Donald Jerome Raphael Bruckner (November 26, 1933 – September 20, 2013) was an American columnist, critic, and

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...

, whose work landed him on the

master list of Nixon's political opponents Master or masters may refer to: Ranks or titles * Ascended master, a term used in the Theosophical religious tradition to refer to spiritually enlightened beings who in past incarnations were ordinary humans *Grandmaster (chess), National Master ...

. Bruckner was born in

Omaha, Nebraska Omaha ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's 39th-largest cit ...

. He studied at

Creighton University Creighton University is a private Jesuit research university in Omaha, Nebraska. Founded by the Society of Jesus in 1878, the university is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission. In 2015 the university enrolled 8,393 graduate and undergra ...

, Nebraska, and at

Indiana University Indiana University (IU) is a system of public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. Campuses Indiana University has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration of IUPUI. *Indiana Universi ...

where he held a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship, before being awarded a Rhodes Scholarship in 1955 to study at Merton College, Oxford. He took a first class degree in English in 1957. Returning to the United States, Bruckner became an instructor at Lamar College in 1958; later that year, he went on active duty, serving with the US Army until 1960 in intelligence and research roles. (He had been commissioned into the

US Army Reserve The United States Army Reserve (USAR) is a reserve force of the United States Army. Together, the Army Reserve and the Army National Guard constitute the Army element of the reserve components of the United States Armed Forces. Since July 202 ...

in 1955.) After being discharged in 1960, Bruckner joined ''

The Chicago Sun-Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the ''Chicago T ...

'' as its labour editor. He later joined ''

The Los Angeles Times ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...

'' as head of its Chicago bureau."D. J. R. Bruckner, Columnist and Critic, Dies at 79"
by

Margalit Fox Margalit Fox (born 1961) is an American writer. She began her career in publishing in the 1980s, before switching to journalism in the 1990s. She joined the obituary department of ''The New York Times'' in 2004, and authored over 1,400 obituarie ...

, ''The New York Times'', September 20, 2013 Bruckner was a book and theatre critic for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' where he was on staff from 1981 to 2005. Bruckner died in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

on September 20, 2013, aged 79.

Selected publications

*''

Frederic Goudy Frederic William Goudy (, March 8, 1865 – May 11, 1947) was an American printer, artist and type designer whose typefaces include Copperplate Gothic, Goudy Old Style and Kennerley. He was one of the most prolific of American type designers and ...

'' (Masters of American Design) *''Art Against War: Four Hundred Years of Protest in Art'' *''Politics and Language: Spanish and English in the United States'' *''A Candid Talk with

Saul Bellow Saul Bellow (born Solomon Bellows; 10 July 1915 – 5 April 2005) was a Canadian-born American writer. For his literary work, Bellow was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, the Nobel Prize for Literature, and the National Medal of Arts. He is the only w ...

'' *''The Campaign for Chicago: To Create an Inheritance Forever''

References

Recent and archived news articles by D. J. R. Bruckner
at ''The New York Times''

External links

* 1933 births 2013 deaths Alumni of Merton College, Oxford American Rhodes Scholars Newspaper people from Omaha, Nebraska The New York Times columnists Critics employed by The New York Times {{US-journalist-1930s-stub