# Daniel Okrent **URL:** --- Daniel Okrent is an American writer and [editor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Editing). He is best known for having served as the first [public editor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_editor) of [_The New York Times_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_York_Times) newspaper, for inventing [Rotisserie League Baseball](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotisserie_League_Baseball), and for writing several books, such as _Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition_, which served as a major source for the 2011 [Ken Burns](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Burns)/[Lynn Novick](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynn_Novick) miniseries [_Prohibition_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prohibition_%28miniseries%29). In November 2011, _Last Call_ won the Albert J. Beveridge prize, awarded by the [American Historical Association](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Historical_Association) to the year’s best book of American history. His most recent book, published May 2019, is [_The Guarded Gate: Bigotry, Eugenics, and the Law That Kept Two Generations of Jews, Italians, and Other European Immigrants Out of America_](https://www.amazon.com/Guarded-Gate-Eugenics-Generations-Immigrants/dp/1476798036)