Richard Halworth Rovere (May 5, 1915 – November 23, 1979) was an American political journalist.^[1]

Biography

Rovere was born in Jersey City, New Jersey. He graduated from the Stony Brook School in 1933 and Bard College, then a branch of Columbia University, in 1937. During the Great Depression, he joined the Communist movement and wrote for the New Masses. In 1939, as a result of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, he broke with Stalinism and became an anticommunist liberal.

In the early 1940s, he was an assistant editor at The Nation. He joined The New Yorker in 1944 and wrote its "Letter from Washington" column from December 1948 until his death. Throughout the 1940s and 1950s, he periodically contributed to Esquire, Harper's, and The American Scholar; now and then he reported on American matters for Britain's Spectator. His reporting got him on the master list of Nixon political opponents.

He died of emphysema in Poughkeepsie, New York.

Blurbs

From the Rhinebeck Gazette (Rhinebeck, New York), June 18, 1959:

The Gazette received an advanced copy of Richard H. Rovere's book, "Senator Joe McCarthy," from Harcourt, Brace and Company, Inc. The book is both an analytical biography and a memoir, as well as a commentary on the American political scene. Mr Rovere, who was often an eyewitness observer of the events he describes, lives at 108 Montgomery Street in Rhinebeck.

Legacy

His papers from 1931 to 1968 are housed at the Wisconsin Historical Society Archives.