Carr Van Anda

{{Infobox person

| name = Carr V. Van Anda

| image = Carr Vattel Van Anda.jpg

| caption = Van Anda in 1920

| birthname =

| birth_date = {{birth date|1863|12|2}}

| birth_place = Georgetown, Ohio

| death_date = {{Death date and age|1945|1|28|1863|12|2}}

| death_place = Manhattan, New York

| occupation = Journalist

| alias =

| status =

| title =

| family =

| spouse = Louise Shipman Drane

| children =

| relatives =

| credits = The New York Times

| URL =

| alma_mater = Ohio University

}}

Carr Vattal Van Anda (December 2, 1864{{cite book|last=Berger|first=Meyer|title=The Story of the New York Times, 1851-1951|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jYu1AAAAIAAJ|year=1951|publisher=Simon and Schuster}} – January 29, 1945){{cite book|last=Wade|first=Wyn Craig|title=The Titanic: End of a Dream|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8HUs-VsW_icC|date=March 30, 1992|publisher=Penguin Books|isbn=978-0-14-016691-0}} was the managing editor of The New York Times under Adolph Ochs, from 1904 to 1932.{{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1945/02/01/archives/last-tribute-paid-to-carr-van-anda-funeral-services-for-editor-and.html |title=LAST TRIBUTE PAID TO CARR VAN ANDA; Funeral Services for Editor and Daughter Held at the Church of Heavenly Rest |date=February 1, 1945 |work=The New York Times |access-date=April 28, 2020 |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}

Biography

Van Anda was born in Georgetown, Ohio to Frederick Van Anda and Mariah Davis. He moved to New York in order to become a journalist and editor. Beginning at the New York Sun he moved to The New York Times in 1904. Van Anda was an academic, studying astronomy and physics at Ohio University, and started in journalism at The Cleveland Herald and Gazette and later The Baltimore Sun before being picked up by Adolph Simon Ochs, who valued intelligent and accurate news reporting.

Van Anda gave political and scientific news coverage the same zeal normally reserved for sports and celebrities. Fluent in hieroglyphics, he secured near-exclusive coverage of the opening of Tutankhamun's tomb by Howard Carter in 1923. He famously corrected a mathematical error in a speech given by Albert Einstein that was to be printed in the Times.{{cite magazine|title=The Kingdom And The Cabbage|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,915282-5,00.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121018094126/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,915282-5,00.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=October 18, 2012|magazine=Time|date=1977-08-15}}

He was instrumental in getting a scoop for The Times on the story of the sinking of the RMS Titanic in 1912. While other newspapers were printing the White Star Line's ambiguous story about the Titanic having trouble after hitting an iceberg, Van Anda (who had received a bulletin reporting a CQD (now SOS) call from the Titanic,{{cite magazine|title=The Most Unforgettable Character I've Ever Met |magazine=Reader's Digest |date=August 1944|page= 13}}) figured that a lack of communication from the ship meant that the worst had happened and printed a headline stating that the Titanic had sunk.{{cite news|title=Titanic's Achilles Heel, The History Channel}} Another notable story was the 1911 New York State Capitol fire in Albany, New York, which he covered with a phone call and some journalistic invention. As his career progressed, it was said of him that "he is the most illustrious unknown man in America." According to a New Yorker profile piece, V.A. (as he was called) practiced "a fierce anonymity while bestowing fleeting fame on some and withholding it from others."{{citation needed|date=December 2014}}

On April 11, 1898, Van Anda married Louise Shipman Drane, who was born in Frankfort, Kentucky, on November 26, 1873, to George Canning Drane and Mary Shipman. They had a son, Paul Drane Van Anda (born March 30, 1899). Van Anda died of a heart attack in 1945 immediately upon learning of his daughter's death.

The E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University gave the "Carr Van Anda Award" to recognize outstanding work by journalists during their careers.

He is referenced by Richard Gere's character in episode 7 of the BBC Drama MotherFatherSon.

References

Sources

[https://www.npr.org/about/press/050309.totenberg.html NPR story]
{{cite magazine

|title=News Judge

|date=1945-02-05

|magazine=Time

|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,797100,00.html

|access-date=2008-08-10

|url-status=dead

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160310003920/http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,797100,00.html

|archive-date=2016-03-10

}}

[https://web.archive.org/web/20110726074831/http://scrippsjschool.org/about/carrvananda.php Carr Van Anda Biography at E.W. Scripps School of Journalism, Ohio University.]
David W. Dunlap, [https://www.nytimes.com/times-insider/2014/12/16/1925-in-one-day-the-times-lost-a-world-of-knowledge/ "1925: In One Day, The Times Lost a World of Knowledge"], The New York Times, Dec. 16, 2014.

Carr Van Anda

Biography

References

Sources

Further reading