Reminiscences of Robert Bendiner, 1994.

Biographical Note

Journalist

Scope and Contents

Robert Bendiner, 1909- ; Family background and childhood in Pittsburgh, PA, Scottsdale, PA, and Brooklyn, NY; the "World Tomorrow"; City College of New York, 1928-1933; contacts with Kirby Page, Devere Allen, Reinhold Niebuhr; jobs in publishing in New York, Washington, D.C.; marriage to Kathryn Rosenberg, 1934; involvement in liberal causes, the Newspaper Guild, communism, anti-fascism; writing for the "New Masses", 1936-1937; disillusionment with Communist Party, resignation from the "New Masses"; the "Nation": managing editor, 1937-1944, associate editor, 1946-1950; the Spanish Civil War and foreign policy in the 1930s; I.F. Stone, Freda Kirchwey, Oswald Garrison Villard; enlistment in United States Army, writing for "Yank" during World War II; contacts with Wendell Willkie, Fiorello LaGuardia; analysis of wartime politics at the "Nation"; activities with the Union for Democratic Action and Americans for Democratic Action [ADA]; coverage of Alger Hiss trial; ideological tensions within ADA; reminiscences Hubert H. Humphrey; freelance career, 1951-1968: articles for "Collier's", the "Saturday Evening Post", "Look", "McCall's", "Redbook", "Commentary", "Life", "Harper's", the "New York Times Magazine"; appraisal of Sen. Joseph McCarthy and American Communism in the 1950s; contributing editor, the "Reporter", 1956-1960; U.S. correspondent for the "New Statesman", 1959-1961; humor column at the "New York Post"; teaching at Salzburg, Austria, 1956; the "New York Times" editorial board, 1969-1977: writings on environmental issues, domestic politics; views on current journalism; author, "The Riddle of the State Department", 1942, "The Politics of School", 1969, "The Fall of the Wild, the Rise of the Zoo", 1981; overview of 1960s journalism: articles on the Pulitzer Prizes, the public relations industry; writing for NBC television documentary on state legislatures; views on television journalism

Subjects

• Americans for Democratic Action.
• Anti-fascist movements--United States.
• Bendiner, Robert--Interviews.
• Communism--United States.
• Communists--New York (State)--New York.
• Editorial research reports.
• Hiss, Alger.
• Humphrey, Hubert H. (Hubert Horatio), 1911-1978.
• Interviews.
• Journalism, Communist.
• Journalism, Socialist.
• Journalists--Interviews.
• Journalists--New York (State)--New York.
• Kirchwey, Freda.
• Nation (New York, N.Y. : 1865)
• New York times.
• New masses.
• Niebuhr, Reinhold, 1892-1971.
• Oral histories (literary works)
• Pacifists--New York (State)--New York.
• Sherman, Scott, interviewer.--http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators/ivr
• Soffer, Jonathan, interviewer.--http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators/ivr
• Union for Democratic Action.
• United States--Foreign relations--1933-1945.
• United States--Politics and government--20th century.
• World tomorrow.

Access Conditions

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