Howard Levin Obituary

Levin, Howard M. Died peacefully on February 26, 2017, in Evanston, Illinois, age 91. Howard was born in Rochester, NY, on December 23, 1925. He was predeceased by his parents, Selma and Jacob; brother, Alvin; sister, Dorothy, and first wife, Kathy Klein. His family was politically active, with his mother becoming one of the first women officers of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union. Howard saw combat in Germany during World War II as a member of the U.S. Army infantry. After the war, as a member of Armed Forces Radio Service, he hosted a radio program, "Midnight in Munich" in 1946. He earned a Bachelor's degree in history from Syracuse University, followed by graduate work in history at the University of Rochester and in English at the University of Chicago. Howard worked as a cinder snapper at U.S. Steel's South Works plant in Chicago before joining the "Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists" at the University of Chicago in the 1950s. During this time he published several short stories in "The Phoenix," a University of Chicago literary magazine. In the late 1950s, Howard became assistant director of the M.I.T Press, writing an influential study for university presses on the evaluation of book promotion devices. In 1967 he joined the University of Chicago Press as assistant director. There he established the text-fiche division, which developed a new publication form that combined the conventional book with illustrations on film. The form made possible the inclusion in a publication of many more images, both color and black-and-white, than a traditional book. Together with his wife Katherine, Howard established the Text-Fiche Press and published "Dorothea Lange: Farm Security Administration Photographs, 1935-1939" in 1980. The two-volume work, described by "Library Journal" as "an outstanding event in photographic publishing," included on pictorial microfiches more than 1,000 photographs made by Lange that had never before been published. Throughout his life, Howard remained a voracious reader, with a personal library of thousands of volumes. He also remained politically engaged, ever interested to discuss and debate political issues. He is survived by his wife of 40 years, the former Katherine Northrup; son, Andrew; daughter, Erika; and two granddaughters, Meryl and Molly Hartmann. His family sorely misses his kindness, his generosity and his quick and insightful humor. A memorial celebration of his life will be held in May.