Ralph de Toledano, 90; Ardent Conservative

In 1940, he became editor of the New Leader, founded in 1924 by the American Socialist Party. By the time Mr. de Toledano took over, the magazine had broken with the Socialists over the issue of Stalinism and was becoming an outspoken voice of liberal anti-Communism.

Mr. de Toledano served in the Army during World War II, initially as an antiaircraft gunner. He was proficient in Spanish and French, and the Office of Strategic Services, predecessor of the Central Intelligence Agency, sent him to Cornell University for a crash course in Italian with plans to use him in Italy for undercover operations. He was dropped from the program after being deemed too anti-Communist to work with Italian leftists.

After the war, he was publicity director for the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union before joining Newsweek in 1948.

For National Review, founded in 1955, he wrote "National Review Bulletin," a twice-monthly column from Washington. Later, he was the magazine's music critic. He also wrote a column syndicated nationally by King Features.

In 1975, consumer activist Ralph Nader filed a lawsuit against Mr. de Toledano in connection with a de Toledano suggestion -- denied by Nader -- that Nader had "falsified and distorted" evidence about the Corvair. The case lingered in court for years and cost Mr. de Toledano his life savings. Paul Toledano said it was settled out of court.

In 1979, Mr. de Toledano was the ghost writer for a memoir written by Mark Felt, the former FBI official who revealed in 2005 that he was "Deep Throat," the anonymous Watergate source for Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein.

Mr. de Toledano said that when he helped write the memoir, "The FBI Pyramid: From the Inside," he had no idea that Felt was Deep Throat. Otherwise, Mr. de Toledano said, he would not have agreed to sign away his rights to the book for $10,000. In 2006, he sued, saying that Felt's son Mark Felt Jr. and his attorney duped him.

His marriage to Nora Romaine de Toledano ended in divorce.

His second wife, Eunice Godbold de Toledano, died in 1999.

In addition to son Paul, of Brooklyn, from his first marriage, survivors include another son from that marriage, James Toledano of Costa Mesa, Calif.; a brother; a sister; and two grandchildren.