His Life

Otto Friedrich was born in Boston in 1929. He majored in History at Harvard where he graduated summa cum laude in 1948. He went to Europe and worked for the Stars & Stripes in Germany and United Press in Paris and London. Returning to New York, he served as an editor at the Daily News, Newsweek, and the Saturday Evening Post. He was managing editor at the Post from 1965 until the magazine’s suspension in 1969. Friedrich’s account of the Post’s last years, Decline and Fall, appeared in 1970 and was hailed as “a classic of American journalism.” It won the George Polk Award as that year’s best book on the press. Among his other books are Before the Deluge: A Portrait of Berlin in the 1920’s (1976); The End of the World: A History (1982); City of Nets: A Portrait of Hollywood in the 1940’s (1986); Glenn Gould: A Life and Variations (1990); Olympia: Paris in the Age of Manet (1992); and The Kingdom of Auschwitz (1994). Friedrich also wrote two novels and, in collaboration with his wife, nine children’s books. Read More