Carr V. Van Anda Biography

Carr Vattell Van Anda was born on December 2, 1864 in Georgetown, Ohio, the son of Frederick and Mariah (Davis) Van Anda. After his mother's death and his father's remarriage the family moved to Wapakoneta, Ohio. In 1880, at age sixteen, Van Anda entered Ohio University in Athens, Ohio where he studied for two years. During college he worked as a correspondent for newspapers in Cleveland and Cincinnati.

Van Anda left Ohio University and returned to Wapakoneta. He became a foreman on the weekly Auglaize Republican. This provided him with invaluable experience in the mechanical aspects of newspaper work. In 1883 he landed a job as a typesetter on The Cleveland Herald, which eventually merged with The Plain Dealer. His reporting skills were recognized and he was promoted to telegraph editor. In 1886 he went to work for the Cleveland Evening Argus which soon folded. At the young age of 22 he moved to Baltimore and landed the important position of night editor on the Baltimore Sun, but Van Anda was lured by the dream of working in New York. On March 12, 1888 he was hired as a reporter/copy editor on the New York Sun. Van Anda became the night editor on January 1, 1893.

Van Anda's legendary 21 year career as the active managing editor of the New York Times began February 14, 1904. Adolph S. Ochs had purchased the floundering paper in 1896. Ochs was financially supportive of Van Anda's efforts to build the finest news gathering organization in the world. As managing editor Van Anda still kept the hours of a night editor, coming to work early in the afternoon, taking a break for dinner around six and staying at the office until the paper was put to bed in the early morning hours. Under Van Anda's leadership the Times was the first paper to print news of the Titanic sinking, won a Pulitzer Prize for it's coverage of World War I, gave unprecedented attention to scientific topics, such as Albert Einstein's theory of relativity, and in 1923 tied up the only phone line to the rural village in Vermont where Calvin Coolidge was sworn in as president of the United States. Van Anda is credited with developing the Times as a 'newspaper of record.'

In February 1925, due to ill health, Van Anda took a leave of absence from the Times. In 1932 he officially retired. On January 29, 1945 Carr Van Anda died at age 80. The Ohio University School of Journalism established it's Carr Van Anda Award for highest distinction in journalism in his honor in 1968.

Sources

Emery, Edwin, "Carr Vattell Van Anda," Dictionary of American Biography, Supplement 3. Charles Scribner's Sons: (New York, 1973.)

Fine, Barnett, A Giant of the Press. The Editor and Publisher Company: (New York, 1933.)

Hynes, Terry, "Carr Van Anda," Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 25: American Newspaper Journalists, 1901 - 1925. Gale Research: (Detroit, 1984.)

Prepared by Lisa M. Wood, May 1997