Harrison E. Salisbury papers, 1927-1999

Summary Information

At a Glance

Call No.:
MS#1509
Bib ID:
5685745 View CLIO record
Creator(s):
Salisbury, Harrison E (Harrison Evans), 1908-1993
Repository:
Rare Book and Manuscript Library
Physical Description:
290 linear feet (677 boxes; 1 mapcase drawer; 4 flat boxes; 3 tube boxes)
Language(s):
English .
Access:
You will need to make an appointment in advance to use this collection material in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library reading room. You can schedule an appointment once you've submitted your request through your Special Collections Research Account.

The following boxes are located off-site: 664 boxes of arranged material. You will need to request this material at least three business days in advance to use the collection in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library reading room.

This collection has no restrictions.

The description for Series III is a rough box list, and there may be discrepancies between the list and the actual contents.

Description

Summary

Correspondence, manuscripts, documents, photographs, notes, inteviews, articles, newspapers, clippings, and press releases of Harrison Evans Salisbury, a prominent journalist and editor.

Arrangement

Arranged in three series.

Using the Collection

Restrictions on Access

You will need to make an appointment in advance to use this collection material in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library reading room. You can schedule an appointment once you've submitted your request through your Special Collections Research Account.

The following boxes are located off-site: 664 boxes of arranged material. You will need to request this material at least three business days in advance to use the collection in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library reading room.

This collection has no restrictions.

The description for Series III is a rough box list, and there may be discrepancies between the list and the actual contents.

Terms Governing Use and Reproduction

Single photocopies may be made for research purposes. The RBML maintains ownership of the physical material only. Copyright remains with the creator and his/her heirs. The responsibility to secure copyright permission rests with the patron.

PRTS dated May 22, 1997, on Box 678 for 30 years up to May 21, 2027.

Preferred Citation

Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Harrison E. Salisbury papers; Box and Folder; Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University Library.

Accruals

Materials may have been added to the collection since this finding aid was prepared. Contact rbml@columbia.edu for more information.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Source of acquisition--Estate of Harrison Salisbury. Method of acquisition--Gift; Date of acquisition--1993.

About the Finding Aid / Processing Information

Columbia University Libraries, Rare Book and Manuscript Library

Processing Information

Papers processed Sondra Venable 4/2001.

Revision Description

2009-06-26 File created.

2019-05-20 EAD was imported spring 2019 as part of the ArchivesSpace Phase II migration.

Biographical Note

The American journalist Harrison E. Salisbury (1908-1993) was well-known for his reporting and books on the Soviet Union. A distinguished correspondent and editor for the New York Times, he was the first American reporter to visit Hanoi during the Vietnam War. After editing the campus daily at the University of Minnesota and working as a reporter for the Minneapolis Journal, he decided to pursue a career in journalism. Salisbury took a job with the United Press in St. Paul, soon circulating through other UP bureaus in Chicago, Washington D.C., and New York before being sent to Europe in 1942, where he visited London and Moscow on assignment. In 1944, Salisbury covered the Russian army's victory over the retreating German troops, which he later used as the basis for a series of articles for Colliers magazine and as a book entitled Russia on the Way 1946.

He joined the New York Times and returned to the Soviet Union in 1949 as the Times Russian correspondent. His reports from Moscow were heavily censored and were seen as controversial in the McCarthy anti-Communist atmosphere. After travelling through Siberia in the spring of 1954, he wrote a 14-part report "Russia Re-viewed," which received the 1955 Pulitzer Prize for international reporting. Although barred from the Soviet Union for five years after receiving the Pulitzer Prize, Salisbury was able to tour Poland Bulgaria Rumania and Albania in 1957 and his report on the deterioration of Communism in Eastern Europe led to a George Polk Memorial award for foreign news coverage. Allowed to visit the Soviet Union in 1959 and 1961-1962 Salisbury wrote several books describing the changes in the post-Stalin era. He also published Moscow Journal The End of Stalin 1961 which included the censored dispatches from his earlier five-year residence in Moscow. His knowledge of Stalin's regime provided the background for his well-received first novel The Northern Palmyra Affair (1962).

In 1962 Salisbury was named national news editor of the Times. He supervised the paper's excellent coverage of President Kennedy's assassination and in 1964 became assistant managing editor. In 1972 he was elevated to the rank of associate editor. At the end of 1973 he retired from the New York Times. After leaving The Times Salisbury continued to write and publish. He wrote about the Soviet Union in a series of books including Black Night White Snow (1978), One Hundred Years of Revolution (1983), and A Journey for Our Times A Memoir (1983, which also narrates his boyhood and early career as a journalist. His memoirs were elaborated in another book published in 1988 entitled A Time of Change. In retirement Salisbury traveled several times to China and wrote a book describing his history of the making of the Chinese Red Army following the course of the Long March: The Long March: The Untold Story (1985). Salisbury's reports on North Vietnam were given the Overseas Press Club and George Polk Memorial Awards and his experience was described in the book Behind the Lines (1967); he also wrote Orbit of China (1967), the best-seller The 900 Days: The Siege of Leningrad (1969) and War Between Russia and China (1969). Salisbury's coverage of Al Capone's trial to his presence at the 1989 Tianamen Square uprising were described in Tianamen Diary Thirteen Days in June (1988).

Salisbury's other works include The Kingdom and the Power (1966), Russia in Revolution (1979), The New Emperors: China in the Era of Mao and Deng (1992), and Heroes of My Time (1993). Salisbury wrote an authorized but independent history of the New York Times which was published as Without Fear or Favor (1980), which discusses the shift in the paper from news reporting to an active engagement in political events. Salisbury focuses his story on the decision of the Times to print the secret study of the Vietnam War, the Pentagon Papers which provoked a confrontation with the Nixon administration. In 1964 he married Charlotte Young Rand and they lived in Manhattan and Taconic, Connecticut.

Subject Headings

The subject headings listed below are found in this collection. Links below allow searches for other collections at Columbia University, through CLIO, the catalog for Columbia University Libraries, and through ArchiveGRID, a catalog that allows users to search the holdings of multiple research libraries and archives.

All links open new windows.

Name
New York Times Company CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Oakes, John B (John Bertram), 1913-2001 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Subject
Journalists CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Newspaper editors CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Newspaper publishing CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Newspapers -- Sections, columns, etc CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID