Robert Novak

Life & Legacy

Robert David Sanders Novak (February 26, 1931 – August 18, 2009) was an American syndicated columnist, journalist, television personality, author, and conservative political commentator. After working for two newspapers before serving in the U.S. Army during the Korean War, he became a reporter for the Associated Press and then for The Wall Street Journal. He teamed up with Rowland Evans in 1963 to start Inside Report, which became the longest running syndicated political column in U.S. history and ran in hundreds of papers. They also started the Evans-Novak Political Report, a biweekly newsletter, in 1967.
Novak and Evans played a significant role for CNN after the network's founding. He worked as a television personality in programs such as Capital Gang, Crossfire, and Evans, Novak, Hunt, & Shields. He also wrote for numerous other publications such as Reader's Digest. He died of a brain tumor on August 18, 2009.
His colleagues nicknamed Novak the "Prince of Darkness", a description that he embraced and later used as a title for his autobiography. He started out with moderate or liberal views, but later served as a voice for American conservatism in his writing and television appearances.