Joseph Gaer (originally named Joseph Fishman) (1897-1969) was a Russian-born Jewish man who immigrated to the United States, where he became a university lecturer of literature, and then worked a number of government jobs including for the Federal Writers' Project.
[1][2] Fishman became a lecturer at University of California, Berkeley, in 1930, and taught there until 1935, when he began working in a series of positions for the federal government: first, as editor and field supervisor for the Federal Writers' Project until 1935, then as a consultant for the Farm Security Administration until 1941, and then as a special assistant for the Secretary of the Treasury.
[1] Boni & Gaer authors included: George Seldes, Michael Sayers, Carl Van Doren, Hewlett Johnson, Warren Weaver, Richard Sasuly, Victor Heine Bernstein, Milton Crane, Justin Gray, Eugene Weinstock, Gordon Kahn, and I. F. Stone.
In June 1953, the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee announced its decision to subpoena Gaer (among others) as an ex-Treasury official as part of its efforts to investigate the relationship between Soviet defector Igor Gouzenko and Harry Dexter White, Helen Ware (sister of Harold Ware and daughter of Ella Bloor ("Mother Bloor").
Gaer's papers are held at the Charles E. Young Research Library, a collection that includes "manuscripts of books written or edited by Joseph Gaer, and includes typescripts with holograph corrections and corrected galley and page proofs.