Arthur Gelb (February 3, 1924 – May 20, 2014) was an American editor, author and executive and was the

managing editor A managing editor (ME) is a senior member of a publication's management team. Typically, the managing editor reports directly to the editor-in-chief and oversees all aspects of the publication. United States In the United States, a managing edit ...

of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' from 1986 to 1989.

Career

Gelb began working the night shift at ''The Times'' as a copy boy in 1944. He ascended through the ranks, holding several titles in many different departments. His biggest impacts were while working in the drama department. He enjoyed the plays of

Eugene O'Neill Eugene Gladstone O'Neill (October 16, 1888 – November 27, 1953) was an American playwright and Nobel laureate in Nobel Prize in Literature, literature. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into the U.S. the drama tech ...

so much that he wrote a biography of the playwright (''O'Neill: Life with Monte Cristo'', 1974, ) with his wife Barbara. He supported the creation of the

New York Shakespeare Festival Shakespeare in the Park (or Free Shakespeare in the Park) is a theatrical program that stages productions of Shakespearean plays at the Delacorte Theater, an open-air theater in New York City's Central Park. The theater and the productions ar ...

by editorializing

Joseph Papp Joseph Papp (born Joseph Papirofsky; June 22, 1921 – October 31, 1991) was an American theatrical producer and director. He established The Public Theater in what had been the Astor Library Building in Lower Manhattan. There Papp created ...

's productions. He has edited a number of works such as "Great Lives of the Twentieth Century" (). Gelb retired from ''The Times'' in 1989 as managing editor. "City room" (), a memoir of his life and career at The Times, was published in 2003. After retiring from ''The Times'', Gelb became president of

The New York Times Company The New York Times Company is an American mass media company that publishes ''The New York Times''. Its headquarters are in Manhattan, New York City. History The company was founded by Henry Jarvis Raymond and George Jones in New York City. ...

Foundation, which operated until 2009, and director of The New York Times College Scholarship Program.

Personal life

Gelb and his family lived in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

. Arthur and Barbara Gelb were the parents of

Peter Gelb Peter Gelb (born 1953) is an American arts administrator. Since August 2006, he has been General Manager of the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. Career Early career While in high school, Gelb began his association with the Metropolitan Opera ...

, General Manager of the

Metropolitan Opera The Metropolitan Opera (commonly known as the Met) is an American opera company based in New York City, resident at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, currently situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The company is oper ...

in New York City.

Death

Gelb died on May 20, 2014, at his home in

Manhattan, New York Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

, of complications of a stroke. He was 90.

References

External links

*
Gelb Papers
at the

Harry Ransom Center The Harry Ransom Center (until 1983 the Humanities Research Center) is an archive, library and museum at the University of Texas at Austin, specializing in the collection of literary and cultural artifacts from the Americas and Europe for the pur ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gelb, Arthur 1924 births 2014 deaths People from Manhattan American newspaper editors American people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent Jewish American journalists Journalists from New York City The New York Times editors The New York Times writers 21st-century American Jews