Rudy Abramson; Biographer of Harriman

Rudy Abramson, 70, a Washington correspondent for the Los Angeles Times who wrote an acclaimed biography of statesman-tycoon W. Averell Harriman and co-edited an eight-pound encyclopedia of Appalachia, died Feb. 13 at Inova Fairfax Hospital of injuries from a fall at his home in Reston.

Mr. Abramson worked for the Times from 1965 to 1993, covering the White House, the Pentagon and U.S.-Soviet arms control policy, among other subjects.

It took him almost a decade to complete his biography of Harriman, "Spanning the Century" (1992). Reviewers unanimously praised the book, saying that it was balanced and that the author thoroughly researched one of the most influential political figures of his day.

Harriman (1891-1986), the son of a railroad magnate, was ambassador to the Soviet Union during World War II and twice sought the presidency as a Democrat. He was governor of New York in the late 1950s, an adviser to Democratic presidents from Franklin Roosevelt to Lyndon Johnson and a lead negotiator of treaties to limit nuclear testing and end the Vietnam War.

Among his three wives was Winston Churchill's daughter-in-law, Pamela, who became a Democratic fund-raiser and U.S. ambassador to France.

Mr. Abramson said he met with the aged Averell Harriman, who was miserly in providing details about his early life. Pamela Harriman also had little luck in prodding her husband for details.

"The clipped answers were the same, and she began trying to follow up," Mr. Abramson wrote. "On her first attempt, she was greeted with a gentle dismissal with a wave of his hand. After her second try, he paused for a moment and said, 'Darling, please.' She made one more attempt. 'Darling, I'm being interviewed,' he said firmly, 'and I will answer questions as I wish.' "

Mr. Abramson also spent a decade co-editing "The Encyclopedia of Appalachia" (2006) with Jean Haskell of East Tennessee State University's Center for Appalachian Studies and Services.

Mr. Abramson, an Alabama native, said he intended the book to combat the image of Appalachia as "a different nation of poor people and strip mines."

The encyclopedia ran more than 1,800 pages and showed the economic, cultural and intellectual breadth of the region, which covers a largely mountainous swath of the eastern United States. More than 1,000 historians, folklorists, sociologists, geologists and journalists contributed to the final product.

Among other details, the book explained that the name is pronounced "Ap-pa-LATCH-a" in the southern mountains, "Ap-pa-LAY-cha" most everywhere else.

In addition, Mr. Abramson told National Public Radio that the term "hillbilly" first appeared in a New York newspaper about 1900 and that "the definition of it was a white person from Alabama without visible means of support, ambition or much of anything else.