Joseph Lelyveld

Joseph Salem Lelyveld[1] (born April 5, 1937 in Cincinnati, Ohio[1]) is an American journalist. He was executive editor of The New York Times from 1994 to 2001, and interim executive editor in 2003 after the resignation of Howell Raines.[2] He is a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and author, and a frequent contributor to the New York Review of Books.

Joseph Lelyveld
Born (1937-04-05) April 5, 1937
Cincinnati, Ohio, United States of America
NationalityAmerican
EducationHarvard University (1958 BA, 1959 MA), Columbia University (1960 MS)
Occupation(s)Journalist, author
Known forPreviously editing The New York Times, earning a Pulitzer Prize for Move Your Shadow, controversy over book Great Soul
Children2 daughters

Early life and education

Lelyveld received BA and MA degrees from Harvard University in 1958 and 1959. He also received his MS degree from Columbia University in 1960.[1]

Career

The New York Times

In all, Lelyveld worked at The New York Times for nearly 40 years, beginning in 1962.[2][3] At the Times, he went from copy editor to foreign correspondent within three years. He was also a foreign editor of The New York Times, and its managing editor.[2][4]

Authorship

Among Lelyveld's books is Move Your Shadow: South Africa, Black and White, based on his reporting from Johannesburg, South Africa, in the 1960s and 1980s. He received the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction in 1986 for Move Your Shadow.[5]

Lelyveld's book Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle with India was banned in the Indian state of Gujarat from publication for allegedly insinuating that the subject, Mahatma Gandhi, was in a homosexual or homophilic relationship. This ban received a unanimous vote in favor of the state of Gujarat in April 2011 by Gujarat's state assembly.[6]

Lelyveld criticized the ban and rejected the allegations of work that it claimed Gandhi to be homosexual or homophilic. He said:

The book does not say that Gandhi was bisexual or homosexual. It says that he was celibate and deeply attached to Kallenbach. This is not news.[7]

Personal life

Lelyveld lives in New York and has two daughters.[2] He is of Jewish descent.[8] One of his daughters, Nita Lelyveld, was named city editor of the Portland Press Herald in 2021.[9]

Works
  • "House of Bondage: A South African Black Man Exposes in His Own Pictures and Words the Bitter Life of His Homeland Today" (the foreword to a book by Ernest Cole). New York: Random House, 1967. LCCN 67-21147.
  • Move Your Shadow: South Africa, Black and White New York: Crown Publishing Group, 1985. ISBN 978-0812912371.
  • Omaha Blues: A Memory Loop. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005. ISBN 978-0374225902.
  • Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle with India Alfred A. Knopf, 2011. ISBN 978-0-307-26958-4.
  • His Final Battle: The Last Months of Franklin RooseveltAlfred A. Knopf, 2016. ISBN 978-0385350792.

References
  1. Fischer, Heinz-D. (February 14, 2012). General Nonfiction Award 1962 - 1993. Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 978-3-11-097212-2.
  2. "Center for Communication – Bios". Archived from the original on December 31, 2008. Retrieved October 14, 2008.
  3. Lelyveld, Joseph (March 6, 2005). "Breaking Away". New York Times Magazine. Retrieved October 14, 2008.
  4. Dubner, Stephen J. (March 21, 2005). "The Vindication of Former New York Times Executive Editor Joe Lelyveld". New York. Retrieved October 14, 2008.
  5. "Pulitzer Prize Winners: General Non-Fiction" (web). pulitzer.org. Retrieved March 8, 2008.
  6. "Indian state bans Gandhi book after reviews hint at gay relationship". The Guardian. London. March 30, 2011.
  7. "India state bans book hinting Gandhi had gay lover". San Diego Union-Tribune. Associated Press. March 30, 2011. Retrieved April 4, 2023.
  8. Rosenblatt, Gary (May 22, 2019). "With NY Times Under Siege, Jewish Reporters Hit Back". The New York Jewish Week. "Abe Rosenthal, Max Frankel, Joe Lelyveld, Jill Abramson — that's four Jewish executive editors" [the top editorial post] in the three decades he was on staff, Berger said, listing the names rapidly and with emotion in his voice.
  9. Writer, Edward D. MurphyStaff (August 20, 2021). "Press Herald names new city editor". Press Herald. Retrieved February 11, 2022.

Further reading
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