- physdesc
-
{"format"=>"structured", "physdesc_components"=>[{"name"=>"extent", "value"=>"14.55 linear feet", "unit"=>"linear feet"}, {"name"=>"extent", "value"=>"40 boxes", "unit"=>"containers"}], "supress_display"=>true}
- unitid
-
{"value"=>"MssCol 17930", "type"=>"local_call"}
{"value"=>"17930", "type"=>"local_mss"}
- unitdate
-
{"value"=>"1959-2004", "type"=>"inclusive", "normal"=>"1959/2004"}
- date_inclusive_start
-
1959
- date_inclusive_end
-
2004
- keydate
-
1959
- unittitle
-
{"value"=>"A.M. Rosenthal papers"}
- repository
-
{"value"=>"<span class=\"corpname\">The New York Public Library. <span class=\"subarea\">Manuscripts and Archives Division</span></span> <div class=\"address\"><span class=\"addressline\">New York, New York</span></div>"}
- abstract
-
{"value"=>"The A.M. Rosenthal papers document the career of <span class=\"title\">New York Times</span> Managing and Executive Editor Abraham Michael Rosenthal (1922-2006), noted for his stewardship of that newspaper during one of its most tumultuous periods, from the 1960s through the 1980s. The collection contains Rosenthal's personal files from the era of his editorial tenure and beyond. The papers include extensive professional correspondence, journals, speeches, subject files, writings, and scrapbooks. They detail Rosenthal's activities and interactions during his years as an editor and a columnist."}
- prefercite
-
{"value"=>"<p>A.M. Rosenthal Papers, Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library.</p>"}
- origination
-
{"value"=>"Rosenthal, A. M. (Abraham Michael), 1922-2006", "type"=>"persname"}
- bioghist
-
{"value"=>"<p>A. M. Rosenthal (1922-2006) was a Pulitzer Prize-winning foreign correspondent who became the executive editor of <span class=\"title\">The New York Times</span> and led the paper's global news operations through 17 years of record growth, modernization and major journalistic change. After 19 years as a reporter and correspondent, Rosenthal spent the next 23 years serving successively as metropolitan editor, assistant managing editor, managing editor and executive editor, securing <span class=\"title\">The Times</span>'s journalistic significance by pursuing the news aggressively and modernizing the paper while maintaining its strictest standards.</p> <p>Abraham Michael Rosenthal was born in Sault Ste. Marie, Canada on May 2, 1922, the sixth child of Russian immigrants. The family emigrated to the United States three years later. Growing up in the Bronx during the Great Depression, Abe faced the same poverty as so many of his neighbors, but he had other hardships to endure. His father died when Abe was still very young, as did three of his five sisters. As a teenager, Abe was bedridden for two years by a case of osteomyelitis. Told he would probably never walk again, Abe expected the worst, but help from his surviving sisters allowed him to travel to the Mayo Clinic, where he slowly recovered.</p> <p>Rosenthal was an eager student, but not a rich one, so he happily attended City College of New York, the academically rigorous, but no-cost, school in Manhattan. Taking particular delight in political discussion there, Rosenthal aspired to the coveted position of <span class=\"title\">The New York Times</span> City College campus correspondent. Attaining the job in his senior year, Rosenthal began a relationship with the paper that continued for over fifty years. He worked on the city staff as a general assignment reporter from his graduation in 1943 until he was named United Nations correspondent in 1945. After nine years covering the U.N., Rosenthal traveled the world as a foreign correspondent, stationed in India, Poland, Switzerland, and Japan from 1954 to 1963. His coverage of the political situation in Poland won him two of his proudest honors: a Pulitzer Prize and forcible expulsion from Poland.</p> <p>Reluctantly returning to New York, Rosenthal was named Metropolitan Editor (an appellation he disliked, preferring the old title of City Editor). He presided over the expansion of New York coverage, adding more feature stories and social observation to the typical crime beat and press conference summaries common to city desks of the era. In 1967, Rosenthal was promoted to Assistant Managing Editor and, shortly thereafter, to Associate Managing Editor. In 1969, he was named Managing Editor. He took a more hands-on approach to the job than his predecessors, with his first action being to insist on reading selected copy before it appeared in the paper. Rosenthal himself later contrasted his style with that of earlier editors by suggesting that they preferred to be judges, assessing what was good or bad about yesterday's paper, while he preferred to be a participant, guiding what would be in tomorrow's paper.</p> <p>Rosenthal found ways to enlarge the scope of the paper, adding daily sections on various special subjects, such as business, science, and entertainment. His changes increased circulation and advertising, allowing <span class=\"title\">The New York Times</span> to maintain its profitability as more people turned to television for their daily news consumption, while broadening the definition of news itself in the \"paper of record.\" By 1976, the Sunday paper, previously a separate editorial entity, merged with the daily paper, and Rosenthal was named Executive Editor, responsible for every page of <span class=\"title\">The New York Times</span>, except for the editorial and Op-Ed pages.</p> <p>In spite of presiding over an era of unprecedented change, Rosenthal's primary editorial goal was always to \"keep the paper straight.\" Eager to keep any bias out of <span class=\"title\">Times</span> news coverage, Rosenthal constantly reminded his reporters and editors of the importance of impartial journalism. Rosenthal generally felt that as long as the <span class=\"title\">Times</span> received criticism from both sides of the political spectrum on a given issue, the reporting had been fair. Ironically, one of the controversies arising during Rosenthal's tenure resulted from one of the very few pieces he wrote as an editor. He was at Columbia University on the night of a particularly violent student protest in 1968 and, after surveying the aftermath, he decided to write an article covering the story. Critics from within <span class=\"title\">The New York Times</span>, as well as from outside, accused Rosenthal of showing his sympathy for the administration and his contempt for the protesters. He denied any bias, but did avoid any subsequent original reporting. Some controversial policy issues arising during Rosenthal's tenure sprang from stylistic choices; until 1986, \"Ms.\" was not a permissible honorific in the Times and \"gay\" could only be used as a synonym for happy. On the other side of the political coin, the publication of the Pentagon Papers made <span class=\"title\">The Times</span>, and Rosenthal in particular, a target of conservative criticism.</p> <p>At the helm of a staff of highly regarded editors and writers that included many young stars he had recruited, Rosenthal directed coverage of the major news stories of the era - the war in Vietnam, the Pentagon Papers, the Watergate scandal and successive crises in the Middle East. After 17 years as a principal architect of the modern <span class=\"title\">New York Times</span>, Rosenthal stepped down as the top editor in 1986, having nearly reached the mandatory retirement age set for the editorial staff of the paper. He then began the last phase of his <span class=\"title\">Times</span> career, nearly 13 years as the author of a twice-weekly column, \"On My Mind,\" for the Op-Ed page. The column centered on public affairs in general, with a particular focus on international issues, human rights, and drug policy in America. After publisher Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, Jr. ended Rosenthal's tenure as a <span class=\"title\">Times</span> columnist in 1999, Rosenthal continued as a columnist with the <span class=\"title\">New York Daily News</span>, as well as with several online media outlets. He made no secret of his disappointment at being asked to leave his lifelong journalistic home, but he was eager to keep writing on the subjects about which he still had something to say.</p> <p>Rosenthal was married to Ann Marie Burke from 1949 to 1986, and to Shirley Lord from 1987 until his death. He had three sons with his first wife, one of whom, Andrew Rosenthal, went on to become an editor at <span class=\"title\">The New York Times</span>.</p>"}
- scopecontent
-
{"value"=>"<p>The A.M. Rosenthal papers consist of Rosenthal's personal files, spanning his editorial tenure and his subsequent career as a columnist and commentator. The personal series contains those papers kept separately from <span class=\"title\">The New York Times</span> office files. Maintained in Rosenthal's New York home, these files add dimension to the picture of Rosenthal's years as an editor, and also provide a look at his later career as a columnist, finally free to express his own views to the public. They include notes for speeches given by Rosenthal from the 1960s through the early 2000s; subject files for his columns from 1987 through the early 2000s; and some additional correspondence, primarily from 1987 onward, but some earlier letters, as well. Highlights of this series include seventeen journals spanning 1971-1986, containing appointment data and attached correspondence, creating almost a scrapbook for each year; transcripts of an oral history recorded at <span class=\"title\">The New York Times</span> in 1983 and 1985, containing very frank and specific discussions of the events and people at the paper during Rosenthal's career; and some of Rosenthal's own writings, most notably, drafts of various chapters of an unpublished memoir.</p> <p>While some of the correspondence in these papers dates from the era of Rosenthal's editorship, including some internal <span class=\"title\">New York Times</span> memoranda, the majority comes from the years 1987-2004, when Rosenthal was a columnist for <span class=\"title\">The Times</span> and other publications. There are a few individual correspondent files, most notably one with Richard Nixon, in which the columnist and the former president discuss world affairs of the early 1990s. There are folders designated by Rosenthal as \"special letters,\" some of which come from famous people, whereas others seem to be letters he considered personally significant. Correspondents in this section include statesmen, such as Hubert Humphrey and Daniel Patrick Moynihan, journalists, such as Dan Rather and Barbara Walters, and business leaders, such as Steve Forbes and Donald Trump. Perhaps the most revealing correspondence in the series, however, dates from 1999, when Rosenthal was forcibly retired from <span class=\"title\">The New York Times</span> at the publisher's request. There are hundreds of letters from friends, acquaintances, and readers sent to Rosenthal directly, as well as to <span class=\"title\">The Times</span>, expressing their sorrow and outrage at the decision. There are copies of some of Rosenthal's replies included also, providing a candid view of his own feelings at the time.</p> <p>Not journals in the conventional sense, Rosenthal's journals are a combination of scrapbooks and diaries. Detailing the years 1971-1986, they illustrate the highlights of most of his tenure as the leading decision maker of <span class=\"title\">The New York Times</span>. They list major appointments and excursions, with related letters and other papers attached where appropriate. The journals provide researchers with a sense not only of how Rosenthal spent his time, but of what he thought was important. There are, in addition, two actual scrapbooks included in the series. Both date from 1959-1960, focusing on Rosenthal's time as a correspondent in Poland. One scrapbook centers on his expulsion by the government as a reaction to the reports he filed, and the other centers on the Pulitzer Prize he won for those same reports.</p> <p>Rosenthal's years at <span class=\"title\">The Times</span> are reviewed and relived via his official oral history, included in this collection. Times Vice Chairman Sydney Gruson met with Rosenthal for four sessions in 1983 and 1985, and their discussion was transcribed for posterity. Rosenthal shares his memories and views on colleagues and controversies, predecessors and policies. The history seems to have been intended to continue, but the fourth session is the last one included. Researchers interested in Rosenthal's personal history and thoughts will find his memoir drafts worthwhile also. Never published, Rosenthal's memoir exists as various sections and chapters, compiled over many years. He began in the early 1960s, writing about his experiences as a student and a correspondent, and then returned to the project many times throughout the years. There is no complete version of the memoir, but readers can piece together most of Rosenthal's early life and career from the chapters included.</p> <p>Other writings include a complete list of Rosenthal's columns from 1987-2000, arranged by both subject and date, drafts of news and magazine pieces on Moscow, China, and the Philippines, and a notebook containing some ideas, in Rosenthal's own handwriting, for columns and stories. A typescript of his last column for <span class=\"title\">The New York Times</span> is included, signed by nineteen <span class=\"title\">Times</span> staff members, including Howell Raines and Rosenthal's son, Andrew. Two versions of Rosenthal's will are also found in this series.</p> <p>Notes and drafts of speeches are arranged chronologically, with venues ranging from clubs, sales conferences, and graduations to private parties, memorial services, and even the U.S. House of Representatives. The speeches span the 1960s through the early 2000s, most of Rosenthal's life as an influential figure in public discourse.</p> <p>Subject files for columns are arranged alphabetically, containing some correspondence, research notes, and printed matter not necessarily available to the general public. All of the material in the subject files was generated and obtained during Rosenthal's career as a columnist at <span class=\"title\">The New York Times</span> and for other publications.</p> <p>Rosenthal's life and career before becoming Assistant Managing Editor of <span class=\"title\">The Times</span> are not well-represented in the collection, with only two scrapbooks and part of his memoir touching on those early years.</p>"}
{"value"=>"<p class='list-head'>The A.M. Rosenthal papers are arranged in seven series:</p>\n<ul class='arrangement series-descriptions'>\n<li><div class='series-title'><a href='/mss/17930#c14180'>Series I: Correspondence</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1970-2004</div>\n<div class='series-extent'>3 boxes</div>\n</li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/mss/17930#c14203'>Series II: Journals</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1971-1986</div>\n<div class='series-extent'>9 boxes</div>\n</li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/mss/17930#c14213'>Series III: Oral history and photographs</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1978-1985, undated</div>\n<div class='series-extent'>1 box</div>\n</li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/mss/17930#c14216'>Series IV: Scrapbooks</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1959-1960</div>\n<div class='series-extent'>1 box</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>Poland</p></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/mss/17930#c14217'>Series V: Speeches</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1968-2000</div>\n<div class='series-extent'>7 boxes</div>\n</li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/mss/17930#c14300'>Series VI: Subject files</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1987-2002</div>\n<div class='series-extent'>15 boxes</div>\n</li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/mss/17930#c14493'>Series VII: Writings</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1961-2000</div>\n<div class='series-extent'>4 boxes</div>\n</li></ul>\n", "type"=>"arrangement"}
- arrangement
-
{"value"=>"<p>The A.M. Rosenthal Papers are organized in the following series:</p> <ul> <li>Series I: Correspondence, 1970-2004</li> <li>Series II: Journals, 1971-1986</li> <li>Series III: Oral history and photographs, 1978-1985, undated</li> <li>Series IV: Scrapbooks, 1959-1960</li> <li>Series V: Speeches, 1968-2000</li> <li>Series VI: Subject files, 1987-2002</li> <li>Series VII: Writings, 1961-2000</li></ul>", "supress_display"=>true}
- acqinfo
-
{"value"=>"<p>Purchased from the estate of A.M. Rosenthal, 2009</p>"}
- relatedmaterial
-
{"value"=>"<span class=\"archref\">New York Times Company Records. A.M. Rosenthal Papers. Manuscripts and Archives Division, New York Public Library.</span>"}
- processinfo
-
{"value"=>"<p>Processed by Lee Spilberg.</p>"}
- extent_statement
-
14.55 linear feet (40 boxes)
- date_start
-
1959
- date_end
-
2004