Word: peretz
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Doris Grumbach, former literary editor of The New Republic, whom Peretz fired in June, says that her dispute with Peretz was not political but literary. She adds, however, that Peretz's heavy insistence on books of his ideology and ethnic origins was a little onerous...
...telephone interview with Peretz, it was pointed out to him that a recent issue of The New Republic had two book reviews on Israel. One was on the Israeli army and the other on women in the kibbutz. Peretz replied angrily that he had previously noticed this and his explanation is that the same issue contained two reviews pertaining to Africa. Sure enough the issue contained a review of a Nigerian author's book and another on art from Zaire...
...Peretz's first year at The New Republic was also marked by conflict with his editor-in-chief Gilbert Harrison, ending with Harrison's resignation in January. It is not unusual that the new owner of a magazine should change the masthead. What is unusual is that Peretz and Harrison agreed to sell Peretz The New Republic for $380,000. Then they drew up an ill-conceived and ambiguous contract that allowed the former owner to stay on as editor-in-chief and that caused immediate quarrels over who would control the magazine...
Richard L. Strout '19, who writes under the column-head TRB for The New Republic (Strout says the title is the reverse of the initials of the Brooklyn Rapid Transit, hastily improvised under deadline years ago) says of the Peretz-Harrison arrangement, "I don't see how any same person would have thought it would last." The arrangement for Peretz to be Harrison's apprentice but also owner of the magazine was an "artificial situation with a built-in conflict," Strout says...
...clincher that gave Peretz final authority in the dispute was a clause saying "the seller will serve the buyer's best interests." The agreement was that Harrison would stay on for a three year grace period while Peretz learned the ropes. This arrangement, Peretz says, caused one of his friends, a "shrewd" businessman, to say, "This kind of two-headed monster will never last...