[1] Halberstam served in the U.S. Public Health Service, then completed his internship and residency in New York City and Burlington, Vermont.
In 1978 Halberstam wrote a novel, The Wanting of Levine, about a self-made millionaire real estate investor who becomes the first Jewish U.S.
[6] In 2017 journalist Ira Stoll described The Wanting of Levine as having "most cannily anticipated" the presidency of Donald Trump.
[3] On December 5, 1980, Halberstam was shot at his Washington, D.C. home by Bernard C. Welch Jr., a prolific thief and escaped convict who lived in nearby Great Falls, Virginia.
[9] Despite having been shot twice in the chest by Welch, Halberstam told his wife to get into their car, and he drove them toward Sibley Hospital.