Summary
Myrick Land was born on February 25, 1922, in Shreveport, Louisiana. After serving in World War II in the Army Air Corps from 1942-43, he graduated from the University of California at Los Angeles in 1945. As an undergraduate, he was a reporter and editor of the California Bruin, the UCLA student newspaper. While pursuing a master's degree at the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University, he was assistant city editor for the Kingston Daily Freeman (New York) newspaper. During that time, he met Barbara Neblett, also a graduate journalism student. They both completed their master's degrees in 1946 and married in 1949. Land received a Pulitzer Traveling Fellowship for 1946-47. He spent a year teaching journalism at a school in Caracas, Venezuela, in a program sponsored by Columbia University. He worked for the American National Red Cross in Washington, D.C., as Director of Information in Europe and North Africa, from 1949 until 1952, when he became the New York City editor for Scholastic Magazines. In 1955, he became assistant editor for "This Week" and held that position until becoming the senior editor for Look magazine from 1959-66. He became Look's assistant managing editor from 1967-1971. In the mid-1960s, the Lands worked with Robert L. Oswald, the brother of Lee Harvey Oswald, on a biography about Lee Harvey Oswald. Land also wrote hundreds of articles for national magazines during the 1950s-1970s and published several novels. In 1969, his novel, Quicksand, was nominated by Mystery Writers of America as one of the three best first mysteries, putting it into competition for the 1970 Edgar Allan Poe Award. He co-authored seven nonfiction books with his wife. The Lands lived in Australia from 1973-1975, where he taught journalism at the University of Queensland in Brisbane. He then joined the journalism faculty at the University of Nevada, Reno in 1976, but left in 1979 in protest over funding cuts by Governor Robert List. From 1979-1981, he was an associate professor of journalism at the University of Wisconsin--Oshkosh. He returned to Nevada in 1982 and taught at the Donald Reynolds School of Journalism as an associate professor until his retirement. While at the University, he also served as editor and publisher for the UNR Times and as Consulting Editor for the University's Silver & Blue magazine. During retirement, he continued to teach part-time at the University. The Lands had two children: son Robert and daughter Jacquelyn Brewer. Land died in Reno on March 25, 1998. The Myrick Land Scholarship Endowment has been established by the University of Nevada, Reno Foundation.