Homer Bigart
Homer William Bigart (October 25, 1907 - April 16, 1991) was a reporter for the New York Herald Tribune from 1929 to 1955 and the New York Times from 1955 to his retirement in 1972. He was considered a "reporter's reporter"[1] and an "enduring role model."[2] He won two Pulitzer Prizes, one for Telegraphic Reporting - International for his work in World War II, and the other for International Reporting in the Korean War, as well as most of the other major journalism awards.[2]
Contents |
[edit] Early life and education
Bigart was born in Hawley, Pennsylvania to Homer S. Bigart, a woolens manufacturer, and Anna Schardt Bigart. To author Karen Rothmeyer, he confided near the end of his life:
I decided that I would become an architect because it sounded so prestigious and so easy. Especially easy. I went to what was then Carnegie Tech in Pittsburgh and quickly discovered that if you were going to be an architect you at least had to learn how to draw. But I couldn't even do that. The only passing grade I got was in English, so I decided that about the only thing I could do was to become a newspaperman."[3]
He transferred to the New York University School of Journalism in 1929.
[edit] Journalism career
He got a part-time job as a night copy boy at the Herald Tribune, then dropped out of school to work full time at the newspaper.[2] Despite a stutter[4] and a painfully slow typing speed, he was promoted to general assignment reporter after four years.[2]
[edit] World War II
In 1942, with World War II raging, he was asked to become a war correspondent.[2] Though he stated that though he never liked war, when he was assigned to London:
... those first few months were about the happiest ones I think I've ever spent in journalism. I liked the people and I liked the city. There was sort of a lull in the air raid war so you had the excitement of being in a war area without any real danger.[3]
He and seven other reporters flew bombing missions over Germany as part of "The Writing 69th". On one such mission to Wilhelmshaven in March 1943, the B-17 bomber formation in which he and fellow reporters Walter Cronkite and Gladwyn Hill were flying, suffered heavy losses to enemy fighters.[5] He also covered the fighting in North Africa, Italy, and southern France. When Germany surrendered, he went to the Pacific and was one of the first reporters to enter Hiroshima after the atomic bombing.[2][4] This was to be only the first of the many wars Bigart was to cover.
[edit] Korean War
Next up was the Korean War. Here he clashed with fellow Tribune reporter Marguerite Higgins. Recalled Bigart:
When I came out I thought I was the premier war correspondent and I thought that she, being the Tokyo correspondent, ought to be back in Toyko. But she didn't see things that way. She was a very brave person, foolishly brave. As a result, I felt as though I had to go out and get shot at occasionally myself. So I resented that.[3]
Nonetheless, Bigart, Higgins and four others shared a Pulitzer Prize. Once again, he was in the thick of things; a July 10, 1950 dispatch described being caught between North Korean tanks and an American artillery barrage.[5] Newsweek called him "the best war correspondent of an embattled generation."[2]
In 1955, he left the Tribute, a decade away from its demise, for The New York Times. He covered the trial of Nazi Adolph Eichmann in 1961.[4]
[edit] Vietnam War
In 1962, Bigart was sent to South Vietnam, where he stayed for six months. He soon realized that the war was a mistake, stating "I never thought we'd be stupid enough to send ground troops over there in the first place, after the experience in Korea".[4] He made enemies by bucking the pressure to report optimistically. He was expelled from South Vietnam by President Ngo Dinh Diem for persistently criticizing him, his brother Ngo Dinh Nhu, and sister-in-law Madame Ngo Dinh Nhu.[citation needed]
[edit] Personal life
Bigart retired in 1973 and died in 1991 in Portsmouth, New Hampshire of cancer.[2]
He divorced his first wife, Alice Veit. His second wife, Alice Weel, died in 1969. He was survived by his third wife, Else Holmelund Minarik, a writer of children's books.
[edit] References
- ^ "Homer Bigart". PBS. http://www.pbs.org/weta/reportingamericaatwar/reporters/bigart/. Retrieved 2008-08-18.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Richard Severo (April 17, 1991). "Homer Bigart, Acclaimed Reporter, Dies". The New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CEEDE103AF934A25757C0A967958260.
- ^ a b c Karen Rothmeyer (November 1991). "The Quiet Exit". American Journalism Review. http://www.ajr.org/article.asp?id=1543. Retrieved February 18, 2011.
- ^ a b c d "Homer Bigart; Journalist Won 2 Pulitzers for War Coverage". Los Angeles Times. April 18, 1991. http://articles.latimes.com/1991-04-18/news/mn-321_1_homer-bigart.
- ^ a b Malcolm W. Browne (April 11, 1993). "The Fighting Words of Homer Bigart: A War Correspondent Is Never a Cheerleader (book review)". The New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CE7DE123FF932A25757C0A965958260&pagewanted=2.
