The Fact Magazine Libel Trial: Where Are They Now?

In many books and movies, the storytellers conclude by telling us what became of the characters many years later. I suspect we are programmed to be interested in such material as it allows us to understand the longer-term repercussions of a person's behaviors.

Many stories we hear as children have satisfying moral endings. In the Little Engine that Could, the train engine's self-confidence and persistence allows it to make it over the top of a mountain. In Aesop's fable of the Ant and the Grasshopper, the hardworking ant survives the winter eating the food it conscientiously stored during the summer. As children, we learn from this story that although singing and jumping as a grasshopper might be fun, the hard work we perform is important to our future.

As adults, we further understand that although such stories contained elements of truth, the real world is more complex. Chance elements enter in, the good may be punished and the wicked rewarded, and sometimes everyone wins or everyone loses.

This complexity acknowledged, we want to know what happens next, in case it might shed some further understanding of the events considered.

The Fact magazine libel trial involved many colorful characters including the magazine's publisher, Ralph Ginzburg, his editor, Warren Boroson, and their lawyer, Harris B. Steinberg. On the opposing side were Senator Goldwater and his attorney, Roger Robb. I have also brought into the story the New York Times writer Edward "Ned" Burks, and others. This week, I look at what happened after the trial to the lead lawyers and to Mr. Boroson.

The story of Harris B. Steinberg (Mr. Ginzburg's attorney) reminds us only that disease can strike at any time. Mr. Steinberg died of brain cancer the year following the Goldwater v. Ginzburg trial, in June of 1969. His New York Times obituary noted that "Mr. Steinberg was the lawyer sought and retained by one after another defendant," for issues such as libel and fraud. The same obituary quoted Warren E. Burger, then Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court, as saying that Mr. Steinberg was "...pre-eminent in his dedication and devotion to the administration of justice."

Mr. Roger Robb, Mr. Goldwater's lawyer, solidified his reputation among many as a legal luminary with the Goldwater v. Ginzburg case. His performance exhibited all his talents in the courtroom as well as a forcefulness he had earlier exhibited in leading the government's case revoking the security clearance of one of the nation's top nuclear scientists, Robert J. Oppenheimer. On May 5th of 1969, Mr. Robb was appointed to the federal bench by President Richard Nixon. He remained on the United States Court of Appeals until his retirement in 1982, and died in December of 1985, at the age of 78.

Mr. Boroson had been editor of Fact at the time of the 1964 special issue about Senator Goldwater. By the time of the Fact libel trial, Mr. Boroson had resigned from the magazine and moved on. He was still a young man, and afterward built a career as a freelance writer, author, and journalist. Mr. Boroson still lives in New Jersey. In 2008, a teacher who was writing a book about the Goldwater v. Ginzburg case sent him some questions about the trial. Mr. Boroson posted both the questions and his answers to them, which you can find in his entry for Friday May 9th of 2008 on this blog (you need to scroll down a bit). Some of Mr. Boroson's other works are described on his website here. He has commented occasionally on this series of posts concerning the Fact magazine libel trial, for which I am grateful.

To develop expertise in understanding personality, one examines many such cases to discern the patterns involved in how character might influence life outcomes. The examples of the lives of the participants in the Fact libel trial illustrate how sometimes illness is unpredictable, that lawyers who take high-visibility cases and win are often rewarded for it, and that people involved in notarious affairs may sometimes choose to move on to new pursuits.

These lessons may not be profound, but it is from accumulating many such observations that we develop our own ideas of how to live our lives.

Next week, I will examine what happened to Mr. Ginzburg.

Notes

Anonymous (1969, June 5th). Harris B. Steinberg Dies at 57; Noted criminal defense lawyer. New York Times, p. 47.

Anonymous (1985, Dec. 21st). Judge Roger Robb of U.S. Appeals Court dies. New York Times, p. 21.

Copyright © 2010 by John D. Mayer