Philip L. Fradkin papers, 1790-2011

Philip Fradkin was a noted author who focused on the West, its environmental issues, its history and its culture. He was born in Manhattan and grew up in Montclair, New Jersey. His father, Leon H. Fradkin, was a dentist who emigrated from Russia. His mother, Elvira Kush, was an activist. Her favorite causes were women’s rights and disarmament. Philip Fradkin became enamored with the West when he was fourteen and moved to California after college. He worked for several newspapers and won a Pulitzer for his coverage of the Watts riots. He wrote thirteen books including Everett Ruess: His Short Life, Mysterious Death and Astonishing Afterlife (2011), Fallout: An American Nuclear Tragedy (1989), A River No More: The Colorado River and the West (1981) and Wallace Stegner and the American West (2008). He died in Point Reyes Station, California at the age of seventy seven.