Series IX: Subject Files, 1918-2012, inclusive

This series contains material on a wide range of topics of interest to Victor Navasky. Some of the individuals, events, and issues might appropriately be arranged with a previous series, or with more than one. An example is the U.S. Postal Service. Navasky's initial postal concerns began during his Monocle days; his involvement in postal service issues continued and was detailed in A Matter of Opinion. Similarly overlapping topics are included in "Subject Files" along with many that are clearly stand-alone in nature.

The series also includes material from several legal cases. Navasky, Victor S. v. Central Intelligence Agency involved an attempt by Navasky to obtain all documents relating to clandestine book publishing activities of the CIA; he was unsuccessful. Rancho La Costa v. Penthouse was a libel action brought by the owners of the La Costa resort against Penthouse magazine. Victor Navasky served as an expert witness.

During 1994, Navasky took a sabbatical from The Nation for research and initial work on a book about opinion journalism, planning to spend six months as a visiting fellow at Harvard's Kennedy School and the next six months at Columbia University's Freedom Forum Media Studies Center. His plans changed somewhat as it was in 1994 that he unexpectedly agreed to become owner and publisher of The Nation. Within this series are materials from his somewhat modified Harvard experience and also from the Freedom Forum.

Other series highlights are the FBI files of I.F. Stone; materials for a class Navasky taught at New York University in the Spring and Fall of 1973; correspondence with Christopher Hitchens, Kathy Boudin, John Kennedy, Jr.; FOIA documents and other items relating to Stanley Levison; and an assortment of materials associated with the U.S. Department of Justice. In addition, a number of folders address the Rosenberg Case.

In the folder labeled, "Trillin, Calvin," (Box 88, Folder 7) there is correspondence with Lavinia B. Rosenzweig, a member of the Newnan Reading Circle in Newnan, Georgia. Navasky agreed to respond to a questionnaire ostensibly about Calvin Trillin, which was to be used in writing a paper for the group's study of "Humorists and their Humor." The letters are very entertaining and reveal more about the wit of Victor Navasky (and Ms. Rosenzweig) than about Calvin Trillin. A photograph of Navasky and Trillin is also included.

Research files added to the colleciton in 2016 address a wide array of topics compiled by Navasky between the 1990s and 2006. The dates included in the research files address rough date ranges supplied by the donor. Dated of of documents contained with in those files, however, may fall outside of the estimated range.