Joseph Nathan Kane(1899-2002)
- Writer
Born in New York City, Joseph Nathan Kane graduated from Columbia
University shortly before World War I. Upon graduating he secured work
writing for trade journals about the export business, and from that he
developed a fascination for inventors and other achievers who had been
largely forgotten by history. He wrote a book about it, which proved to
be so popular that he eventually devoted all his time to writing books
about facts, circumstances and incidents that were largely unknown to
most people (for example, he disproved the myth that George Washington
was the first U.S. President by unearthing the information that a man
named Thomas McKean was in fact appointed U.S. President by Congress
before Washington). A lifelong bachelor, Kane spent virtually all of
his time shuttling back and forth between local libraries and his
office, which also served as his apartment. He is generally considered
to be the first expert on what is now known as "trivia," and was in
fact hired in the early days of television to write questions for such
popular quiz shows as The $64, 000 Question (1955) and Break the $250,000 Bank (1948). He wrote a total of 52
books. He died in New York City at age 103 in 2002.