Richard Neuberger
Stephen A. Forrester
Richard L. Neuberger is a consequential but often forgotten figure in Oregon history, largely due to his early death at forty-seven, near the end of his only term in the United States Senate. But his life and legacy continue to inspire Oregonians and influence politicians.
In 1954, Neuberger was the first Democrat elected to the Senate from Oregon in forty years. His election moved Oregon from a solidly Republican state to one where liberal Democrats could control the legislature as well as statewide offices. He was an especially productive freshman, on both Oregon natural resource issues and national matters. Neuberger was also only the second Jewish person elected to the Senate following passage of the 17th Amendment, which required the direct election of senators.
Prior to entering politics, Neuberger was best known as a journalist. He was a prolific freelance writer, publishing 750 magazine articles and six books. In 1933, at the age of twenty-one, he visited Germany and penned the first firsthand account of Brownshirt violence written by an American; his editor at The Nation called it “an epoch-making article.”
Neuberger was ahead of his time in his advocacy of conservation, in his political partnership with his wife Maurine—who successfully ran for his Senate seat after his untimely death in 1960—and in his outspoken liberal advocacy at a time when Oregon was considerably more conservative than it is today. Tom McCall, later one of the most influential governors in the state’s history, considered Neuberger his role model as a conservationist.
In this definitive biography—more than forty years in the making—Stephen Forrester documents Neuberger’s extraordinary life and career, highlighting a legacy that includes shaping Oregon’s renowned conservation policies and developing the state’s modern Democratic party.
About the author
Stephen A. Forrester has worked in the newspaper business for more than fifty years. He was a founder of Willamette Week, served as a Washington correspondent, and spent thirty-three years as the editor and publisher of The Daily Astorian. He is coauthor of Eminent Oregonians: Three Who Matter.
Read more about this author
“Stephen Forrester’s fresh look at Richard Neuberger rediscovers this gifted Oregonian and restores him to his proper place as a pivotal player in the history of our state and country. This well-researched and comprehensive biography is a must-read for anybody wanting to know more about Neuberger’s lasting impact on Oregon politics, journalism, and much more.” —US Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon
“Some sixty-five years after his untimely passing, Richard Neuberger remains one of the most compelling and transformative figures in Oregon political history. A biography of Neuberger has been long overdue, and no one is better equipped to write it than Stephen Forrester.” —Kerry Tymchuk, executive director of the Oregon Historical Society
“Stephen Forrester’s compelling portrait of Richard Neuberger reveals an impressive polymath who excelled as writer and politician. Forrester draws upon his personal connection with Neuberger and his family to intimately portray a remarkedly complex figure propelled by ambition, virtue, and a spirit of adventure.” —Judy Margles, director emerita of the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education
“Richard Neuberger: Oregon Politics and the Making of a US Senator delivers a long-missing chapter in the Oregon story: the life and impact of Richard Neuberger, the journalist turned US Senator whose concern for the environment, civil rights, and justice made him the state's modern-day progressive leader. Neuberger has been too often remembered for what might have been, with his death at age forty-seven cutting short the promise of political greatness. Steve Forrester's candid and meticulously researched biography brings us the narrative Neuberger has long deserved. It's a story of accomplishments and struggle, eloquence and ambition, and an incandescence dimmed too soon.” —Brent Walth, author of Fire at Eden’s Gate: Tom McCall and the Oregon Story
