William Novak (born 1948^[1]) is a Canadian–American author who has co-written or ghostwritten numerous celebrity memoirs for people including Lee Iacocca, Nancy Reagan,^[2] and Magic Johnson.^[3] He is also the editor, with Moshe Waldoks, of The Big Book of Jewish Humor.^[4] He has also written several "private" books, which he described in a 2015 essay for The New York Times.^[5]

He is the father of actor and writer B. J. Novak and composer Jesse Novak. He is Jewish.^[3][4]

Books

• High Culture: Marijuana in the Lives of Americans. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1980, ISBN 9780394503950
• The Great American Man Shortage and Other Roadblocks to Romance (and What to Do About It). New York: Rawson Associates, 1983, ISBN 0892562307
• Lee A. Iacocca with William Novak, Iacocca: An Autobiography. New York: Bantam Books, 1984, ISBN 9780553050677
• Sydney Biddle Barrows with William Novak, Mayflower Madam: The Secret Life of Sydney Biddle Barrows, New York: Arbor House, 1986, ISBN 0877957223
• Herb Schmertz with William Novak. Good-Bye to the Low Profile: The Art of Creative Confrontation, Boston: Little, Brown, 1986, ISBN 0316773662
• Tip O'Neill with William Novak, Man of the House: The Life and Political Memoirs of Speaker Tip O'Neill, New York: Random House, 1987, ISBN 0394552016
• Nancy Reagan with William Novak, My Turn: The Memoirs of Nancy Reagan. New York: Random House, 1989, ISBN 0394563689
• Earvin "Magic" Johnson with William Novak, My Life, New York: Random House, 1992, ISBN 0679415696
• Oliver L. North with William Novak, Under Fire: An American Story, New York: HarperCollins, ISBN 0060183349
• Claire Sylvia with William Novak, A Change of Heart: A Memoir, Boston: Little, Brown, 1997, ISBN 0316821497
• An Incredible Dream: Ralph Roberts and the Story of Comcast. Philadelphia: Comcast Corporation, 2012, ISBN 9781451675351
• Max Kargman with William Novak, The Education of Max Kargman, Boston: Foundation Books, 2003.
• Susan Whitman Helfgot with William Novak, The Match: Complete Strangers, A Miracle Face Transplant, Two Lives Transformed, New York: Simon & Schuster, 2010, ISBN 9781439195482

As editor

• William Novak and Moshe Waldoks, The Big Book of Jewish Humor. New York: Harper & Row, 1981, ISBN 9780060148942
• William Novak and Moshe Waldoks with Donald Altschiller, The Big Book of New American Humor: The Best of the Past 25 Years. New York: HarperPerennial, 1990, ISBN 9780060965518
• Die Laughing: Killer Jokes for Newly Old Folks, New York: Touchstone, 2016, ISBN 9781501150791