Dorothy Sterling: A Journalism Pioneer

A woman, who has lived through seven wars, devoted her life to her husband, children, friends, and work for over 80 years, is worth noting and even better yet, celebrating due to her personal accomplishments and inspiring lifestyle. This woman, Dorothy Sterling, pursued her childhood dream of becoming a writer, through times when adversity was toughest for women and minorities. In her autobiography, Close to My Heart, published in 2005, she inadvertently inspires readers to follow his/her dreams, no matter the adverse situations. Not only is it the story of Dorothy Sterling's life, it also provides historical background of the journalist career path and news room environments.

Sterling was born in 1913 of Washington Heights in a predominantly Jewish area. With blue eyes and blonde kinky hair she was considered a novelty as opposed to a young girl with brown hair (Sterling, 4). She remembered though, her realization of being Jewish not until the age of five or six (p 7_/An episode occurred at a family picnic when some children came by yelling, "Dirty Jews! Dirty Jews! Kikes!" (p 7). She had not been aware of her German background because her parents never spoke about it. In fact, Sterling's parents became Christian scientists and she admitted that today people might say "... they were trying to escape from being Jewish" (p 14).

School was a part of Sterling's life that pushed her to accomplish and set goals. In a "Special Opportunity Class", often referred to as "Spec Op", she was introduced to biographies. The class was "...designed to study the physical and psychological characteristics of bright children as well as experiment with teaching methods and curricula that would benefit them" (p 19). In Spec Op Sterling researched the lives of eminent people and wrote about them, after which she and other classmates would present their findings to the rest of the class (p 20). Interestingly, Sterling's autobiography is full of anecdotes and stories about her life, while also incorporating her achievements. She said that the biographies she wrote and researched for helped to mold her reading habits as well as influence her choice in subjects (p 21). For instance, almost three decades later, she was writing children's books. This class and education shaped her into a writing intensive researcher and destined scholar. While Sterling's father dreamed she would be a writer, she found herself dreaming the same dream. When asked what she wanted to do when all grown up, Sterling always replied by saying, "Write books" (p 22).

This individual was driven from childhood; however, at the time she was able to attend college, she decided to wait a year. Although accepted to Wettesly College, Sterling found herself quoting Whitman. Eventually, in college she joined the College Press Board and wrote an article for the New York Sun earning just two dollars for it (p 53). In 1932 she decided on Philosophy as a major. This was the time when the stock market crashed and the United States was in a state of depression (p 54).

The year 1934 led Sterling to a job hunt and she began working at a museum typing catalog cards for curators and writing short cut reviews for the College Art Association (p 61). She tried to immerse herself as closely as one could with the news. In an effort to do this she would ask to review books for the New York Times and the Evening Sun; however, she was lucky to get one book per month. Sterling admitted to being brutally honest and to giving bad reviews. She was paid by the word and had made 20 dollars (p 62).

Later in 1935, Sterling set out for a position as a secretary-salesperson in the Madison Avenue art gallery and antique store (p 74). Here she earned 15 dollars per week and was assigned to a historical records survey under the writers project umbrella. Much of her job description included locating records in borough halls, court rooms and libraries. This would provide her with practice toward researching for a publication later in her career. Sterling involved herself in the writers union and was elected secretary. She mentioned in the autobiography, "As I sat on the platform taking notes, it never occurred to me that secretary was the traditional woman's job that left the men in policy-making positions" (p 81). However, she did not hesitate to say that the writers project was the best thing that ever happened to her (p82). "I could hardly wait to come to work each morning to rub elbows with journalists, novelists, poets, people who made their living- or hope to- with their type writer" (p 82). This is the point in Sterling's autobiography when the reader realizes the importance of writing in this woman's life and her aspirations to become a writer.

In 1936, there were more positions for secretaries available than writers. Sterling took a job on a monthly magazine the Architectural Forum published by Time Inc. Here she worked under two young editors for $1.36 per week. She took dictation, typed letters and editorial copy and was sent on coffee runs (p 95). She new that secretaries were low on the totem pole at Time, and that the publisher and managing editors were headed at the top. However, below her was what Sterling called CBOBs (college boy office boys). "Some were diligent workers; others were careless and arrogant. Once I bawled out a CBOB who had lost photographs that George Nelson needed for a story. The following week he became a Fortune writer and cut me dead in the elevator, there were no CGOGs" (p 97). Occasionally, as a secretary she was tossed a press release to convert into a news story. This of course was behind the scenes and did not affect her status in the company (p 96).

In a time when women and minorities took a back seat to white men in the work force, the news room was no exception. Most of the employees were upper-middle-class white Protestants. There were a small number of Jews and no blacks, not even in the mail room, which was at the bottom of the totem pole (p 97). Executives were usually republicans, writers and researchers were democrats and so Sterling jumped on board of the Communist party (p 97).
After the birth of Peter, Sterling's first child, she went back to work just four months later. Upon her return she was shifted to Life where she started as secretary and then moved to a researcher. This happened just weeks before the Japanese attacks on Pearl Harbor. Because Life was influential during the war with its pictures at the battlefront, millions of people turned to it (p 129). At this magazine "...the basic working structure was the researcher-writer team" (p 129). Men were the writers and women were the researchers. Nevertheless, it seems that the women (researchers) did most of the work investigating the ideas, thinking of photograph ideas, working with the photographer, taking notes for captions, and compiling everything together. Once this was complete, the man (writer) took all of the information and wrote the story (pp 129-130). Even while this process took place, the researcher was on call. After a writer had finished a story the researcher would then edit it, filling in any missing pieces. The attributes were solely those of the writer, unless of course a mistake was made, and then the woman (researcher) was to blame. This to Sterling was frustrating because it seemed to be enough that women were not permitted to be writers, but for them to not receive any credit decreased their morale. Researchers knew the ins and outs of certain writers. For example, David Cort, the Foreign News Editor, always had a few drinks before turning in his copy. Sterling's writer was Joseph Kastner. He was not that high up in the ranks and wrote features on ballet and the opera as well as aviation and nature (p 132).

Because researchers worked closely with photographers they learned to work well together. Sometimes, these were young men who made passes at the researchers. In Sterling's opinion, this was a common part of the job and it had happened in other positions she held. Today these instances would be considered to be sexual harassment (p 133). Sterling studied botany, avian behavior and birds to brush up on her knowledge of nature, a popular topic at that time. She enjoyed this part of her job and even came as far as to say, "The work was so pleasant that I seldom wondered why only men could write" (p 133). This can be attributed to her love for botany, a major that she almost decided on in college before changing to Philosophy.

Because male writers were drafted, women occasionally wrote (p 134). The fashion editor was a woman, but her stories were always overseen by a man. "Occasionally a woman with aspirations as a writer quit in disgust, but most of us accepted the writer-researcher division without questioning it" (p 134). In one instance Sterling recalled a time that she had been handed a Letters column and asked to write a short editorial comment for each letter. She looked at the blank page on her typewriter and was struck instantaneously with writers block. Embarrassingly, her writing privilege was revoked after one hour (p 134).
By 1942, Hitler's final solution for Jews was finally reported to President Roosevelt. Yet, the New York Times was only publishing articles about the death camps every once in a while. If there was an article, it never made it to page one, instead sat in the back. "With official Washington soft-pedaling the story, the Communist press, intent on winning support for the Soviet Union, paid scant attention to the plight of the Jews" (p 140). This is something that a reader should have known, because the Russians were first on the American agenda. However, not until eight months later, when allies went to the death camps, did America after seeing pictures "... shivered at Life's photographs" (p 140). This was in 1944, when Sterling reported people becoming aware of the Nazi extermination programs. Even a huge issue as this, the government was able to play a role in what had been reported. The government, or gatekeeper, at the time was able to choose what the public should be exposed to in an effort to gain the support of the Soviet Union. Because of the government's participation in gate-keeping, American people did not become exposed to the terror taking place at death camps until much later.

Yet another baby, Anne, was born in 1944. This did not stop Sterling from jumping right back into work allowing her to be promoted to assistant chief of the News Bureau at Life. This promotion of course was only akin to the fact that so many men were away at war, and women were needed to fill executive positions. Through this time Sterling's children grew older and she gained more responsibilities at work. The Cold War had begun and a Loyalty Review Board was established "...requiring every government employee to declare that he was not and had never been a member of the Communist party" (p 157). Time decided that their stories would reflect anti-Communism which was different from the New York Times. When correspondents came home with their stories Editor, Whittaker Chambers, edited and rewrote each account. Chambers' anti-Communist mind frame led him to the comment "Truth doesn't matter" (p 158). If writers did not submit stories for approval, they could be fired. Although Sterling was not affected directly by this remarkable change, she left Time when offered a years pay (p 161).

Sterling, later, inspired by correspondents, writers and other researchers decided to write a book about Time Inc. She teamed up with Cedric Belfrage to do this. An important finding was the editor of Time, Henry Luce, and the stories that seemed to have been "...tailored to support Henry Luce's friends, confound his enemies, and forward his vision of the 20th century as the American Century..." (p 163). These were biases of a gatekeeper that Sterling wanted to expose. The book was submitted with the title It's About Time and was liked by many publishers but failed to be published. Sterling thought that publishers were in fear of a retaliation of Time or Life after the book would be printed. Sterling threw the manuscript in a drawer for years leaving it untouched until 30 years had passed. She had obtained her FBI file and a memo from the Bureau director addressed to J. Edgar Hoover's best friend discussing the fascination of the manuscript and the concern of Sterling Communist party background (p 166). Not only was this a surprise, but ten years after that, Sterling found that Time had played a role with the FBI in suppressing the publication of her book. To her surprise, major book publications consulted J. Edgar Hoover for information on her. The work did receive excellent reviews with potential as a best-seller, but was never actually given the chance (pp 165-167).

Sterling's life took a turn from the news reporting-researching and focused on writing children's books. She became especially interested in researching black people and wrote a book called Freedom Forum: The Story of Harriet Tubman. She wrote biographies of slaves in hopes of educating children about their black classmates. Nevertheless, Sterling still advocated the importance of black writers to write about themselves. However, writers were white, historians were back, illustrators were black and reading specialists were white. Usually the white writers were not distinguished; where as the black historians were distinguished in their field (p 239). After contributing to greater equality over the years, Sterling though it might be time to step back and give the black writers, though less experienced and skilled, a chance to contribute to their own literature and history.

Now as an elderly women who has lost her sight, developed glaucoma, and struggling with emphysema, she still managed to publish this autobiography. Not only had it identified the accomplishments she had achieved, but it also undoubtedly portrayed instances of women's lives in the news and magazine industries. For over 80 years, Dorothy Sterling, has contributed to the progress of women in the work force, as well as minorities. She lives now alone still managing to listen to books on tape, write and return emails to friends and with the help of family and friends she gets along relatively well. Dorothy Sterling mentions in the last chapter of her autobiography Close to My Heart, "If I can't have a world of socialism, then a village full of kind and sensible people is very satisfying"(p 315).

References:
Dorothy Sterling, Close to My Heart (New York: The Quantuck Press, 2005)