- unitid
-
{"value"=>"186264", "type"=>"local_mss"}
{"value"=>"23283853", "type"=>"local_b"}
{"value"=>"MssCol 186264", "type"=>"local_call"}
- unitdate
-
{"value"=>"1909-2019", "type"=>"inclusive", "normal"=>"1909/2019"}
- unittitle
-
{"value"=>"Karl E. Meyer papers"}
- physdesc
-
{"format"=>"structured", "physdesc_components"=>[{"name"=>"extent", "value"=>"50 boxes", "unit"=>"containers"}, {"name"=>"extent", "value"=>"20.67 linear feet", "unit"=>"linear_feet"}]}
- repository
-
{"value"=>"<span class=\"corpname\">Manuscripts and Archives</span>"}
- abstract
-
{"value"=>"Karl E. Meyer (1928-2019) was an American journalist and author most known for his foreign correspondent work and editorial writing at <span class=\"title\">The New York Times</span> and the <span class=\"title\">Washington Post</span>, as well as for authoring numerous non-fiction books addressing topics of world affairs, history, and culture. The Karl E. Meyer papers reflect his career and life through writings, correspondence, academic work, and personal files. The collection holds draft manuscripts, clippings of Meyer's published articles, notebooks, appointment books, academic files, and files relating to his childhood, education, and family."}
- langmaterial
-
{"value"=>"English"}
- origination
-
{"value"=>"Meyer, Karl E. (Karl Ernest), 1928-2019", "type"=>"persname"}
- bioghist
-
{"value"=>"<p>Karl Ernest Meyer was an American journalist and author, born in Madison, Wisconsin to Ernest Louis Meyer and Dorothy (Narefsky) Meyer in 1928. Meyer was a third-generation journalist. His father, Ernest L. Meyer, wrote for <span class=\"title\">The Capital Times</span> and <span class=\"title\">The Progressive</span> in Madison, Wisconsin, as well as the <span class=\"title\">New York Post</span> and the <span class=\"title\">New York Daily News</span>. His grandfather, Georg Meyer, was the editor of <span class=\"title\">Das Germania</span>, a German language newspaper in Milwaukee.</p> <p>The Meyer family moved from Wisconsin to New York City in 1935 when Ernest Meyer took a columnist position at the <span class=\"title\">New York Post</span>. Karl Meyer completed the remainder of grammar school and high school in New York City, graduating from Elisabeth Irwin High School in 1946. As an undergraduate, Meyer returned to the Midwest to attend the University of Wisconsin, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in history in 1951. From Princeton University, Meyer earned a Master's degree in public affairs in 1953, and a Ph.D. in politics in 1956.</p> <p>Karl Meyer had a youthful start to a long journalism career, with his first articles appearing in <span class=\"title\">Union Labor News</span> and <span class=\"title\">The Capital Times</span> in 1946, just as he entered college. At the University of Wisconsin, he wrote for and edited the campus newspaper, <span class=\"title\">The Daily Cardinal</span> and its literary magazine, <span class=\"title\">Athenaean</span>. Meyer's first short stint with <span class=\"title\">The New York Times</span> came in the summer of 1952. He also wrote on a freelance basis for <span class=\"title\">The Nation</span>, <span class=\"title\">The Progressive</span>, and <span class=\"title\">The Reporter</span> from 1952 to 1954. From 1956 to 1965, he lived in Washington, D.C. working as an editorial writer for the <span class=\"title\">Washington Post</span>. From 1961 to 1965, Meyer also served as American correspondent to the British magazine, <span class=\"title\">The New Statesman</span>. In 1965 Meyer moved to London to accept the position of <span class=\"title\">Washington Post</span> London bureau chief. He remained there until 1970, when he returned to New York City to serve as the <span class=\"title\">Post</span>'s New York bureau chief until 1972. Meyer wrote a regular television criticism column for <span class=\"title\">Saturday Review</span> from 1975 to 1979. In 1979, Meyer joined the editorial board of <span class=\"title\">The New York Times</span>, remaining in that role until 1998. He was a contributing editor to <span class=\"title\">Archeology</span> magazine from 1999 to 2005, and an editor of <span class=\"title\">World Policy Journal</span> from 2000 to 2008.</p> <p>Notable highlights of Meyer's career as a foreign correspondent and editorial writer include: interviewing Fidel Castro in the Sierra Maestra mountains during the Cuban Revolution in 1958; being among the first journalists to cover the Bay of Pigs; reporting on the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia from inside that country in 1968; and in 1990, holding a previous generation's Pulitzer Prize-winning <span class=\"title\">Times</span> editorial writer, Walter Duranty, accountable for serious reporting lapses regarding Joseph Stalin's human rights abuses.</p> <p>Meyer is the author of over a dozen extensively researched non-fiction books on topics including history, international affairs, journalism, archeology, and museums. His book, <span class=\"title\">The Plundered Past</span> (1973), which was serialized in <span class=\"title\">The New Yorker</span> magazine, stands as an early critique of cultural imperialism and was an important influence upon the cultural restitution movement. Later in his career, Meyer frequently collaborated with his wife, fellow journalist Shareen Blair Brysac, who co-authored four of his later books.</p> <p>From 1979 to 2002 Meyer taught journalism at Yale University, Princeton University, and Bard College. Meyer was a member of the Council on Foreign Relations from about 1980 onward. Throughout his professional life, he was a frequent public speaker, lecturing at academic conferences throughout the United States and internationally. Meyer was a member of the Baker Street Irregulars, a literary society devoted to Sherlock Holmes, from 1957 until his death.</p> <p>Prior to his 1989 marriage to Brysac, Meyer's two earlier marriages, with Iris Hill and Sarah Neilson Peck, ended in divorce. Meyer and Peck had three children. Karl Meyer died of complications from cancer in 2019.</p>"}
- scopecontent
-
{"value"=>"<p>The Karl E. Meyer papers, which date from 1909 to 2019, relate to Meyer's long career as a journalist, author, and journalism professor. Meyer's papers trace the evolution of his thought process and writing style over numerous decades. Meyer carried on correspondence with many people of greatly varied perspectives, including both famous and unknown individuals. Aspects of Meyer's personal life, particularly relating to his family and childhood, are also represented within the collection.</p>"}
{"value"=>"<p class='list-head'>The Karl E. Meyer papers are arranged in five series:</p>\n<ul class='arrangement series-descriptions'>\n<li><div class='series-title'><a href='/mss/186264#c1740182'>Series I: Writings</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1946-2019</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>The Writings series comprises the complete professional output of Karl Meyer throughout his long career as a journalist and author. Writings Files typically include draft manuscripts, research notes, and completed articles, essays, or books. The series subdivides into the following subseries: Student Writings and Early Professional Work; Journalism; Books; and Unpublished and Incomplete.</p></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/mss/186264#c1740405'>Series II: Correspondence</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1930s-2019</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>The Correspondence series holds general chronological files, files arranged alphabetically by subject, and files arranged alphabetically by correspondent name. The series contains ongoing correspondence with notable individuals from journalistic and literary fields such as Katharine Graham, Ben Bradlee, Morton Janklow, Al Lowenstein, William Shawn, and Robert B. Silvers. Many other notable figures, including Vartan Gregorian, Rachel Carson, William F. Buckley, Norman Lear, Alex Haley, and Walter Lippmann, also exchanged letters with Meyer. Of special note are several files of invitations dating from the 1950s through 2019, requesting Meyer's attendance at affairs of state and cultural events in Washington, D.C., London, and New York City.</p></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/mss/186264#c1740538'>Series III: Notebooks and Appointment Books</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1940s-2019</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>This series, which dates from the 1940s to 2019, divides evenly into two subseries: Notebooks; and Appointment Books and Journals. The two subseries are arranged chronologically. Subject matter addressed generally excludes personal matters.</p></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/mss/186264#c1740566'>Series IV: Academia</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1964-2019</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>The Academia series pertains to Meyer's teaching work; his involvement in academic awards committees; and his public speaking engagements in academic settings. Teaching files, which date from 1979 to 2002, encompass Meyer's journalism professorships and fellowships at Yale University, Tufts University, Princeton University, Duke University, Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin, University of Oxford, and Bard College, including samples of students' writing, course outlines, and lecture notes. The Awards Committee files relates to Meyer's time serving on committees for the Princeton University Public Service Awards and the George Foster Peabody Radio and Television Awards in the 1970s. The Public Speaking files relate to Meyer's lectures, mostly given at academic conferences around the United States and internationally from 1964 through 2019. Public Speaking files include speech outlines, correspondence, planning documents, meeting agendas, and attendance rosters.</p></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/mss/186264#c1740586'>Series V: Personal</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1909-2017</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>The Personal series, which dates from 1909 to 2017, is arranged alphabetically by subject and comprises materials from Karl Meyer's childhood, his college days, and his family. A few files of photographs found in this series constitutes the majority of the scant photographs in the whole collection, and contain portraits and snapshots of Meyer throughout his life. Of special note are a group of files relating to his father, fellow journalist and outspoken conscientious objector, Ernest L. Meyer. The Ernest L. Meyer files hold correspondence, writing files, including published columns from the Madison <span class=\"title\">Capital Times</span> and the <span class=\"title\">New York Post</span>, short stories and material relating to his book, <span class=\"title\">Bucket Boy</span>. Also included in this series are files on the Baker Street Irregulars literary society, to which Karl Meyer belonged.</p></div></li></ul>\n", "type"=>"arrangement"}
- acqinfo
-
{"value"=>"<p>Donated by Shareen Blair Brysac in 2023.</p>"}
- processinfo
-
{"value"=>"<p>Processed by <span class=\"name\">Heather Halliday</span> in <span class=\"date\">2024</span>.</p>"}
- accessrestrict
-
{"value"=>"<p>Contact the Manuscripts and Archives division (manuscripts@nypl.org) with questions regarding access to audio and moving image materials.</p>"}
- date_start
-
1909
- keydate
-
1909
- date_end
-
2019
- date_inclusive_start
-
1909
- date_inclusive_end
-
2019
- extent_statement
-
20.67 linear feet (50 boxes)
- prefercite
-
{"value"=>"Karl E. Meyer papers, Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library"}