Anthony Lewis facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Anthony Lewis
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Lewis in 1985
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Joseph Anthony Lewis
March 27, 1927 New York City, U.S.
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| Died | March 25, 2013 (aged 85) Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.
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| Alma mater | Harvard University (AB) |
| Occupation | Journalist |
| Known for | Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting (1955) |
| Spouse(s) | Linda J. Rannells (1951–1982; divorced; 3 children) Margaret H. Marshall
(m. 1984) |
Joseph Anthony Lewis (March 27, 1927 – March 25, 2013) was an important American journalist and writer. He won the famous Pulitzer Prize twice for his excellent reporting. He was also a columnist for The New York Times, a very well-known newspaper. Many people say he helped create a new type of journalism focused on legal topics in the United States.
A Supreme Court Justice once praised Lewis, saying he had an amazing understanding of legal cases. When Lewis passed away, the head of the Columbia University School of Journalism called him "one of the defining liberal voices" of his time.
Contents
Early Life of Anthony Lewis
Anthony Lewis was born in New York City on March 27, 1927. His father, Kassel Lewis, worked in textiles, and his mother, Sylvia Surut, became a director at a nursery school. His family was Jewish.
He went to the Horace Mann School in the Bronx. Later, he graduated from Harvard College in 1948. While at Harvard, he was the managing editor of the student newspaper, The Harvard Crimson.
Anthony Lewis's Journalism Career
After college, Lewis started working for The New York Times. He left for a short time in 1952 to work on a presidential campaign. He then returned to journalism at The Washington Daily News.
- First Pulitzer Prize: At The Washington Daily News, Lewis wrote a series of articles about a U.S. Navy employee named Abraham Chasanow. This employee had been fired because of secret accusations. Lewis's articles helped show what happened, and he won a Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting in 1955 for this work.
Lewis went back to The New York Times in 1955. He was in charge of the Washington office and covered the Justice Department and the Supreme Court.
- Second Pulitzer Prize: From 1956 to 1957, he studied at Harvard Law School. He won his second Pulitzer Prize in 1963 for his reporting on the U.S. Supreme Court. This award recognized his clear explanations of important court decisions, like Baker v. Carr, which was about how voting districts are set up.
During a newspaper strike in 1962-1963, Lewis wrote a book called Gideon's Trumpet. This book tells the true story of Clarence Earl Gideon. His case, Gideon v. Wainwright, led to a Supreme Court decision that said states must provide lawyers for people who cannot afford one in serious criminal cases. The book has been continuously in print since it was first published. It even became a TV movie in 1980, and Lewis had a small role in it!
In 1964, Lewis published another book, Portrait of a Decade: The Second American Revolution. This book was about the civil rights movement in the United States. In 1991, he wrote Make No Law, which explained The New York Times v. Sullivan. This was a very important Supreme Court case from 1964 that changed how libel (false statements that harm someone's reputation) was handled in American law. The court decided that public officials had to prove that false statements were made with "actual malice" (meaning the person knew it was false or seriously doubted its truth) to win a libel case. This made it harder to sue journalists and helped protect free speech.
In 1964, The New York Times sent Lewis to London to be their bureau chief. He covered many topics there, from politics to culture. In 1969, he moved back to New York and started writing a twice-weekly opinion column for the Times. He wrote these columns until he retired in 2001. His columns often focused on legal issues, peace efforts between Israel and Palestinians, and criticism of the Vietnam War and the apartheid system in South Africa. His final column in 2001 warned about the risks to civil liberties after the September 11 attacks.
Looking back on his time as a columnist, Lewis said he learned two main things:
- Being absolutely sure you are right can be dangerous and lead to harm.
- For a diverse country like the U.S., following the law is essential. When governments ignore the law, it can be very risky.
Other Activities and Awards
Starting in the mid-1970s, Anthony Lewis taught a course on the First Amendment and the Supreme Court at Columbia University for 23 years. He also lectured at Harvard University and other universities.
He received many honors for his work:
- In 1983, he received the Elijah P. Lovejoy Award and an honorary law degree from Colby College.
- On January 8, 2001, President Bill Clinton gave him the Presidential Citizens Medal.
- In 2008, the National Coalition Against Censorship honored him for his work on First Amendment rights and free expression.
Lewis was also a long-time member of the graduate board for The Harvard Crimson student newspaper. He helped raise money and rebuild the paper's building. In 2005, he was elected to the American Philosophical Society, a group that promotes useful knowledge. He also served on the board of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), which works to protect journalists worldwide. CPJ gave him an award for his lifetime achievements in 2009.
Anthony Lewis's Views on the Press
Anthony Lewis believed that the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution limited the government's power over speech. However, he did not think it should give special protections to journalists.
For example, he agreed when a federal court in 2005 required a New York Times reporter, Judith Miller, to reveal her secret sources. Lewis believed journalists should follow the law, even if it meant revealing sources. He also did not support a federal "shield law" that would allow journalists to always refuse to name their sources. He pointed out cases where leaked information harmed individuals, and he felt journalists should be careful not to cause harm while reporting.
Personal Life
On July 8, 1951, Anthony Lewis married Linda J. Rannells. They had three children together before divorcing in 1982.
Lewis moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, while he was still writing his column for The New York Times. In 1984, he married Margaret H. Marshall. She was a lawyer who later became the Chief Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts.
Anthony Lewis and his wife lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts for many years. He passed away on March 25, 2013, just two days before his 86th birthday. He had been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease a few years earlier.
Awards
- 1955: Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting
- 1963: Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting
- 1983: Elijah P. Lovejoy Award
- 1983: Doctor of Laws degree from Colby College
- 2001: Presidential Citizens Medal by Bill Clinton
- 2003: American Civil Liberties Union's Roger N. Baldwin Medal of Liberty
- 2008: National Coalition Against Censorship honor for work on First Amendment rights and free expression
Selected Writings
- Author
- Gideon's Trumpet (Random House, 1964) (Reprint ISBN: 0-679-72312-9)
- Portrait of a Decade: The Second American Revolution (Random House, 1964) (ISBN: 0-394-44412-4)
- Make No Law: The Sullivan Case and the First Amendment (Random House, 1991) (ISBN: 0-394-58774-X)
- The Supreme Court and How It Works: The Story of the Gideon Case (Random House Children's Books, 1966) (ISBN: 0-394-91861-4)
- Freedom for the Thought That We Hate: A Biography of the First Amendment (Basic Books, 2010) (ISBN: 0465039170)
- Co-author
- Pierce O'Donnell and Anthony Lewis, In Time of War: Hitler's Terrorist Attack on America (New Press, 2005) (ISBN: 1-56584-958-2)
- Frank Snepp and Anthony Lewis, Irreparable Harm: A Firsthand Account of How One Agent Took on the CIA in an Epic Battle Over Free Speech (University Press of Kansas, 2001) (ISBN: 0-7006-1091-X)
- Editor
- Written into History: Pulitzer Prize Reporting of the Twentieth Century from The New York Times (Holt, 2001) (ISBN: 0-8050-6849-X)
- Preface/introduction
- Glory and Terror: The Growing Nuclear Danger by Steven Weinberg; preface by Anthony Lewis (New York Review Books, 2004) (ISBN: 1-59017-130-6)
- The Other Israel: Voices of Refusal and Dissent edited by Tom Segev and Roane Carey, with an introduction by Anthony Lewis (New Press, 2004) (ISBN: 1-56584-914-0)
- The Torture Papers: The Road to Abu Ghraib edited by Karen J. Greenberg and Joshua L. Dratel, with an introduction by Anthony Lewis (Cambridge University Press, 2005) (ISBN: 0-521-85324-9)
- The Myth of the Imperial Judiciary: Why the Right Is Wrong About the Courts by Mark Kozlowski, foreword by Anthony Lewis (New York University Press, 2003) (ISBN: 0-8147-4775-2)
- Miscellaneous articles
- One Liberty at a Time (Mother Jones, May/June 2004)
- the Framers, the 1st Amendment and watchdog reporting
- "Heroic" News media?
- The Justices Take on the President
