Eric Sevareid
The Sevareid Library takes its name and inspiration from Eric Sevareid, a 1935 graduate who became one of the most illustrious reporters in America. Sevareid is particularly well-known for his reporting on World War II, the Vietnam War, and American politics in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Eric Sevareid graduated in 1935 from the University of Minnesota. Sevareid earned a B.A. in Political Science and completed much of his coursework in the School of Journalism; he also worked as a reporter at the Minnesota Daily.
After graduation, Sevareid moved into radio reporting after stints at the Paris Herald and at United Press, becoming one of “Murrow’s Boys” covering World War II for CBS. In 1964, Sevareid took a position with the CBS Evening News, working with Walter Cronkite.
When the Vietnam War began, Sevareid returned to war correspondence, primarily on the CBS Evening News contributing special reports. He retired from CBS in 1977, although he continued to provide commentaries and host special news programs for the network; he also appeared in several motion pictures.
Eric Sevareid passed away on July 9, 1992 at the age of 79. Over the course of his career he won a number of awards: the Peabody in 1950, 1964 and 1967; two Emmys, one for coverage of Vice President Spiro Agnew’s resignation and one for a report on President Lyndon Johnson; and a number of other journalism awards.
The Eric Sevareid library, which was named for Sevareid in 1980, holds more than 12,000 books (8,000 on site) and more than 250 journal, newspaper trade publications and magazine subscriptions. The Sevareid library is also home to microfilm copies of the Eric Sevareid papers from the U.S. Library of Congress; these papers include radio and television scripts, correspondence, and other documents related to Sevareid’s long career as a CBS news professional.
The collection incorporates materials about print broadcast and online journalism, advertising, public relations, visual communication, mass communication theory, communication history, law and ethics and related areas. Dissertations and Master’s theses completed by SJMC students are also available.
Many of the books and subscription in the collection are unique to the University of Minnesota library system. Some titles are not available anywhere else in the upper Midwest.
Sevareid-related materials:
The Sevareid Library holds a number of resources authored by Eric Sevareid. These include:
- Sevareid, Eric, Canoeing with the Cree, 1968.
- Sevareid, Eric, Conversations with Eric Sevareid, 1976.
- Sevareid, Eric, In One Ear, 1952.
- Sevareid, Eric, Not so Wild a Dream, 1947, 1976.
- Sevareid, Eric, Politics and the Press, 1967.
- Sevareid, Eric, Small Sounds in the Night, 1956, 1977.
- Sevareid, Eric, This is Eric Sevareid, 1964.
The Library also holds several books and other materials written about Eric Sevareid's life and career, including:
Cloud, Stanley, The Murrow Boys, 1996.
Schroth, Raymond A., The American Journey of Eric Sevareid, 1995.
Microfilm copies of Eric Sevareid papers in the Library of Congress.