Robert Bendiner

Robert Bendiner (December 15, 1909 - February 7, 2009) was an American journalist, editor, and author who served as managing editor of The Nation and as a member of the editorial board of the New York Times.^[1]

He also contributed to The New Republic, The Nation, The New Yorker, and Harper's.^[2]

Background

Bendiner was born December 15, 1909, in Pittsburgh. His parents were William Bendiner and Lillian Schwartz.^[1]

He graduated from City College of New York in 1933.^[1]

Career

Bendiner wrote for the Daily Worker in the 1930s.^[3]

He served as managing editor of The Nation magazine from 1937 to 1944.^[1] In 1942, he published a book expected to criticize the U.S. State Department.^[4][5] In 1943, he joined 250 liberals in supporting the continuation of the American Labor Party against a communist faction within.^[6]

He served in the U.S. Army from 1944 to 1945.^[1]

He returned to The Nation as an associate editor from 1946 to 1950.^[1]

He wrote freelance from 1951 to 1968 and again from 1978 until his death.^[1] He was "associated" with the New York Times from 1969 to 1977.^[7]

He chaired the Wellesley Summer Institute Social Progress from 1946 to 1953. He was faculty at the Salzburg Seminary in American Studies in 1956 and visiting lecturer in journalism at Wesleyan University in 1983.^[1]

Personal life and death

Bendiner was a member of the National Press Club and of the Coffee House in New York City.^[1]

Bendiner received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Long Island University in 1994.^[1]

His brother was Elmer Bendiner.

He married Kathryn Rosenberg in 1934. They had two sons and a daughter.^[1]

He died in February 2009.^[2]

Awards

• Guggenheim fellow (1962-1963)^[8]

Writings

Books

• The Riddle of the State Department (New York: Farrar & Rinehart, 1942)
• White House Fever (New York: Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1960)
• Obstacle Course on Capitol Hill (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1964)
• Just Around The Corner - A Highly Selective History Of The Thirties (New York: Dutton, 1967)^[9]
• The Strenuous Decade: A Social and Intellectual Record of the 1930s with Daniel Aaron (1970)
• The Politics of Schools - A Crisis in Self-Government (Joanna Cotler Books, 1970)
• The Fall of the Wild, the Rise of the Zoo (New York: E.P. Dutton, 1981)

Articles

Nation:

• "Wallace: The Incomplete Angler," (20 December 1947)
• "Rout of the Bourbons" (24 July 1948)
• "Politics and People: The Trial of Alger Hiss" (6/11/1949)
• "A Most Unusual Case": The Trial of Alger Hiss - III" (7/16/1949
• "The Ordeal of Alger Hiss" (1950)
• "The Ordeal of Alger Hiss: II. Psychiatry, Law, and Politics" (2/11/1950)

New York Times:

• "Point Four – Still the Great Basic Hope" (01 Apr 1951)
• "The Undramatic Man of Drama" (11 Mar 1951)
• "To Stop Wasting Our Ex-Presidents" (27 Apr 1952)
• "Portrait of the Perfect Candidate" (18 May 1952)
• "Ghosts Behind The Speechmakers" (17 Aug 1952)
• "Battle of Filibuster" (14 Sep 1952)
• "How Much Has TV Changed Campaigning?" (02 Nov 1952)
• "If TV Moved Into the Classroom" (08 Mar 1953)
• "Current Quotations On Stockbrokers" (10 May 1953)

Harper's:

• The man who reads corpses (February 1955)^[10]
• White House fever: Why candidates campaign (March 1960)^[11]

Saturday Review:

• "When Culture Came to Main Street" (1 April 1967)

Reporter:

• “Who Owns Outer Space?" (12 June 1958)

American Heritage:^[12]

• "Two Cheers For Optimism" (December 1982)
• "The Law And Potter Stewart: An Interview With Justice Potter Stewart" (December 1983)
• "Explaining What You Are After Is The Secret Of Diplomacy" (August/September 1983)
• "What I Learned From The Pirates" (September/October 1989)

References