LASKY, Melvin J(onah) 1920-2004

OBITUARY NOTICE—

See index for CA sketch: Born January 15, 1920, in New York, NY; died of heart failure May 19, 2004, in Berlin, Germany. Editor and author. Lasky was an anti-communist liberal most noted for his editorship of the magazines Der Monat and Encounter. Completing his undergraduate work at the City College of New York in 1939, and earning a master's degree in history from the University of Michigan the next year, his first job was as literary editor for the New Leader. Joining the U.S. Army in 1943, he served as an historian and had the opportunity to visit Nazi concentration camps. After the war, he settled in Berlin, quickly establishing himself as a leading intellectual thinker, editing Der Monat from 1948 to 1958, and recording such important political events as the 1953 uprising in East Germany and the 1956 Hungarian revolution. Lasky strongly opposed the Communist USSR, comparing its government to Nazi Germany and helping to found the Congress for Cultural Freedom, which helped to fund magazines and conferences opposed to Communism. He also became an advisor to General Lucius D. Clay, the American governor in post-war Berlin. In 1958, Lasky joined Encounter, which was considered the leading intellectual magazine of England and published the works of such writers as Lionel Trilling and Jean-Paul Sartre. When it was revealed in the 1960s that part of the magazine's funding came from the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, the scandal hurt Lasky's reputation, though he continued to run Encounter until 1990, a year after the end of the cold war and the fall of the Berlin Wall. In addition to his editing work, Lasky was the author of several books, including Utopia and Revolution (1975), On the Barricades, and Off (1989), and The Language of Journalism (2000). Recognized later in his life for his contributions to society, he was awarded the distinguished service medal from Berlin in 1995, and two years later was named "one of the most important Berliners" by a commission of German historians.

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Independent (London, England), May 21, 2004, p. 32.

Los Angeles Times, May 30, 2004, p. B19.

New York Times, May 22, 2004, p. B15.

Times (London, England), May 21, 2004, p. 39.

Washington Post, May 27, 2004, p. B7.