Joseph Lelyveld
Encyclopedia
Joseph Lelyveld was executive editor of the New York Times from 1994 to 2001, and interim executive editor in 2003 after the resignation of Howell Raines
. He is a Pulitzer Prize
-winning journalist
and author
, and a frequent contributor to the New York Review of Books.
In all, Lelyveld worked at the Times for nearly 40 years, starting out in 1962. He graduated from Harvard College
in 1958, received a Master's degree from the Columbia School of Journalism in 1960, and subsequently a Fulbright Scholarship. At the Times, he went from copy editor to foreign correspondent
within three years.
While he was a reporter for the New York Times, he received the 1971 George Polk Award for Education Reporting and the 1983 award for Foreign Reporting. He also won a Guggenheim Fellowship
.
Among Lelyveld's books is Move Your Shadow: South Africa, Black and White
, based on his reporting from Johannesburg, South Africa, in the 1960s and 1980s. He received the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction
in 1986 for Move Your Shadow.
He was also foreign editor
of the Times, and its managing editor
.
He was awarded an honorary degree (Doctor of Humane Letters
) by the CUNY Graduate Center
at the 2007 commencement
, where he gave the keynote speech.
His father was the Reform Judaism
leader, Arthur Lelyveld
.
claimed that the book portrays Gandhi as a bisexual with a relationship with one of his disciples, the German-Jewish architect and bodybuilder Hermann Kallenbach
, a charge that Lelyveld insists is incorrect.
Since the controversy broke out, Lelyveld has consistently denied claims that his book portrays Gandhi as a bisexual, or a racist, etc. "It does not say Gandhi was bisexual. It does not say that he was homosexual. It does not say that he was a racist. The word bisexual never appears in the book and the word racist only appears once in a very limited context; relating to a single phrase and not to Gandhi's whole set attitudes or history in South Africa. I didn't say these things, So I can hardly defend them."
Lelyveld adds, "It is a responsible book, it is a sensitive book, it is a book that is admiring of Gandhi and his struggle for social justice in India and it's been turned into as if it is some kind of sensationalist pot boiler. It is not."
Lelyveld quotes correspondence between Gandhi and Kallenbach, including excerpts from the latter's diary, with language that seems suggestive of a homosexual relationship, with Gandhi speaking of his disciple Kallenbach as "Lower House," and of himself as "Upper House," and saying that cotton-wool and Vaseline
were a constant reminder of their "mutual love," Lelyveld says this relates to the cotton wool and Vaseline that Gandhi and Kallenbach used in giving themselves enema
s, one of Gandhi's fads. Both Lelyveld and other commentators have claimed that while the language by today's standards may seem to betray a homosexual relationship, for the time period in which it was used, it was the usual language between close platonic friendship bonds.
Politicians in India have generally and across the political spectrum denounced the book and demanded it be banned as being allegedly defamatory, with the Government of Gujarat under Narendra Modi
banning the book as "perverse in nature... hurting the sentiments of those with capacity for sane and logical thinking," and demanding a "public apology" from Lelyveld, and with Federal Law Minister Veerappa Moily
of the Governments of India
and Industries Minister Narayan Rane
of the Government of Maharashtra
promising to ban it. There have also been demands for an apology from Lelyveld and demands to have him prosecuted. Liberal commentators and some Gandhi kin have taken umbrage against the backlash against Lelyveld and opposed moves to ban the book. Gandhi's great grandson Tushar Gandhi
said a ban of the book would be a "greater insult" to Gandhi than that book or the author might have intended, saying, "How does it matter if the Mahatma was straight, gay or bisexual? Every time he would still be the man who led India to freedom." He also promised to mount a legal challenge to any such ban of the book. Lelyveld himself denounced the calls for the ban on his book.
Howell Raines
Howell Hiram Raines was Executive Editor of The New York Times from 2001 until he left in 2003 in the wake of the Jayson Blair scandal. He is the father of Jeff Raines, one of the founding members of the rock band Galactic...
. He is a Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
-winning journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
and author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
, and a frequent contributor to the New York Review of Books.
In all, Lelyveld worked at the Times for nearly 40 years, starting out in 1962. He graduated from Harvard College
Harvard College
Harvard College, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is one of two schools within Harvard University granting undergraduate degrees...
in 1958, received a Master's degree from the Columbia School of Journalism in 1960, and subsequently a Fulbright Scholarship. At the Times, he went from copy editor to foreign correspondent
Foreign correspondent
Foreign Correspondent may refer to:*Foreign correspondent *Foreign Correspondent , an Alfred Hitchcock film*Foreign Correspondent , an Australian current affairs programme...
within three years.
While he was a reporter for the New York Times, he received the 1971 George Polk Award for Education Reporting and the 1983 award for Foreign Reporting. He also won a Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowships are American grants that have been awarded annually since 1925 by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts." Each year, the foundation makes...
.
Among Lelyveld's books is Move Your Shadow: South Africa, Black and White
Move Your Shadow: South Africa, Black and White
Move Your Shadow: South Africa, Black and White, written by Joseph Lelyveld and published by Times Books in 1985, won the 1986 Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction as well as the 1986 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Current Interest....
, based on his reporting from Johannesburg, South Africa, in the 1960s and 1980s. He received the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction
Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction
The Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction has been awarded since 1962 for a distinguished book of non-fiction by an American author that is not eligible for consideration in another category.-1960s:...
in 1986 for Move Your Shadow.
He was also foreign editor
Editor in chief
An editor-in-chief is a publication's primary editor, having final responsibility for the operations and policies. Additionally, the editor-in-chief is held accountable for delegating tasks to staff members as well as keeping up with the time it takes them to complete their task...
of the Times, and its managing editor
Managing editor
A managing editor is a senior member of a publication's management team.In the United States, a managing editor oversees and coordinates the publication's editorial activities...
.
He was awarded an honorary degree (Doctor of Humane Letters
Doctor of Humane Letters
The degree of Doctor of Humane Letters is always conferred as an honorary degree, usually to those who have distinguished themselves in areas other than science, government, literature or religion, which are awarded degrees of Doctor of Science, Doctor of Laws, Doctor of Letters, or Doctor of...
) by the CUNY Graduate Center
CUNY Graduate Center
The Graduate Center of the City University of New York brings together graduate education, advanced research, and public programming to midtown Manhattan hosting 4,600 students, 33 doctoral programs, 7 master's programs, and 30 research centers and institutes...
at the 2007 commencement
Graduation
Graduation is the action of receiving or conferring an academic degree or the ceremony that is sometimes associated, where students become Graduates. Before the graduation, candidates are referred to as Graduands. The date of graduation is often called degree day. The graduation itself is also...
, where he gave the keynote speech.
His father was the Reform Judaism
Reform Judaism
Reform Judaism refers to various beliefs, practices and organizations associated with the Reform Jewish movement in North America, the United Kingdom and elsewhere. In general, it maintains that Judaism and Jewish traditions should be modernized and should be compatible with participation in the...
leader, Arthur Lelyveld
Arthur Lelyveld
Rabbi Arthur J. Lelyveld was a rabbi within the movement of Reform Judaism. As well as being a prominent rabbi he also embraced social activism in many forms....
.
Controversy over Mahatma Gandhi book
Reviews of Lelyveld’s Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle With IndiaGreat Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle With India
Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle With India is a 2011 biography of Indian political and spiritual leader Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi written by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Joseph Lelyveld and published by Alfred A Knopf....
claimed that the book portrays Gandhi as a bisexual with a relationship with one of his disciples, the German-Jewish architect and bodybuilder Hermann Kallenbach
Hermann Kallenbach
Hermann Kallenbach was a German born Jewish South African architect who was one of the foremost friends and associates of Mahatma Gandhi...
, a charge that Lelyveld insists is incorrect.
Since the controversy broke out, Lelyveld has consistently denied claims that his book portrays Gandhi as a bisexual, or a racist, etc. "It does not say Gandhi was bisexual. It does not say that he was homosexual. It does not say that he was a racist. The word bisexual never appears in the book and the word racist only appears once in a very limited context; relating to a single phrase and not to Gandhi's whole set attitudes or history in South Africa. I didn't say these things, So I can hardly defend them."
Lelyveld adds, "It is a responsible book, it is a sensitive book, it is a book that is admiring of Gandhi and his struggle for social justice in India and it's been turned into as if it is some kind of sensationalist pot boiler. It is not."
Lelyveld quotes correspondence between Gandhi and Kallenbach, including excerpts from the latter's diary, with language that seems suggestive of a homosexual relationship, with Gandhi speaking of his disciple Kallenbach as "Lower House," and of himself as "Upper House," and saying that cotton-wool and Vaseline
Vaseline
Vaseline is a brand of petroleum jelly based products owned by Anglo-Dutch company Unilever. Products include plain petroleum jelly and a selection of skin creams, soaps, lotions, cleansers, deodorants and personal lubricants....
were a constant reminder of their "mutual love," Lelyveld says this relates to the cotton wool and Vaseline that Gandhi and Kallenbach used in giving themselves enema
Enema
An enema is the procedure of introducing liquids into the rectum and colon via the anus. The increasing volume of the liquid causes rapid expansion of the lower intestinal tract, often resulting in very uncomfortable bloating, cramping, powerful peristalsis, a feeling of extreme urgency and...
s, one of Gandhi's fads. Both Lelyveld and other commentators have claimed that while the language by today's standards may seem to betray a homosexual relationship, for the time period in which it was used, it was the usual language between close platonic friendship bonds.
Politicians in India have generally and across the political spectrum denounced the book and demanded it be banned as being allegedly defamatory, with the Government of Gujarat under Narendra Modi
Narendra Modi
Narendra Damodardas Modi is the current Chief Minister of the Indian state of Gujarat.He was born in a middle class family in Vadnagar; and is a member of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh since childhood, as also an active politician since early in life. He holds a masters degree in political...
banning the book as "perverse in nature... hurting the sentiments of those with capacity for sane and logical thinking," and demanding a "public apology" from Lelyveld, and with Federal Law Minister Veerappa Moily
Veerappa Moily
Moodbidri Veerappa Moily is the current Minister of Corporate Affairs in the Indian government. Moily was elected as MP of the Chickballapur district by a wide margin in 2009. He currently serves as the All India Congress Committee General Secretary in charge of Andhra Pradesh...
of the Governments of India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
and Industries Minister Narayan Rane
Narayan Rane
Narayan Rane is an Indian politician. He is currently the Minister for Industry, Port, Employment and Self-employment in the Government of Maharashtra. He was a member of Shiv Sena until July 2005, then he joined Indian National Congress party....
of the Government of Maharashtra
Maharashtra
Maharashtra is a state located in India. It is the second most populous after Uttar Pradesh and third largest state by area in India...
promising to ban it. There have also been demands for an apology from Lelyveld and demands to have him prosecuted. Liberal commentators and some Gandhi kin have taken umbrage against the backlash against Lelyveld and opposed moves to ban the book. Gandhi's great grandson Tushar Gandhi
Tushar Gandhi
Tushar Arun Gandhi is a great-grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, and the son of journalist Arun Manilal Gandhi.Born on a train between Mumbai and Kolkata, he was raised in the Mumbai suburb of Santa Cruz...
said a ban of the book would be a "greater insult" to Gandhi than that book or the author might have intended, saying, "How does it matter if the Mahatma was straight, gay or bisexual? Every time he would still be the man who led India to freedom." He also promised to mount a legal challenge to any such ban of the book. Lelyveld himself denounced the calls for the ban on his book.
Works
- Move Your Shadow: South Africa, Black and WhiteMove Your Shadow: South Africa, Black and WhiteMove Your Shadow: South Africa, Black and White, written by Joseph Lelyveld and published by Times Books in 1985, won the 1986 Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction as well as the 1986 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Current Interest....
New York: Crown, 1985. ISBN 0812912373 ISBN 978-0812912371 - Omaha Blues: A Memory Loop. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005. ISBN 0374225907 ISBN 978-0374225902. April 6, 2005.
- Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle With IndiaGreat Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle With IndiaGreat Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle With India is a 2011 biography of Indian political and spiritual leader Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi written by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Joseph Lelyveld and published by Alfred A Knopf....
Alfred A. Knopf, 2011. ISBN 9780307269584, ISBN 978-0307269584. March 29, 2011.
External links
- Column archive at The New York Review of BooksThe New York Review of BooksThe New York Review of Books is a fortnightly magazine with articles on literature, culture and current affairs. Published in New York City, it takes as its point of departure that the discussion of important books is itself an indispensable literary activity...
- Lelyveld audio interview reporting from the 2008 Republican National Convention for The New York Review of BooksThe New York Review of BooksThe New York Review of Books is a fortnightly magazine with articles on literature, culture and current affairs. Published in New York City, it takes as its point of departure that the discussion of important books is itself an indispensable literary activity...
- Review of Lelyveld's Gandhi biography by Christopher HitchensChristopher HitchensChristopher Eric Hitchens is an Anglo-American author and journalist whose books, essays, and journalistic career span more than four decades. He has been a columnist and literary critic at The Atlantic, Vanity Fair, Slate, World Affairs, The Nation, Free Inquiry, and became a media fellow at the...
, July 2011 in The Atlantic