Oral Histories

Interview of Gilbert A. Harrison

Owner and editor of the New Republic.
Subtitle:
Liberal Perspectives
Series:
Z: Orphan Interviews pre 1999
Topic:
Journalism
Biographical Note:
Owner and editor of the New Republic.
Interviewer:
Gardner, Joel
Interviewee:
Harrison, Gilbert A.
Supporting Documents:
Records relating to the interview are located in the office of the UCLA Library's Center for Oral History Research.
Language:
English
Copyright:
Regents of the University of California, UCLA Library.
Abstract:
Family's European background; childhood in Detroit; move to Los Angeles, 1922; living in Wilshire district; Third Street Elementary School, John Burroughs Junior High, and Fairfax High School; effects of Depression; entering UCLA, 1933; work on California Daily Bruin; psychology department; Kate Gordon; Grace Fernald; Daily Bruin office; Chandler Harris; campaigns as Bruin editor; campus politics; four student council members suspended by Provost Ernest Carroll Moore; Thomas St. Clair Evans, Adaline Guenther, University Religious Conference (URC); trip to Europe, 1937; E. M. Forster; Jews and Germany; Gertrude Stein lectures in Pasadena, California, 1934; Bernard Faÿ; Stein-Alice B. Toklas house in Bilignin, France, 1937; joining staff of URC, 1937; Trialogues program; Jewish Community Council; Sol Lesser; National Conference of Christians and Jews, New York; meeting William Saroyan, 1936; Henry Miller; publishing Saroyan and Stein works; work in Office of Civilian Defense, Washington, D.C., 1941; Fiorello LaGuardia; Eleanor Roosevelt; Joseph Lash; Japanese-American relocation; Army Air Corps training; Franklin D. Roosevelt; germination of American Veterans Committee (AVC) idea; Executive Order 10845 and Adaline Guenther; stationed in New Guinea, Philippine Islands, and Japan; Nagasaki after bombing; Charles Bolté and organizing AVC; American Legion; AVC convention; Adam Yarmolinsky; battle with communist faction within AVC; right-wing opposition; Independent Progressive Caucus; John Roche; Lincoln Lauterstein; studies at Balliol College, Oxford University; A. D. Lindsay; Nicolas Katzenbach; Isaiah Berlin; Harold Laski; Tony Benn; visit with George Santayana; Toklas, 1948; collecting Stein materials; meeting Nancy Blaine Harrison; World Veterans Foundation established in France; Elliott Newcombe; Nancy Blaine Harrison; Mrs. Emmons Blaine; Michael Straight and the New Republic; Henry Wallace; joining the New Republic as publisher; editor-in-chief, 1954-74; political philosophy; Donald Malcolm; Philip Roth; Richard Gilman; Reed Whittemore; Delmore Schwartz; Walter Lippmann; Willard Wirtz; Washington, D.C., 1950s; Hubert Humphrey; Joseph Rauh; John F. Kennedy's administration; Bay of Pigs; Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.; John Osborne and "The Nixon Watch"; Richard Strout and "TRB"; Andrew Kopkind and James Ridgeway; Murray Kempton; Alexander Bickel; William O. Douglas and Felix Frankfurter; civil rights; press-government relations; discretion and secrecy; Bill Mauldin; Jules Feiffer; Stanley Kauffman; Martin Peretz's purchase of the New Republic; Adlai E. Stevenson; Kennedy nomination, 1960; Eugene McCarthy; Lyndon B. Johnson; Robert F. Kennedy, 1968; George McGovern; Ernest Gruening; Richard M. Nixon; presidential system of government; purchase of Liveright Publishing Company; New York and publishing industry; Central Intelligence Agency, 1940s and early 1950s; Morris Udall campaign, 1976; James E. Carter presidency; Abe Fortas; Supreme Court and social problems; Leon Keyserling; Roger Baldwin; Paul Douglas; changes at UCLA since 1930s.