Joseph Arthur Rago

Joseph Rago, a 34-year-old Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial writer for The Wall Street Journal, was found dead at his home on Thursday evening. Police officers discovered Mr. Rago’s body at his apartment in Manhattan at around 8 p.m. after a request to check on him, a spokeswoman for the New York Police Department said.

“It is with a heavy heart that we confirm the death of Joseph Rago, a splendid journalist and beloved friend,” Paul Gigot, the editor of The Journal’s editorial page, said in a statement. “Joe and his family are in our thoughts and prayers, and we will be celebrating his work in Saturday’s paper.”

Mr. Gigot had notified the newspaper’s security officials after Mr. Rago did not appear at work on Thursday, according to an article published on The Journal’s website on Friday. The officials then contacted the police.

Foul play is not suspected, the police spokeswoman said.

Asked about Mr. Rago, a spokeswoman for the New York City medical examiner’s office said, “The cause and manner of death are pending further studies following today’s examination.”

Mr. Rago, a graduate of Dartmouth College, won the Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing in 2011 “for his well crafted, against-the-grain editorials challenging the health care reform advocated by President Obama,” his citation said.

Mr. Rago’s death was met with an outpouring of grief inside and outside The Journal newsroom, which he had joined as an intern in 2005.

“Though his knowledge of policy was encyclopedic and his writing talent enormous, Joe didn’t swagger,” James Freeman, an assistant editor for The Journal’s editorial page, wrote on Friday. “He was a good listener and when he spoke his wry observations left you wanting more. Today we are all desperately wanting so much more.”