[2] Meyer Berger was born in New York City on September 1, 1898, the son of a Czech (that is, from Austria-Hungary) immigrant father and a storekeeper mother.
[1] Berger soon became the top color writer[clarification needed] at The Times[3] (whose 1959 obituary labeled him "master of human-interest story")[1] writing mostly on local matters including murders, the mob, and the 1939 New York World's Fair.
(Times publisher Arthur Hays Sulzberger cut several passages about his leadership from the book, which left Berger "ashamed" of the final product.
The number of subdivisions has increased, sometimes including one specifically for local reports "prepared under the pressure of edition time", such as Berger's account of the rampage by mass murderer Howard Unruh in Camden, New Jersey on September 6, 1949.
A 28-year-old World War II veteran, Unruh killed 13 people, wounded several others and was arrested after a police standoff at his apartment in Camden.