William Novak (born 1948) is an American author who has co-written or ghostwritten numerous celebrity memoirs for people including Lee Iacocca, Nancy Reagan, and Magic Johnson. He is also the editor, with Moshe Waldoks, of The Big Book of Jewish Humor. He has also written several "private" books, which he described in a 2015 essay for
The New York Times.
He is the father of actor and writer B. J. Novak and composer Jesse Novak. He is Jewish.
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, ISBN9781439195482
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, ISBN9780060965518