Serge Schmemann (born April 12, 1945) is a French-born American writer and member of the editorial board of The New York Times who specializes in international affairs.[1] He was editorial page editor of the Paris-based International Herald Tribune, the erstwhile global edition of The New York Times, from 2003 until its dissolution in 2013. Earlier in his career, he worked for the Associated Press and was a bureau chief and editor for The New York Times.[2]
Life and career
Born in France, the son of Alexander Schmemann and Juliana Ossorguine (a descendant of Juliana of Lazarevo, a Russian Orthodox Saint),[3] he moved to the United States in 1951. He grew up speaking Russian at home, but visited his ancestral homeland for the first time only in 1980 when he arrived with his family as Moscow correspondent for the Associated Press. It was not until 1990 that the Soviet authorities allowed him to visit his grandparents' home village near Kaluga. His reflections on the village's changing fate provided the subject matter for his memoirs, published in 1997.[4]