Matthew Josephson
Matthew Josephson | |
|---|---|
| Born | February 15, 1899 Brooklyn,New York |
| Died | March 13, 1978(aged 79) |
| Nationality | American |
| Education | Columbia University(BA) |
| Occupation(s) | Historian, journalist |
| Known for | Popularizing the term "robber baron" |
| Spouse | Hannah Josephson |
Matthew Josephson(February 15, 1899 – March 13, 1978) was an American journalist and author of works on nineteenth-century French literature and American political and business history of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Josephson popularized the term "robber baron".
Biography
[edit]He was born inBrooklyn,New Yorkon February 15, 1899, toJewishimmigrant parents Julius and Sarah (née Kasindorf) Josephson. His father was fromIasi,Romaniaand his mother fromRostov-na-Donu,Russia.Julius Josephson was aprinterwho became a bank president before his death in 1925. Matthew Josephson graduated fromColumbia Universityand marriedHannah Geffenin 1920.[1]They lived in Europe in the 1920s. His wife, librarian of theAmerican Academy of Arts and Lettersand an author in her own right, worked closely with her husband on various projects throughout their careers. In 1945 she andMalcolm CowleyeditedAragon, Poet of the Resistance.Matthew and Hannah Josephson collaborated onAl Smith: Hero of the Citiesin 1969. They had two sons, Eric and Carl.
Initially Josephson wrote poetry, published inGalimathias(1923), and reported for various "little magazines." He became associate editor ofBroom: An International Magazine of the Arts(1922–24) and contributing editor ofTransition(1928–29). Josephson was also a regular contributor toThe New Republic,The Nation,The New Yorker,and theSaturday Evening Post.
Josephson's first biographies wereZolaand His Time(1928) andJean-Jacques Rousseau(1932). Influenced byCharles A. Beardandthe Depression,and with only one major exception,Stendhal: or the Pursuit of Happiness(1946), Josephson changed his focus of interest from literature to economic history when he publishedThe Robber Baronsin 1934. This was followed by more full-length works in which Josephson served as a spokesman for intellectuals of his generation who were dissatisfied with the social and political status quo.
Josephson wrote two memoirs,Life Among the Surrealists(1962) andInfidel in the Temple(1967). He died on March 13, 1978, at theCommunity HospitalinSanta Cruz, California.[2]
Legacy
[edit]Josephson's collected papers are in the Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library atYale University.
Bibliography
[edit]- Galimathias(1923)
- Zola and His Time(1928, biography)
- Portrait of the Artist as American(1930)
- Jean-Jacques Rousseau(1932, biography)
- Nazi Culture: The Brown Darkness Over Germany,John Day(1933)
- The Robber Barons: The Great American Capitalists(1934)
- The Politicos(1938, essay)
- The President Makers: The Culture of Politics and Leadership in an Age of Enlightenment 1896–1919(1940)
- Victor Hugo(1942, biography)
- Empire of the Air:Juan Trippeand the Struggle for World Airways(1943)
- Stendhal(1946, biography)
- Sidney Hillman(1952, biography)
- Union House Union Bar: The History of the Hotel & Restaurant Employees and Bartenders International Union, AFL-CIO(1956, nonfiction)
- Edison(1959, biography)
- Life Among the Surrealists(1962, memoir)
- Infidel in the Temple: a memoir of the 1930s(1967, memoir)
- The Money Lords, The Great Finance Capitalists, 1925–1950(1972, nonfiction)
- Al Smith:Hero of the Cities; a Political Portrait Drawing on the Papers of Frances Perkins(1969)
References
[edit]- ^Columbia College (Columbia University). Office of Alumni Affairs and Development; Columbia College (Columbia University) (1967–1969).Columbia College today.Columbia University Libraries. New York, N.Y.: Columbia College, Office of Alumni Affairs and Development.
- ^Alden Whitman(March 14, 1978)."Matthew Josephson, Biographer and Muckraker, Dies".The New York Times.RetrievedDecember 15,2014.
Matthew Josephson, the Brooklyn-born biographer whose writings ranged from French literary figures to American capitalists, died yesterday at Community Hospital in Santa Cruz, Calif. He was 79 years old and had suffered from asthma.
- David E. Shi,Matthew Josephson: Bourgeois Bohemian(1981).
External links
[edit]- Works by or about Matthew Josephsonat theInternet Archive
- Matthew Josephson Papers.Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
- 1899 births
- 1978 deaths
- 20th-century American poets
- 20th-century American biographers
- American male biographers
- 20th-century American historians
- American male journalists
- American people of Romanian-Jewish descent
- American people of Russian-Jewish descent
- Jewish American historians
- Journalists from New York City
- 20th-century American memoirists
- Columbia College (New York) alumni
- Historians of the United States
- Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters
- Musicians from Brooklyn
- 20th-century American musicians
- American male poets
- 20th-century American male writers
- 20th-century American Jews