Richard Severo, a prizewinning reporter for The New York Times whose challenge to what he considered a punitive transfer by the newspaper’s management became a cause célèbre among journalists in the 1980s, died on June 12 at his home in Balmville, N.Y., in the Hudson Valley.
But while reporting for The Times’s science section, Mr. Severo ran afoul of his bosses when he decided to write a book drawn from his articles about a patient with neurofibromatosis — known as the “Elephant Man” disease — whose face was reconfigured after grueling surgery.
Accounts of what happened next vary, but The Times, through its publishing subsidiary Times Books, was said to have claimed first rights to the book because it was based on Mr. Severo’s work for the newspaper.
Mr. Severo, however, through his agent, had already begun auctioning the rights to other publishers.
Times Books eventually bid $37,500 (about $110,000 in today’s dollars), but Harper & Row, with an offer of $50,000 (about $145,000) won the rights.
Persons:
Richard Severo, Emóke Edith de Papp, Severo, George Polk, Meyer, Mike ” Berger, neurofibromatosis, Severo’s
Organizations:
The New York Times, Long Island University, New, Columbia University, Times, Harper
Locations:
Balmville, Hudson, New York State, New York