orig. Andrew Russell
born Dec. 3, 1897, Evanston, Ill., U.S.
died Sept. 1, 1969, Rockville, Md.
U.S. newspaper columnist.
Pearson taught industrial geography at the University of Pennsylvania before turning to journalism. He was fired from the Baltimore Sun for writing Washington Merry-Go-Round (1931, with Robert S. Allen), a gossipy book about the scene in the U.S. capital. From 1932 he wrote an influential syndicated column of the same name (with Allen until 1942; from 1965 with Jack Anderson, who inherited it on Pearson's death), which specialized in muckraking. Among the many world leaders he interviewed was Nikita Khrushchev . See muckraker .