Harrison E. Salisbury

Biographical Information

Harrison E. Salisbury (died in 1993) won a Pulitzer Prize in 1955 worked for the New York Times initially as "a wide-ranging reporter and correspondent based in New York before being placed in charge of the paper's national coverage from 1962 to 1964, assistant managing editor from 1964 to 1972 and associate editor from 1972 to 1973...

"After Mr. Salisbury retired from The Times in 1973, he achieved the remarkable feat of writing more than a dozen books while in his late 60's, 70's and 80's...

"Mr. Salisbury did further eyewitness writing about events in Asia in 1989, when he happened to be in Beijing, making a television documentary, when the Chinese Government cracked down bloodily on dissident students in Tiananmen Square. Much of his reporting was published in the form of a book, "Tiananmen Diary: Thirteen Days in June" (Little, Brown, 1989). From Minnesota To Great Beyond...

"His 1933 marriage to Mary Jane Hollis ended in divorce in 1950. He married Charlotte Young Rand in 1964.

Charlotte Salisbury traveled with her husband on almost all of his trips in his last three decades. She also wrote books -- seven of them, all diaries -- about their journeys, beginning with "Asian Diary" (1967) and continuing through "Long March Diary" (1986).

"On their trips, she recalled yesterday, "I just took notes all day the way Harrison did, and we had a good time."

In addition to his wife, Mr. Salisbury is survived by a sister, Janet Salisbury, of Minneapolis; two sons, Michael of Chicago and Stefan of Philadelphia, who writes about the arts for the Philadelphia Inquirer; three stepdaughters, Charlotte Parkinson of Manhattan; Ellen Rand of Brooklyn and Rosina Rand Rossire of Salisbury, Conn.; a stepson, Curtis Rand, also of Salisbury; and 13 grandchildren."