17 Facts About Hendrik Hertzberg

Hendrik Hertzberg was born on July 23,1943 and is an American journalist, best known as the principal political commentator for The New Yorker magazine.

Hendrik Hertzberg was born in Manhattan, New York City, the son of Hazel Manross Whitman, a professor of history and education at Columbia University, and Sidney Hendrik Hertzberg, a journalist and political activist.

Hendrik Hertzberg's father was Jewish ; his mother was a Quaker with a Congregationalist background and of English descent, a great-grandniece of Walt Whitman.

Hendrik Hertzberg was educated in the public schools of Rockland County, New York, and Harvard College, from which he graduated in 1965.

Hendrik Hertzberg graduated from Suffern High School in Suffern, New York, after a semester as an exchange student in Toulouse, France.

Hendrik Hertzberg began his writing career at The Harvard Crimson and eventually served as managing editor including writing on local and national politics.

Hendrik Hertzberg managed to continue to write Crimson pieces anyway, under the pseudonym Sidney Hart.

William Shawn, the editor of the New Yorker, invited Hendrik Hertzberg to talk about writing for the magazine.

Hendrik Hertzberg declined the invitation and after graduating from Harvard in 1965 he took a draft-deferred position as editorial director for the US National Student Association.

Hendrik Hertzberg covered the rise of the hippies, the emergence of rock groups such as the Grateful Dead, Ronald Reagan's successful campaign for governor of California, and The Beatles' last concert.

Hendrik Hertzberg was discharged at the end of his commitment in 1969.

Hendrik Hertzberg was an author of President Jimmy Carter's July 15,1979, speech on energy conservation, widely known as the "Malaise Speech", and critiqued as one of the most ineffective pieces of political rhetoric in American history.

Hendrik Hertzberg believes that America's system of winner-take-all elections, federalism, and separation of powers is out of date and damaging to political responsibility and democratic accountability.

Hendrik Hertzberg was twice editor of The New Republic, from 1981 to 1985 and then from 1989 to 1992, alternating in that job with Michael Kinsley.

Under Brown's successor, David Remnick, Hendrik Hertzberg was a senior editor and staff writer and was a main contributor to "Comment," the weekly essay on politics and society in "The Talk of the Town" and continued until early 2014.

From 1995 to 2018, Hendrik Hertzberg was a board member of FairVote, an electoral reform organization, and continues on its advisory committee.

Hendrik Hertzberg is married to Virginia Cannon, a former Vanity Fair editor and a current New Yorker editor.