Michael Tyler Kaufman (March 23, 1938 – January 15, 2010) was an American author and journalist known for his work at The New York Times.

In 1940, when the Nazis invaded France, the Kaufman family moved to Spain and in 1941 sailed from Lisbon to New York City.

His nomadic and adventurous life as a foreign correspondent included talking his way through roadblocks, befriending an agent of Israel, surviving an arrest at gunpoint, and documenting the death of Communism in Poland.

He interviewed the dictators Idi Amin of Uganda, Mobuto Sese Seko of Zaire and Mengistu Haile Mariam of Ethiopia, winning a George Polk Award for his work.

[1] For a short time from 1988 to 1989, and then in bi-weekly columns from 1992 to 1995, Kaufman wrote About New York, creating exceptional stories about ordinary New Yorkers.

[1] Kaufman died from pancreatic cancer at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center (now Mount Sinai Morningside) on January 15, 2010, at the age of 71.