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Creator
Meyer, Howard N.
Call number
AZ 25-4
Physical description
0.42 linear feet (1 box)
Language
English
Preferred Citation
Howard N. Meyer file on the Morton Sobell and Julius and Ethel Rosenberg case, Irma and Paul Milstein Division of United States History, Local History and Genealogy, The New York Public Library
Repository
Irma and Paul Milstein Division of United States History, Local History and Genealogy
Access to materials
Request a research appointment: https://www.nypl.org/locations/schwarzman/milstein

Howard N. Meyer (1914-2012) was an American attorney, labor arbitrator, and writer. He was the junior appellate counsel for Morton Sobell, a co-defendant in the Julius and Ethel Rosenberg trial charged with conspiracy to commit wartime espionage. His file on the Sobell and Rosenberg case contains clippings, notes, court records, essay drafts, and ephemera about the trial and its aftermath.

Biographical/historical information

Howard N. Meyer (1914-2012) was an American attorney, labor arbitrator, and writer.

From 1942 to 1948, he was the Special Assistant to United States Attorneys General Francis Biddle and Tom Clark. Beginning in 1951, Meyer was the junior appellate counsel for Morton Sobell, a co-defendant in the Julius and Ethel Rosenberg trial charged with conspiracy to commit wartime espionage, who was sentenced to thirty years of imprisonment. He wrote petitions that were critical of the pre-trial publicity and its prejudicial effect on the jury.

In 1983, Ronald Radosh and Joyce Milton published The Rosenberg File: A Search for Truth. In the book, Radosh and Milton endorsed the prosecution's case presented at the Rosenberg and Sobell trial. In response to the book, Meyer contacted various publications, critiquing the book and asking to publish a critical response to the text.

Scope and arrangement

The Howard N. Meyer file on the Morton Sobell and Julius and Ethel Rosenberg case dates from 1950 to 1991 and consists of his notes, periodical clippings, correspondence, some court records, ephemera, and essay drafts related to the trial and its aftermath. Clippings about The Rosenberg File: A Search for Truth (1983) by Ronald Radosh and Joyce Milton and the film Daniel (an 1983 adaptation of E. L. Doctorow's novel based on the Rosenbergs), from 1983 to 1984, comprise the bulk of the file. The collection also holds clippings from around 1951 covering the trial and its aftermath as well as flyers, brochures, and newsletters produced by the National Committee to Reopen the Rosenberg Case from the early 1980s.

Meyer's notes and essay drafts, which critique The Rosenberg File, are interfiled with his letters to various periodical editors requesting the opportunity to respond to the book or write about the case. The collection also includes correspondence between Meyer and Radosh disputing a citation in The Rosenberg File that Radosh interviewed Meyer.

Another notable piece of correspondence in the collection includes a February 18, 1953 letter returned to Meyer addressed to Morton Sobell at Alcatraz. In the letter Meyer gives Sobell an update on the Rosenberg case. The letter was returned to Meyer, because incarcerated people were not allowed to receive newspaper clippings.

Court records present in the file include petitions, stenographer's minutes, appendices (which were copied from the Felix Frankfurter papers at Harvard Law School Library), and memos.

Arrangement

Arranged by format or topic.

Administrative information

Custodial history

The materials in the file were created or collected by Howard N. Meyer.

Source of acquisition

Unknown, likely Howard N. Meyer.

Processing information

Processed by Amy Lau in 2025.

Using the collection

Location

Irma and Paul Milstein Division of United States History, Local History and Genealogy
Stephen A. Schwarzman Building
Fifth Avenue at 42nd Street, New York, NY 10018-2788
First Floor, Room 121

Access to materials

Request a research appointment: https://www.nypl.org/locations/schwarzman/milstein