Harvey Shapiro (January 27, 1924 – January 7, 2013) was an American poet and editor of ''
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 ...
''. He wrote a dozen books of poetry from 1953 to 2006, writing in
epigram
An epigram is a brief, interesting, memorable, and sometimes surprising or satirical statement. The word is derived from the Greek "inscription" from "to write on, to inscribe", and the literary device has been employed for over two mille ...
matic style about things in his everyday life. As an editor, he was always affiliated with ''The New York Times'' in some capacity, mainly in the magazine and book reviews, from 1957 to 2005.
Early life and the war
Harvey Irwin Shapiro was born in
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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on January 27, 1924, into a Jewish family from
Kiev
Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the List of European cities by populat ...
.
He spoke
Yiddish
Yiddish (, or , ''yidish'' or ''idish'', , ; , ''Yidish-Taytsh'', ) is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a ver ...
. When he was a boy, his family moved to
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 ...
and later to
Long Island
Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United Sta ...
. He studied at
Yale University
Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...
but joined the
Army Air Forces
The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...
when World War II broke out. He flew 35 combat missions over Europe as a
B-17
The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is a four-engined heavy bomber developed in the 1930s for the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC). Relatively fast and high-flying for a bomber of its era, the B-17 was used primarily in the European Theater ...
tail gunner
A tail gunner or rear gunner is a crewman on a military aircraft who functions as a gunner defending against enemy fighter or interceptor attacks from the rear, or "tail", of the plane.
The tail gunner operates a flexible machine gun or aut ...
and was awarded the
Distinguished Flying Cross. He returned to Yale to earn a bachelor's degree in English in 1947 and a master's degree in American literature from
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
in 1948.
[
]
Newspaper career
Shapiro spent the first half of the 1950s teaching English at Cornell University
Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...
and Bard College
Bard College is a private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. The campus overlooks the Hudson River and Catskill Mountains, and is within the Hudson River Historic ...
. He then became an assistant editor at ''Commentary
Commentary or commentaries may refer to:
Publications
* ''Commentary'' (magazine), a U.S. public affairs journal, founded in 1945 and formerly published by the American Jewish Committee
* Caesar's Commentaries (disambiguation), a number of works ...
'' magazine and was the poetry editor at ''The Village Voice
''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the crea ...
'' and a fiction editor at ''The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
'' before joining ''The New York Times'' in 1957.[ He worked in various editorial positions there—'']The New York Times Magazine
''The New York Times Magazine'' is an American Sunday magazine Supplement (publishing), supplement included with the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times''. It features articles longer than those typically in the newspaper and has attracted man ...
'', ''The New York Times Book Review
''The New York Times Book Review'' (''NYTBR'') is a weekly paper-magazine supplement to the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times'' in which current non-fiction and fiction books are reviewed. It is one of the most influential and widely rea ...
'' from 1975 to 1983 he was the Editor of The Book Review and prior to that he was deputy editor of the Magazine. Perhaps the most notable public legacy at ''The New York Times'' was in 1962 when he had read that civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life of ...
leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist, one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968 ...
had been jailed. He phoned Dr. King's foundation, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) is an African-American civil rights organization based in Atlanta, Georgia. SCLC is closely associated with its first president, Martin Luther King Jr., who had a large role in the American civi ...
, and suggested that, the next time King was jailed he should compose a letter to publish in the manner of Gandhi
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...
.[ This letter became the ]Letter from Birmingham Jail
The "Letter from Birmingham Jail", also known as the "Letter from Birmingham City Jail" and "The Negro Is Your Brother", is an open letter written on April 16, 1963, by Martin Luther King Jr. It says that people have a moral responsibility to b ...
, after Dr. King was arrested for the Birmingham campaign
The Birmingham campaign, also known as the Birmingham movement or Birmingham confrontation, was an American movement organized in early 1963 by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) to bring attention to the integration efforts o ...
in April 1963. Shapiro's superiors would not allow him to print Dr. King's letter in ''The New York Times'', but the letter was printed elsewhere 50 times in 325 editions, including Dr. King's own book ''Why We Can't Wait
''Why We Can't Wait'' is a 1964 book by Martin Luther King Jr. about the nonviolent movement against racial segregation in the United States, and specifically the 1963 Birmingham campaign. The book describes 1963 as a landmark year in the civil r ...
''.[
]
Poet
Shapiro continued to write poetry while working as an editor, publishing a dozen books, such as ''The Eye'' (1953), ''The Light Holds'' (1984) and ''National Cold Storage Company'' (1988). He also edited an anthology entitled ''Poets of World War II''.[ His poetry often displayed a subtle sense of humor.
]
Personal life
Shapiro was married to and later divorced from Edna Lewis Kaufman. He resided in Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn
Brooklyn Heights is a residential neighborhood within the New York City Boroughs of New York City, borough of Brooklyn. The neighborhood is bounded by Old Fulton Street near the Brooklyn Bridge on the north, Cadman Plaza, Cadman Plaza West on the ...
until his death on January 7, 2013, after complications from surgery.[ He was 88 years old.][
]
References
External links
* Harvey Shapiro Papers. Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shapiro, Harvey
1924 births
2013 deaths
American people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent
American male poets
The New York Times editors
Columbia University alumni
Yale University alumni
Bard College faculty
Cornell University faculty
United States Army Air Forces personnel of World War II
Recipients of the Distinguished Flying Cross (United States)
Writers from Chicago
20th-century American poets
20th-century American male writers
Writers from Manhattan
People from Long Island
United States Army Air Forces soldiers