Ray Stannard Baker Photograph by Arnold Genthe, 1914. Courtesy of the Library of Congress (LC-G432-0825).
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Baker, Ray Stannard (1870-1946)
Maker: Arnold Genthe
In
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Baker, Ray Stannard (1870-1946), journalist and author
Dewey W. Grantham
Baker, Ray Stannard (17 April 1870–12 July 1946), journalist and author, was born in Lansing, Michigan, the son of Joseph Stannard Baker and Alice Potter. A descendant of pioneering stock, he grew up in St. Croix Falls, Wisconsin, where his family moved in 1875 and his father worked as a land agent. Baker later boasted that he had been brought up on the “last frontier.” His mother died in 1883, but his father, a Civil War veteran, strongly impressed Baker with his rugged character, integrity, and common sense. He attended the local schools, discovered the world of books in his parents’ library, and in 1885 enrolled at Michigan Agricultural College in East Lansing. In college Baker discovered a special liking for science courses and also edited the school newspaper. After receiving the B.S. degree in 1889, he returned home to work in his father’s land office. In January 1892 Baker entered law school at the University of Michigan but dropped out after a few months. Meanwhile, he became interested in journalism, partly as the result of a seminar at the university. In the summer of 1892 he found a job with the Chicago ...
Article
Bishop, James Alonzo (1907-1987), journalist and author
Judith E. Funston
Bishop, James Alonzo (21 November 1907–26 July 1987), journalist and author, was born in Jersey City, New Jersey, the son of John Michael Bishop, a police lieutenant, and Jenny Josephine Tier. The son of devout Catholics, Bishop attended St. Patrick’s parochial school in Jersey City, graduating in June 1922. Except for a few courses in typing and shorthand at Drake Secretarial College in Jersey City, this ended Bishop’s formal education. According to his 1981 autobiography, ...
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Brant, Irving Newton (17 January 1885–18 September 1976), biographer, journalist, and historian
Ann T. Keene
Brant, Irving Newton (17 January 1885–18 September 1976), biographer, journalist, and historian, was born in Walker, Iowa, the son of David Brant, the editor of the local newspaper, and Ruth Hurd Brant. Irving Brant decided on a career in journalism. He was educated in local schools and at the University of Iowa, Iowa City, from which he earned a BA in 1909....
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Considine, Bob (04 November 1906–25 September 1975), newspaper reporter and author
Bruce L. Janoff
Considine, Bob (04 November 1906–25 September 1975), newspaper reporter and author, was born Robert Bernard Considine in Washington, D.C., the son of James Considine, a tinsmith, and Sophie Small. Considine dropped out of high school in 1923 at age seventeen to become a government employee. Over the next four years he worked as a messenger boy in the Census Bureau and in the Bureau of Public Health, a typist in the Treasury Department, and a clerk in the Department of State. During these years, Considine studied journalism in night school at George Washington University....
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De Casseres, Benjamin (1873-1945)
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Benjamin De Casseres Photograph by Arnold Genthe, 1925. Courtesy of the Library of Congress (LC-G412-T-4766-008).
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De Casseres, Benjamin (1873-1945), author and journalist
Jim Tuck
De Casseres, Benjamin (1873–06 December 1945), author and journalist, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of David De Casseres, a printer, and Charlotte Davis. On his father’s side he was a collateral descendant of Spinoza. De Casseres left high school at thirteen and went to work as a four-dollar-a-week office boy for ...
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Didier, Eugene Lemoine (22 December 1838–08 September 1913), author and editor
Robert L. Gale
Didier, Eugene Lemoine (22 December 1838–08 September 1913), author and editor, was born in Baltimore, Maryland, the son of Franklin James Didier, a physician, and Julia LeMoine. He studied English literature and composition for four years at St. Vincent’s Academy in Baltimore and attended classes at Loyola College, also in Baltimore, for four more years but left without a degree. For three years he worked as an accountant in a commission firm, during which time he continued studying literature. He founded and edited ...
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Duyckinck, Evert Augustus (1816-1878), editor, author, and bibliophile
Robert L. Gale
Duyckinck, Evert Augustus (23 November 1816–13 August 1878), editor, author, and bibliophile, was born in New York City, the son of Evert Duyckinck, a wealthy publisher and book collector, and Harriet June. He graduated from Columbia College in 1835. He either wrote or cowrote the only issue of ...
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Garvey, Amy Euphemia Jacques (1896-1973), journalist, Pan-Africanist, and the second wife of black nationalist Marcus Garvey
Ula Y. Taylor
Garvey, Amy Euphemia Jacques (31 December 1896–25 July 1973), journalist, Pan-Africanist, and the second wife of black nationalist Marcus Garvey, journalist, Pan-Africanist, and the second wife of black nationalist Marcus Garvey, was born in Kingston, Jamaica, the daughter of George Samuel Jacques, a property owner, and Charlotte (maiden name unknown). Amy Jacques’s family was rooted in the Jamaican middle class; thus, she was formally educated at Wolmer’s Girls’ School, an elite institution in Jamaica. As a young woman she suffered from ailing health due to recurring bouts with malaria. In need of a cooler climate, she emigrated to the United States in 1917 and settled in New York City where she had relatives. After hearing contradictory reports about the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), recently founded by Garvey, she attended a meeting in Harlem. She was intrigued by the organization and in 1918 became Garvey’s private secretary and office manager at UNIA headquarters in New York. She traveled with Garvey throughout the United States on behalf of UNIA, and they developed a relationship based on their mutual commitment to the organization. Marital problems between Garvey and his first wife, Amy Ashwood, had been evident within the first two months of their marriage. Garvey was granted a divorce from Ashwood in June of 1922, and he married Amy Jacques the next month in Baltimore, Maryland....
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Godwin, Parke (1816-1904), journalist and editor
Donald A. Ringe
Godwin, Parke (25 February 1816–07 January 1904), journalist and editor, was born in Paterson, New Jersey, the son of Abraham Godwin, a manufacturer and merchant, and Martha Parke. After graduating from Princeton in 1834, he returned to Paterson to study law. He lived briefly in Louisville, Kentucky, where he was admitted to the bar, but before establishing a practice, he moved to New York City. There he met ...
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Gunther, John (1901-1970), foreign correspondent and writer
Morrell Heald
Gunther, John (30 August 1901–29 May 1970), foreign correspondent and writer, was born in Chicago, the son of Eugene M. Gunther, a salesman, and Lisette Shoeninger, a schoolteacher. His mother stimulated Gunther’s interest in literature and history; at eleven he already was compiling a personal encyclopedia of world affairs. The wide-ranging interests, energy, and enthusiasm displayed at this early age characterized his personal and professional life. At the University of Chicago, where he graduated in 1922, he became literary editor of the campus newspaper while building his personal library by reviewing books for other journals as well. Eager for a writer’s career, he headed for Europe to soak up continental culture without waiting to receive his bachelor’s degree....
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Hatcher, William Eldridge (1834-1912), minister, editor, and author
Robert R. Mathisen
Hatcher, William Eldridge (25 July 1834–24 August 1912), minister, editor, and author, was born in Bedford County, Virginia, near the Peaks of Otter, the son of Henry Hatcher and Mary Latham, farmers. His mother was a close relative of General Nathanael Greene, principal foe of British general ...
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Hendrick, Burton Jesse (1870-1949), journalist and biographer
Ronald S. Marmarelli
Hendrick, Burton Jesse (08 December 1870–23 March 1949), journalist and biographer, was born in New Haven, Connecticut, the son of Charles Buddington Hendrick, a watchmaker and inventor, and Mary Elizabeth Johnston. Hendrick worked to earn money for his tuition before entering Yale University at age twenty. He received his B.A. in 1895. In 1896 he married Bertha Jane Ives; they had two sons....
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Herbst, Josephine Frey (05 March 1892–28 January 1969), novelist, biographer, and radical journalist
Caren Irr
Herbst, Josephine Frey (05 March 1892–28 January 1969), novelist, biographer, and radical journalist, was born in Sioux City, Iowa, the daughter of William Benton Herbst, a salesman of farm equipment, and Mary Frey. Herbst graduated from high school in 1910 and earned her own college tuition. Alternating schooling with stints as a teacher, secretary, and clerk, she attended classes at Morningside College, the University of Iowa, and the University of Washington before completing her B.A. in English at the University of California, Berkeley. Her first poems were published in an undergraduate magazine at Berkeley....
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Josephson, Matthew (1899-1978)
In
Matthew Josephson Courtesy of the Library of Congress (LC-USZ62-116726).
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Josephson, Matthew (1899-1978), writer
David E. Shi
Josephson, Matthew (15 February 1899–13 March 1978), writer, was born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Julius Josephson, a banker, and Sarah Kasindorf. A child of Jewish immigrants from Romania and Russia, Josephson graduated from Columbia University in 1920. That same year he married Hannah Geffen, a nineteen-year-old reporter for the ...
Article
Lash, Joseph P. (1909-1987), biographer, journalist, and political activist
Robert Cohen
Lash, Joseph P. (09 December 1909–22 August 1987), biographer, journalist, and political activist, was born in New York City, the son of Samuel Lash and Mary Avchin, grocery store owners. By the time Lash was eleven years old, the metropolitan press had dubbed him a “boy prodigy” because he had scored above college freshmen in the Binet-Simon intelligence test. While helping his Russian-Jewish immigrant parents operate their small store in their Columbia University neighborhood, Lash frequently waited on professors and students, acquiring—as he later recalled—“bookish and academic aspirations by sheer contact.” At De Witt Clinton High School, Lash displayed literary inclinations, winning a city-wide essay contest and serving as the student newspaper’s book review editor....
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Mailer, Norman (31 January 1923–10 November 2007), novelist, biographer, and journalist
J. Michael Lennon
Mailer, Norman (31 January 1923–10 November 2007), novelist, biographer, and journalist, was born Norman Kingsley Mailer in Long Branch, New Jersey, the eldest child of Isaac Barnett (Barney) Mailer, a Jewish immigrant from South Africa whose family originated from Lithuania, and Fanny Schneider Mailer, whose family also originated from Lithuania. Barney Mailer was an accountant who was often unemployed during the Depression; he was also a gambler and narrowly escaped prosecution for embezzlement. Fanny Mailer’s family ran hotels in Long Branch, a seaside resort town, and Fanny herself was “the motor of the family,” Norman Mailer said, “and without her I don’t know what would have happened to us.” She was her son’s greatest booster during her long life (1891–1985), although he identified closely with his father’s secret rebelliousness. When Mailer was five years old the family moved to Brooklyn, and Mailer maintained a home there for most of his life....
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Nicolay, John George (1832-1901), journalist and private secretary and biographer of Abraham Lincoln
Daniel Hamilton
Nicolay, John George (26 February 1832–26 September 1901), journalist and private secretary and biographer of Abraham Lincoln, journalist and private secretary and biographer of Abraham Lincoln, was born in Essingen, Bavaria, the son of John Jacob Nicolay, a farmer and barrelmaker, and Helena (maiden name unknown). The Nicolay family emigrated to the United States when John was a small boy, arriving in New Orleans in 1838. From there the family moved frequently, living in Ohio, Indiana, and Missouri, before settling in Pike County, Illinois, where John’s father and brothers operated a flour mill. Nicolay clerked for a year in a store in White Hall, Illinois, before going to work as a typesetter at the ...
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