Title: Karl E. Meyer Papers
Inclusive Dates: 1951-1979

Creator:

• Meyer, Karl Ernest, 1928-2019

Call Number: Mss 885

Quantity: 3.6. cubic feet (9 archives boxes)

Repository:

Wisconsin Historical Society, Division of Library, Archives, and Museum Collections

Archival Locations:

Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)

COLLECTION MAY BE STORED OFF-SITE: see catalog entry to request materials and for additional information.

Abstract:

Papers of Karl E. Meyer, a newspaper journalist and editorial writer, primarily documenting his tenure as head of the London bureau of the Washington Post, 1965-1969. Papers include articles filed with the Post about British politics and life and correspondence to and from Ben Bradlee, Robert Estabrook, Philip Foisie, and other members of the Post editorial staff; freelance articles and correspondence with the New Statesman, The Progressive, and other periodicals; drafts and reviews for published books by Meyer; a dissertation on Joseph R. McCarthy; and general professional correspondence. In addition there are notes and memoranda on Cuba and trips to Africa and Czechoslovakia; and a small amount of biographical material.

Note:

There is a restriction on use of this material; see the Administrative/Restriction Information portion of this finding aid for details.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-mss00885

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Karl E. Meyer was born on May 22, 1928, in Madison, Wisconsin, the son of Ernest L. and Dorothy (Narefsky) Meyer. In becoming a journalist Meyer continued a family tradition, for Ernest Meyer was a noted columnist with the Madison Capital Times and his grandfather George Meyer had been the editor of a Milwaukee German-language newspaper.

Meyer received his bachelors degree from the University of Wisconsin in 1951. While in school he was the editor of both the campus literary magazine, the Wisconsin Athenaean, and the campus newspaper, the Daily Cardinal. Meyer received a Master of Public Affairs degree and a Ph.D. in Politics from Princeton University in 1956.

In 1956 the Washington Post hired Meyer as a general assignment reporter, thus beginning what was to become a fifteen-year stint. In 1957, he became an editorial writer for the Washington, D.C. office, a position he held until 1965. In 1965, Meyer was named chief of the London bureau. In 1970 he returned from London to become an editorial writer for the Post's New York office. In 1971 Meyer left the Washington Post to concentrate on other writing projects. At this time he accepted a senior editorial position on the Saturday Review. In 1979, Meyer was named to the editorial board of the New York Times.

In addition to editorial writing and freelance articles that appeared in a host of prominent periodicals, Meyer published the following books: The New America: Politics of the Smooth Deal (1961); The Cuban Invasion: The Chronicle of Disaster with Tad Szulc (1962); Fulbright of Arkansas (1963); The Pleasures of Archaeology: A Visa to Yesterday (1971); The Plundered Past (1973); Teotihuacan (1973); The Art Museum: Power, Money & Ethics (1979); and Pundits, Poets & Wits: An Omnibus of American Newspaper Collections (1990).

Highlights of Meyer's newspaper career include an extended interview with Fidel Castro in 1958 for which he received the award for excellence from the Overseas Press Club and the Sigma Delta Chi national achievement award for his editorials on congressional reform in 1963.

Karl E. Meyer's first wife was Iris Hill. Meyer married Sarah Neilson Peck in 1959 and they had three children: Ernest, Heather and Jonathan. Meyer's third wife was Shareen Blair Brysac. Karl Meyer died on December 22, 2019 in New York, New York.

The Karl E. Meyer Papers primarily document his career as head of the Washington Post's London office from 1965 to 1969. Material prior to 1963 and after 1969 is limited. The Karl Meyer Papers are arranged as WRITINGS, CORRESPONDENCE, and MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS.

The WRITINGS series is subdivided into Newspaper Articles, Brief Freelance Writings, and Books. The section of newspaper articles is further separated into files for the New Statesman, the British paper for which Meyer was an American correspondent from 1962 to 1965, and the Washington Post, and both are thereunder arranged chronologically. Because of the time coverage of the collection there are no articles or related information about Meyer's award-winning 1958 interview with Fidel Castro.

The articles for the New Statesman include pieces on the civil rights movement including the March on Washington, Vietnam, U.S. relations with the Soviet Union and Cuba (including articles on the Cuban Missile Crisis), President Kennedy's assassination, the 1964 presidential campaign and candidates Johnson, Goldwater, and Wallace. The Post articles, all of which date from Meyer's years in London (1965-1969) reflect his reporting on the British government's policies and view on topics such as Vietnam, nuclear disarmament, race relations, and the economy as well as a series of articles on the 1966 British general election. Articles about British television, sports, gambling, religion, music, movies, and the royal family were also frequent. Meyer also wrote extensively about Rhodesia's declaration of independence and subsequent withdrawal from the British Commonwealth. In 1968, Meyer covered the arrest of James Earl Ray in London and the subsequent extradition trial. From August to December of 1969, Meyer was temporarily assigned to Czechoslovakia and during this period he wrote about the occupation of that country by Warsaw Pact troops. Articles dating from Meyer's return to the United States in 1970 cover such topics as race relations, crime, power shortages, and strikes.

The section of Short Freelance Writings contains draft and final copies of articles, essays, scripts, and other brief writings, all arranged chronologically by date. Included are several early pieces relating to his interest in Senator Joseph McCarthy and a draft speech prepared for Senator John F. Kennedy on Latin American affairs. Documentation on his 1963 article “The President's Men” includes typed notes on interviews with McGeorge Bundy, Walter Heller, Lawrence O'Brien, Arthur Schlesinger Jr., and Ted Sorenson. Also grouped with the short writings is a file of manuscript drafts of freelance articles, many of which were unpublished; book reviews; and clippings. The Books section contains drafts, reviews, and an incomplete version of Meyer's doctoral dissertation.

The CORRESPONDENCE series is divided into two categories: General Files and Alphabetical Files. The content of both is primarily professional, reflecting Meyer's wide acquaintance within the fields of journalism and politics, but there are also many letters to and from individuals with whom Meyer's relationship was more personal. The chronologically-arranged general correspondence is most complete for the period 1965 to 1969. Included here are incoming and outgoing letters although the outgoing file is probably not complete. These letters relate to freelance assignments, arrangements for public speaking, arrangements for and coverage of particular stories, and some personal matters. Among the prominent correspondents are Bernard B. Fall, Mark Lewis, Donald H. Louchheim, I.F. Stone, Paul Tillett, and Murray M. Weiss. Several letters document Meyer's association with some of the leading American politicians of the day such as Paul Douglas, William Fulbright, and Robert Kastenmeier. Scattered throughout the correspondence are notes which include memoranda prepared for Selig Harrison on American sugar policy and a critique of American expectations of the Bay of Pigs and interviews with George Ball, Maurice Couvre de Murville, Lester B. Pearson, and Miles Posonby. Also filed here are occasional letters from readers of Meyer's writings, among the most interesting of which is a lengthy letter from Paul Booth of SDS commenting on The New America. Also here are additional cables containing further information on the James Earl Ray incident.

The Alphabetical correspondence files document Meyer's professional relationship with periodical and book publishers such as the New Statesman, Morris Rubin of The Progressive, and the Washington Post. These letters concern assignments, contracts, advances, revisions, deadlines, etc. The largest and most important section deals with Meyer's employment by the Post during the 1960s. These files include correspondence with Ben Bradlee, Robert Estabrook (separately filed under his own name), Philip Foisie, Alfred Friendly Jr., James Russell Wiggins, and other members of the Post's editorial staff. In addition to correspondence, the Post files contain routine administrative memoranda and weekly “pipeline” lists of stories in development by the Post's foreign correspondents.

The Miscellaneous Papers reflects Meyer's involvement with the American Civil Liberties Union as head of the New Jersey region, 1952-1953; notes on interviews with various industrial and union leaders conducted while at Princeton; a few letters reflecting Sarah Meyer's work as Hubert Humphrey's press officer in 1960; and notes for stories on Africa (1967) and Czechoslovakia (1969). Also included here is a small file of biographical information primarily concerning his Sigma Delta Chi Distinguished Service Award and a few biographical clippings.

Acquisition Information

Presented by Karl E. Meyer, 2011. Accession Number: MCHC82-043

Use Restrictions

RESTRICTED: Donor retains copyright until October 15, 2030.

Processing Information

Processed by Amy Jo Thornton (archives intern) and Carolyn J. Mattern, 1997.

Mss 885	Series: Writings
	Subseries: Newspaper Articles
Box   1 Folder   1-3	New Statesman, 1962-1965
	Washington Post
Box   1 Folder   4-7	1965
Box   2	1965-1966
Box   3 Folder   1-8	1966 (continued)-1967
Box   4 Folder   1-7	1967 (continued)-1970
Box   5 Folder   1	undated
	Subseries: Brief Freelance Writings	⇧
Box   5 Folder   2	1951, “American Students Speak Up on McCarthyism,” The Progressive
	1952
Box   5 Folder   2	McCarthy at Princeton, The Nation
Box   5 Folder   2	“God and Man at Yale,” essay
Box   5 Folder   3	1958, “The Triumph of the Smooth Deal,” Commentary
	1959
Box   5 Folder   3	“McCarthyism: Rovere Is Too Sanguine,” The New Republic
Box   5 Folder   3	“Too Much Food in a Starving World,” Rural Virginia
Box   5 Folder   3	“Who Won What in Cuba,” The Reporter
Box   5 Folder   3	“Cuban Nationalism: A Look Beneath the Whiskers,” Lecture
	1960
Box   5 Folder   4	“The All Purpose Nixon Speech,” The New Republic
Box   5 Folder   4	“Latin American” Speech draft for John F. Kennedy
	1961
Box   5 Folder   4	“Art in Washington: An Underdeveloped Area,” Show
Box   5 Folder   4	“The Open Mind,” Television script
Box   5 Folder   4	1962, “Capitol Report,” Radio script for Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
	1963
Box   5 Folder   5	“The Fight to Free Congress,” The Progressive
Box   5 Folder   5	“No Heretics Need Apply,” speech
Box   5 Folder   6	“The President's Men,” Holiday
	1964
Box   5 Folder   7	“The Washington Press Establishment,” Esquire
Box   5 Folder   7	British Broadcasting Corporation broadcasts
Box   5 Folder   7	1965, “The Right to Travel,” Venture
	1971
Box   5 Folder   8	“Heyerdahl,” The Reporter : galley
Box   5 Folder   8	“The Real Christian Science,” Esquire
Box   5 Folder   9	Book reviews by KEM
Box   5 Folder   10	Clippings of KEM articles, undated
Box   5 Folder   11-13	Manuscript freelance articles, undated
Box   5 Folder   14	Miscellaneous writings, undated
	Subseries: Books	⇧
Box   5 Folder   15	“The Politics of Loyalty from La Follette to McCarthy in Wisconsin, 1918-1952,” Ph.D. dissertation, 1956
Box   6 Folder   1	The New America, 1961-1963, book reviews
	The Cuban Invasion, 1962
Box   6 Folder   2	Draft
Box   6 Folder   3	Book reviews
Box   6 Folder   4	Fulbright of Arkansas, 1963, book reviews
Box   6 Folder   5	The Maya Crisis : printers proof, 1972
Box   6 Folder   6-8	The Art Museum : draft, 1979
	Series: Correspondence	⇧
	Subseries: General File
Box   6 Folder   9-10	1951-1960
Box   7	1961-1968
Box   8 Folder   1-2	1969-1973, undated
	Subseries: Alphabetical File	⇧
Box   8 Folder   3	Bach, Julian, 1963-1965
Box   8 Folder   4	Ballantine Books Inc., 1961-1962
Box   8 Folder   5	Basic Books Inc., 1960-1965
Box   8 Folder   6	BBC, 1963-1969
Box   8 Folder   7	Collier & Son Corp., 1960-1961
Box   8 Folder   8	Commentary, 1958
Box   8 Folder   9	Esquire, 1963-1969
Box   8 Folder   10	Estabrook, Robert, 1959-1968
Box   8 Folder   11	Holiday, 1963-1965
Box   8 Folder   12	Knopf Publishers, 1959-1965
Box   8 Folder   13	Luce, Robert B., Inc., 1961-1963
Box   8 Folder   14	The New Leader, 1959-1965
Box   8 Folder   15	New Statesman, 1961-1965
Box   8 Folder   16	Praeger Inc., 1962-1965
Box   8 Folder   17	The Progressive, 1954-1965
Box   8 Folder   18	Venture, 1965
	Washington Post
Box   8 Folder   19	1962, 1965
Box   9 Folder   1-4	1966-1969, undated
	Series: Miscellaneous Papers	⇧
Box   9 Folder   5	African trip notes, 1967
Box   9 Folder   6	American Civil Liberties Union, 1952-1953
Box   9 Folder   7	Biographical clippings, 1959-1963
Box   9 Folder   8	Czechoslovakia assignment notes, 1969
Box   9 Folder   9	Interviews, 1952-1953
Box   9 Folder   10	“Irreducible Dilemma,” television script (unknown authorship), undated
Box   9 Folder   11	Meyer, Sarah, correspondence, 1955-1965
Box   9 Folder   12	National Student Association, 1951-1953
Box   9 Folder   13	Sigma Delta Chi Distinguished Service Award, 1963