1952), whose second to most recent novel, The Interrogative Mood: A Novel? (2009), is written entirely in questions. It’s supposed to be a surprisingly charming book, running the gamut from hilarious to profound. Padgett, a National Book Award nominee, is noted for taking great risks in his writing. He lives in Florida and loves snakes.

Have a robust Wednesday and stay scrupulously honest to the data.