Andrew Kopkind

Andrew Kopkind (August 24, 1935 – October 23, 1994) was an American journalist. He was renowned for his reporting during the tumultuous years of the late 1960s; he wrote about the anti-Vietnam War protests, Civil Rights Movement, Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, Students for a Democratic Society, the Black Panther Party, the Weathermen, President Johnson's "Great Society" initiatives, and California gubernatorial campaign of Ronald Reagan.

Andrew Kopkind
BornAugust 24, 1935
New Haven, Connecticut, U.S.
DiedOctober 23, 1994
Manhattan, New York City, New York, U.S.
EducationCornell University, London School of Economics

Kopkind was born in New Haven, Connecticut. He received a B.A. from Cornell University (1957), where he was editor of the Cornell Daily Sun.

From 1958 to 1959, Kopkind worked as a reporter for The Washington Post. He then studied at the London School of Economics, receiving an M.S. in 1961.

In 1961, Kopkind joined staff of Time Magazine, reporting mainly from California. From 1965 to 1967, he was associate editor of The New Republic; from 1965 to 1969 he was a correspondent for New Statesman. In 1968, he founded Hard Times and worked briefly for Ramparts (1970).

In 1968, he signed the “Writers and Editors War Tax Protest” pledge, vowing to refuse tax payments in protest against the Vietnam War.[1]

From the 1970s onwards, he contributed regularly to The Village Voice, New York Review of Books, The Nation, and Grand Street.

In the early 1970s he and his long-time companion, John Scagliotti, hosted the "Lavender Hour," the first commercial gay/lesbian radio show.[2]

Kopkind died of cancer in 1994, at age 59.

Kopkind authored two books: America: The Mixed Curse (1969) and The Thirty Years' Wars: Dispatches and Diversions of a Radical Journalist, 1965-1994, an anthology of his writing which was published posthumously in 1995, with an introduction by Alexander Cockburn.

References
  1. “Writers and Editors War Tax Protest” January 30, 1968 New York Post
  2. Schechter, Danny (1999). The More You Watch, The Less You Know: News Wars/(sub)merged Hopes/media. Seven Stories Press. p. 110. ISBN 1-888363-80-0.
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