Robert Bendiner, editor, free lance writer, and author, was born Marvin Robert Bendiner on December 15, 1909 in Pittsburgh, Pennsvlvania. He attended night sessions at the City College of New York from 1928 to 1933 meanwhile becoming an editorial assistant on World Tomorrow in 1932. When that magazine suspended publication he went to Washington, D.C., where he wrote for Editorial Research Reports. Bendiner returned to New York in 1936 to serve for a few months on the staff of The New Masses. From 1937 to 1944 he was managing editor of the Nation, returning as associate editor between 1946 and 1950. During World War II Bendiner served in the U.S. Army, part of that time as a correspondent for Yank.
Later he was a contributing editor of The Reporter (1956-1960) and American correspondent for The New Statesman (1959-1961). From 1969 to 1977 he served as a member of the editorial board of the New York Times.
As a free lance writer, Bendiner has contributed to the New York Times Magazine, Life, Look, Saturday Evening Post, Harpers, Commentary, Reporter, Show, Redbook, Horizon, and Colliers. He has also written a number of books including The Riddle of the State Department (1942), White House Fever (1960), Obstacle Course on Capitol Hill (1964), Just Around the Corner (1967), The Politics of Schools (1969), and The Fall of the Wild, the Rise of the Zoo. He also wrote an NBC White Paper television documentary, “The Man in the Middle - the State Legislator”.
Bendiner's writing mainly addressed contemporary social and political issues. His 1960 book White House Fever, subtitled “An Innocent's Guide to Principles and Practices, Respectable and Otherwise, Behind the Election of American Presidents,” examined the development of presidential elections. Obstacle Course on Capitol Hill (1964) concerned the operation and weaknesses of Congress, using federal aid to elementary and secondary schools to illustrate his discussion. Just Around the Corner (1967) was, as its subtitle suggests, a highly selective history of the 1930's. In 1969 Bendiner dealt with the ineffectiveness of the traditional school board in dealing with integration, teacher organization, and funding in his Politics of Schools. Bendiner has lectured extensively at colleges and universities as well as before service and civic organizations and the Salzberg Seminar on American Studies in Austria. He was for some years an active member of Americans for Democratic Action. He is also a member of the National Press and P.E.N. Clubs and he served a term as president of the Society of Magazine Writers.
Among the awards received by Bendiner are the Benjamin Franklin Magazine Award, 1955; the School Bell Award, 1960; and a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1962. He is married to the former Kathryn Rosenberg and they have three children, David, William, and Margaret.
