Reminiscences of Gerard Piel, 1981-1996

Biographical Note

Editor, publisher; interviewee b.1915

Scope and Contents

Family background, childhood; education at Andover and Harvard, A.B. 1937; LIFE magazine science editor 1938-1944; Henry Kaiser and American industry during and after World War II, assistant to Kaiser, 1945-1946; SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN: purchase 1946, development, financing, advertising, special issues, circulation, subsidiary publications, anecdotes about staff, articles and scientists who wrote for magazine; views on nuclear arms and government control of scientific knowledge. The digital transcript and audio only contain the 11 sessions conducted by Frederick Peterson Jessup between 1981 and 1982, and not a later session conducted in 1996

Subjects

• Educational publishing.
• Interviews.
• Jessup, Frederick Peterson, 1920-2005, interviewer.
• Kaiser, Henry J., 1882-1967.
• Oral histories.
• Periodicals--Publishing.
• Piel, Gerard--Interviews.
• Publishers and publishing--Interviews.
• Science publishing.
• World War, 1939-1945--Equipment and supplies.

Access Conditions

Copyright by the Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York, 1997