Pollak, Richard 1934-

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Pollak, Richard 1934-

PERSONAL:

Born April 5, 1934, in Chicago, IL; son of Robert and Janet Pollak; married Diane Walsh (a concert pianist), 1982; children: (previous marriage) Amanda.

Education: Amherst College, B.A., 1957. Religion: Jewish.

Hobbies and other interests: Classical music.

ADDRESSES:

Home—404 Riverside Dr., Apt. 11B, New York, NY 10025. Office—The Nation, 33 Irving Pl., New York, NY 10003. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Journalist, educator, editor, and author. Baltimore Evening Sun, Baltimore, MD, political reporter, 1959-64; Newsweek, New York City, associate editor, 1964-67; Honolulu Star-Bulletin, Honolulu, HI, assistant editor, 1967-68; consultant, Ford Foundation, 1969-71; co-founder and editor, More magazine, 1971-78; Nation, New York, NY, literary editor, 1980-81, executive editor, 1988-89, contributing editor, 1989—. Editor, Deadline (newsletter), 1985-86. Poynter fellow, Yale University; taught at Yale University and New York University. Military service: U.S. Army; staff writer for Armed Forces Press Service, 1957-59; became specialist fourth class.

WRITINGS:

(Editor) Stop the Presses, I Want to Get Off: Inside Stories of the News Business from the Pages of "More," Random House (New York, NY), 1975.

Up against Apartheid: The Role and the Plight of the Press in South Africa, Southern Illinois University Press (Carbondale, IL), 1981.

The Episode (novel), New American Library (New York, NY), 1986.

The Creation of Dr. B.: A Biography of Bruno Bettelheim, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1997.

The Colombo Bay, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2004.

Contributor of articles to periodicals, including The Nation, Atlantic, Harper's, New England Monthly, and European Travel & Life.

SIDELIGHTS:

Journalist Richard Pollak has worked on newspapers and magazines and is the former cofounder and editor of More magazine, for which he worked from 1971 to 1976. This periodical was described by Library Journal writer Larry Friedman as "often bitingly critical of the journalistic establishment, the New York Times in particular." Pollak collected a variety of essays from More in his 1975 book, Stop the Presses, I Want to Get Off: Inside Stories of the News Business from the Pages of "More." In this volume Pollak recounts, among other topics, "how the press ignored the scandalous cover-up of the secret Cambodian bombing because Watergate was hotter news" and "how the Lynchburg, Virginia

News and Advance covered a local racial rape case and left a terrible blot on journalistic objectivity."

Stop the Presses, I Want to Get Off suffers a bit in the translation from magazine to book form, according to Anthony Wolff in Saturday Review: "The very qualities that make [More] such a worthy and interesting periodical—timeliness, a prurient interest in minor sins and bizarre manifestations—do not necessarily make a good book." Writing in New Republic, R.D. Rosen similarly felt that Pollak's efforts with More are deserving of a wide audience. Of the collection, Rosen noted that "this lively anthology … reminds us, in the words of A.J. Liebling … that ‘freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one.’ The posture of these articles is one of tutored irreverence and more than a few venerable institutions and individuals are brought to their knees."

In Up against Apartheid: The Role and the Plight of the Press in South Africa Pollak discusses governmental attempts to use propaganda in promoting the country's racial politics. While Library Journal reviewer J.J. Grotpeter found the author's treatment "somewhat superficial," the critic went on to recommend Up against Apartheid as "a good introduction to the subject. Pollak's examination can be appreciated by informed laypersons seeking insights into South Africa's problems."

Pollak's 1996 book, The Creation of Dr. B.: A Biography of Bruno Bettelheim, comes from personal experience. At age fourteen, Pollak witnessed the accidental falling death of his younger brother, who had been a patient of famed psychologist Bruno Bettelheim at Bettelheim's Orthogenic Institute, a residential treatment center for disturbed children. The trauma of the boy's death haunted Pollak into adulthood, when he attempted to learn about his brother's psychological history from Bettelheim. Incredibly, the doctor concluded that the boy had committed suicide and ascribed guilt to Pollak's mother. This experience led the writer to question Bettelheim's methods and credentials.

In researching The Creation of Dr. B. Pollak gained access to Bettelheim's children and first wife, plus a collection of colleagues, editors, students and friends (the doctor refused to be interviewed). The resulting portrait "surpassed my worst imaginings," stated Joseph Adelson in a Commentary critique. "Regarding credentials, we find not merely exaggeration but outright fraud: academic degrees concocted, work experience fabricated. We also learn … that substantial portions of Bettelheim's work were plagiarized." Pollak is "especially critical of [the doctor's] work on autism, which Bettelheim mistakenly attributed to bad mothering and for which he claimed remarkable but unproven treatment success," noted a Kirkus Reviews writer. John Elson concluded in Time: "Pollak's biography makes a persuasive case that Dr. B. was a manipulative, domineering ego tripper who abused his charges and co-workers."

Following the deeply personal story he told in The Creation of Dr. B., Pollak took a more journalistic turn with The Colombo Bay. Here, Pollak provides a direct account of a five-week trip he took aboard the container ship Colombo Bay as it moved its cargo across the waters from Hong Kong through the Suez Canal to the docks in New York City. The Colombo Bay is one of about seven thousand container ships that regularly ply the seas, moving as much as ninety percent of the world's cargo, noted Dale Farris in Library Journal. Pollak provides a brief history of merchant sailing, plus a detailed look at the life of the merchant seaman, describing the ships, the varied cargoes, and the hardy officers and crew who sail under sometimes difficult circumstances. He describes the dangers of modern piracy, the life-threatening conditions that can result from hurricanes and bad weather at sea, and the dangers posed by stowaways and other unauthorized personnel. Pollak, furthermore, offers chilling descriptions of how easy it would be for terrorists or others to hide dangerous weapons among the other cargo containers ferried by the world's merchant ships.

Reviewer Louise Jarvis Flynn reported in the New York Times Book Review that Pollak was asleep in Hong Kong during the September 11 terrorist attacks. Afterward, he was less eager to pursue the Colombo Bay project, but his wife urged him on. "As a result," Flynn commented, "The Colombo Bay is not only a meticulously researched examination of the container-shipping industry … but also an original portrait of the blurry weeks following Sept. 11." Pollak's account "affords a very good look at merchant seamen and the giant vessels in which they work," commented Booklist contributor Frieda Murray. Farris described the book as a "fascinating inside look at how everyday goods now get to their final destination."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

America, August 2, 1975, review of Stop the Presses, I Want to Get Off: Inside Stories of the News Business from the Pages of "More".

Booklist, January 1, 1997, Patricia Hassler, review of The Creation of Dr. B.: A Biography of Bruno Bettelheim, p. 798; January 1, 2004, Frieda Murray, review of The Colombo Bay, p. 797.

Choice, October, 1975, review of Stop the Presses; September, 1981, review of Up against Apartheid: The Role and the Plight of the Press in South Africa.

Commentary, June, 1997, Joseph Adelson, review of The Creation of Dr. B., p. 67.

Commonweal, November 7, 1975, review of Stop the Presses.

Kirkus Reviews, November 1, 1996, review of The Creation of Dr. B.

Library Journal, May 15, 1975, Larry Friedman, review of Stop the Presses; June 15, 1981, J.J. Grotpeter, review of Up against Apartheid; January, 2004, Dale Farris, review of The Colombo Bay, p. 128.

New Republic, May 24, 1975, R.D. Rosen, review of Stop the Presses.

New York Times Book Review, March 14, 2004, Louise Jarvis Flynn, "The Floating Warehouse," review of The Colombo Bay, p. 17.

Publishers Weekly, November 18, 1996, review of The Creation of Dr. B., p. 53.

Saturday Review, May 31, 1975, Anthony Wolff, review of Stop the Presses.

Tikkun, September-October, 1997, Helene Goldberg, review of The Creation of Dr. B., p. 77.

Time, January 27, 1997, John Elson, review of The Creation of Dr. B., p. 74.