Peter H. Wyden

Peter H. Wyden
Born	Peter Weidenreich October 2, 1923 Berlin, Germany
Died	June 27, 1998(1998-06-27) (aged 74) Danbury, Connecticut, U.S.
Education	City College of New York
Occupation	Journalist
Spouse	3
Children	2, including Ron Wyden
Parent(s)	Erich Weidenreich Helen Silberstein
Relatives	Franz Weidenreich (paternal uncle)

Peter H. Wyden (October 2, 1923 – June 27, 1998) was an American journalist and historian.

Early life

Wyden was born Peter Weidenreich, in Berlin to a Jewish family. His mother, Helen (née Silberstein), was a concert singer, and his father, Erich Weidenreich, was a businessman. Franz Weidenreich, German anatomist and physical anthropologist, was one of his uncles.

Wyden attended the Goldschmidt School until he left Nazi Germany for the United States in 1937. After studying at City College of New York, he served with the U.S. Army's Psychological Warfare Division in Europe during World War II. His training at Camp Ritchie places him among the ranks of the Ritchie Boys, a group of Military Intelligence Officers who used their language skills to obtain intel in Europe. In 2021, Peter's son Ron Wyden, a U.S. Senator, was instrumental in creating a senate resolution recognizing the Ritchie Boys for their efforts.

Career

After the war, Wyden began a career in journalism, during which he worked as a reporter for The Wichita Eagle, a feature writer for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Washington correspondent for Newsweek magazine, a contributing editor for The Saturday Evening Post in Chicago and San Francisco, articles editor for McCall's, and executive editor for Ladies' Home Journal.

Wyden authored or coauthored nine books, and numerous articles that appeared in major magazines. In 1969, he co-authored with his wife a book on homosexuality entitled Growing Up Straight; the book summed up research on the topic, which suggested homosexuality could be prevented with a close paternal relationship in childhood. His last book, published in 1998, was about schizophrenia; it was based on his personal experience as his son Jeff suffered from the mental disorder.

In 1970, Wyden became a book publisher in New York City and Ridgefield, Connecticut.

Personal life and death

Wyden was married three times. He had two sons, including Ron Wyden, who became a United States senator. He died on June 27, 1998, in Danbury, Connecticut.

Books

• Suburbia's Coddled Kids. 1962. New Jersey: Doubleday & Company, Inc.
• The Overweight Society. 1965. New York: Pocket Books.
• Bay of Pigs – The Untold Story. 1979. New York: Simon and Schuster.
• The Passionate War: The Narrative History of the Spanish Civil War. 1983. New York: Simon and Schuster. 1983
• Day One: Before Hiroshima and After. 1985. New York: Simon and Schuster. 1984
• Stella: One Woman's True Tale of Evil, Betrayal, and Survival in Hitler's Germany. Anchor Books, 1993.
• Wall: The Inside Story of Divided Berlin. 1989. Simon and Schuster.