Arnold Charles Brackman (March 6, 1923 – November 21, 1983) was an American

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 journalism ...

and

author An author is the writer of a book, article, play, mostly written work. A broader definition of the word "author" states: "''An author is "the person who originated or gave existence to anything" and whose authorship determines responsibility f ...

. Brackman was born in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

and received his journalism degree from

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

. He became a correspondent for the news agency

United Press International United Press International (UPI) is an American international news agency whose newswires, photo, news film, and audio services provided news material to thousands of newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations for most of the 20th ...

and reported on topics of Asia. He was later employed by ''

The Christian Science Monitor ''The Christian Science Monitor'' (''CSM''), commonly known as ''The Monitor'', is a nonprofit news organization that publishes daily articles in electronic format as well as a weekly print edition. It was founded in 1908 as a daily newspaper ...

'' and ''

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 ...

''. Brackman lived in

Brookfield Center, Connecticut Brookfield Center is a census-designated place (CDP) in the town of Brookfield, Fairfield County, Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Isla ...

, prior to his death. Brackman established his reputation as a journalist and author from his writings on Asian countries, primarily those in

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...

, and on

archaeology Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...

. He was a reporter at the Tokyo military tribunals in which Imperial Japanese leaders were tried for crimes committed during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. He was quoted calling the 1858 joint presentation of

Alfred Russel Wallace Alfred Russel Wallace (8 January 1823 – 7 November 1913) was a British naturalist, explorer, geographer, anthropologist, biologist and illustrator. He is best known for independently conceiving the theory of evolution through natural se ...

and

Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended fr ...

to the

Linnean Society of London The Linnean Society of London is a learned society dedicated to the study and dissemination of information concerning natural history, evolution, and taxonomy. It possesses several important biological specimen, manuscript and literature colle ...

"one of the great watersheds in the history of Western civilization". He was married to Agnes Brackman, and the couple had one daughter. In 1969, Brackman published ''The Communist Collapse in Indonesia'', a description of the events leading up to and following the 1965 coup in Indonesia. Throughout the 1970s, he was an adjunct professor of journalism at

Western Connecticut State University Western Connecticut State University (WCSU and WestConn) is a public university in Danbury, Connecticut. It was founded in 1903 as a teacher's college and is part of the Connecticut State University System. WCSU consists of four schools: the Anc ...

. There is a scholarship, an award, and a laboratory named in his honor.

Publications

*''Indonesian Communism: A History'' (1963) *''The Communist Collapse in Indonesia'' (1969) *''Read to Succeed'' (1973) *''The Dream of Troy'' (1974) *''Indonesia: The Critical Years, 1976-78'' (1974) *''The Last Emperor'' (1975) *''The Search for the Gold of Tutankhamne'' (1976) *''Luck of Nineveh: Greatest Adventure in Modern Archaeology'' (1978) *''A Delicate Arrangement: The Strange Case of Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace'' (1980)"A Delicate Arrangement: The Strange Case of Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace"
''

Kirkus Reviews ''Kirkus Reviews'' (or ''Kirkus Media'') is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus (1893–1980). The magazine is headquartered in New York City. ''Kirkus Reviews'' confers the annual Kirkus Prize to authors of fic ...

''. *''The Prisoner of Peking'' (1980) *''The Other Nuremberg: The Untold Story of the Tokyo War Crimes Trials'' (1990)

References

External links

* 1923 births 1983 deaths Charles Darwin biographers American male journalists New York University alumni 20th-century American writers 20th-century American journalists 20th-century American male writers {{US-journalist-1920s-stub