Kalman Seigel
Kalman Seigel (1917–1998) was an American journalist, best known as editor of "Letters to the Editor" as part of his 41 years at the New York Times. Background Kalman Seigel was born on October 17, 1917. In 1939, he graduated from City College of New York. Career During his 41 years at the New York Times, Seigel worked assistant metropolitan editor, suburban editor, and reporter. During 1950–1, he covered the trial of government economist William Remington, accused by Elizabeth Bentley of working in her Soviet spy ring. In 1951, he wrote a series of articles on the effect of McCarthyism on academic freedom, to the last of which New York University philosophy professor Sidney Hook (among others) wrote a reply. In 1967, he began selecting letters for New York Times editorials–annually, some 50,000 letters rejected to 3,000 published – "a period that embraced the end of the Vietnam War, the rise and fall of Richard M. Nixon, and Woodstock." Upon retiring from the Times on December 31, 1980, he wrote: As steward of the section that is the public's most direct route to the columns of this paper, I have tried to enhance openness, welcoming a great diversity of opinion.