Carr Vattal Van Anda (December 2, 1864 – January 29, 1945) 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 ...

'' under

Adolph Ochs Adolph Simon Ochs (March 12, 1858 – April 8, 1935) was an American newspaper publisher and former owner of ''The New York Times'' and ''The Chattanooga Times'' (now the '' Chattanooga Times Free Press''). Early life and career Ochs was born ...

, from 1904 to 1932.

Biography

Van Anda was born in

Georgetown, Ohio Georgetown is a village in Brown County, Ohio, United States located about 36 miles southeast of Cincinnati. The population was 4,331 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Brown County. Georgetown was the childhood home of Ulysses S. G ...

to Frederick Van Anda and Mariah Davis. He moved to New York in order to become a

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...

and editor. Beginning at the ''

New York Sun ''The New York Sun'' is an American online newspaper published in Manhattan; from 2002 to 2008 it was a daily newspaper distributed in New York City. It debuted on April 16, 2002, adopting the name, motto, and masthead of the earlier New York ...

'' he moved to ''The New York Times'' in 1904. Van Anda was an academic, studying

astronomy Astronomy () is a natural science that studies celestial objects and phenomena. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and evolution. Objects of interest include planets, moons, stars, nebulae, g ...

and

physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which ...

Ohio University Ohio University is a public research university in Athens, Ohio. The first university chartered by an Act of Congress and the first to be chartered in Ohio, the university was chartered in 1787 by the Congress of the Confederation and subse ...

, and started in

journalism Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the " news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree. The word, a noun, applies to the occupation (p ...

at '' The Cleveland Herald and Gazette'' and later ''

The Baltimore Sun ''The Baltimore Sun'' is the largest general-circulation daily newspaper based in the U.S. state of Maryland and provides coverage of local and regional news, events, issues, people, and industries. Founded in 1837, it is currently owned by T ...

'' 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

hieroglyph A hieroglyph ( Greek for "sacred carvings") was a character of the ancient Egyptian writing system. Logographic scripts that are pictographic in form in a way reminiscent of ancient Egyptian are also sometimes called "hieroglyphs". In Neoplatoni ...

ics, he secured near-exclusive coverage of the opening of

Tutankhamun Tutankhamun (, egy, twt-ꜥnḫ-jmn), Egyptological pronunciation Tutankhamen () (), sometimes referred to as King Tut, was an Egyptian pharaoh who was the last of his royal family to rule during the end of the Eighteenth Dynasty (ruled ...

's tomb by

Howard Carter Howard Carter (9 May 18742 March 1939) was a British archaeologist and Egyptologist who discovered the intact tomb of the 18th Dynasty Pharaoh Tutankhamun in November 1922, the best-preserved pharaonic tomb ever found in the Valley of the ...

in 1923. He famously corrected a mathematical error in a speech given by

Albert Einstein Albert Einstein ( ; ; 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time. Einstein is best known for developing the theor ...

that was to be printed in the ''Times.'' He was instrumental in getting a scoop for ''The Times'' on the story of the sinking of the ''

RMS Titanic RMS ''Titanic'' was a British passenger Ocean liner, liner, operated by the White Star Line, which Sinking of the Titanic, sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on 15 April 1912 after striking an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton ...

'' in 1912. While other newspapers were printing the White Star Line's ambiguous story about the ''Titanic'' having trouble after hitting an

iceberg An iceberg is a piece of freshwater ice more than 15 m long that has broken off a glacier or an ice shelf and is floating freely in open (salt) water. Smaller chunks of floating glacially-derived ice are called "growlers" or "bergy bits". The ...

, Van Anda (who had received a bulletin reporting a CQD (now SOS) call from the Titanic,) 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. Another notable story was the

1911 New York State Capitol fire On the morning of March 29, 1911, a fire destroyed substantial portions of the New York State Capitol, including vast holdings of the New York State Library and the New York State Museum. It destroyed or damaged hundreds of thousands of documents ...

Albany, New York Albany ( ) is the capital of the U.S. state of New York, also the seat and largest city of Albany County. Albany is on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River, and about north of New York Cit ...

, 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." On April 11, 1898, Van Anda married Louise Shipman Drane, who was born in

Frankfort, Kentucky Frankfort is the capital city of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, United States, and the seat of Franklin County. It is a home rule-class city; the population was 28,602 at the 2020 census. Located along the Kentucky River, Frankfort is the pr ...

, 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 The E. W. Scripps School of Journalism is part of the Scripps College of Communication at Ohio University. Founded in 1924, the school has been recognized by The Associated Press and U.S. News & World Report for excellence in instruction and ...

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 ''MotherFatherSon'' is a British thriller television series starring Richard Gere his first major television role Helen McCrory, Billy Howle, Ciarán Hinds and Elena Anaya. The series broadcast on BBC Two began on 6 March 2019 and ended on 24 ...

References

Sources

NPR story
*
Carr Van Anda Biography at E.W. Scripps School of Journalism, Ohio University.
* David W. Dunlap
"1925: In One Day, The Times Lost a World of Knowledge"
''

'', Dec. 16, 2014.

Biography

References

Sources

Further reading