Oswald Garrison Villard, whose article, entitled “Press Tendencies and Dangers,” appeared in the Atlantic for January, 1918, is a son of the late Henry Villard, who owned the New York Evening Post and the Nation, and a grandson of William Lloyd Garrison, the great emancipator and editor of the Liberator. He succeeded his father as president of the New York Evening Post and of the Nation, to both of which he frequently contributes editorials and special articles.
Francis E. Leupp was actively engaged in newspaper work for thirty years, from the time that he joined the staff of the New York Evening Post in 1874 until 1904. During half of that time, from 1889 to 1904, he was in charge of the Washington bureau of the Post. Since retiring from that position, he has been doing literary work. His article on “The Waning Power of the Press” was published in the Atlantic for February, 1910.
H. L. Mencken was connected with Baltimore newspapers for nearly twenty years, part of the time as city editor and later as editor of the Baltimore Herald, and for the last twelve years as a member of the staff of the Baltimore Sun, from which he has recently severed his connection. He is now one of the editors of Smart Set. “Newspaper Morals” was printed in the Atlantic for March, 1914.
Ralph Pulitzer, who wrote his reply to Mr. Mencken’s article for the Atlantic for June, 1914, is a son of the late Joseph Pulitzer of the New York World and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. He began newspaper work in 1900, and since 1911 has been president of the company that publishes the World. He takes an active part in the direction of the editorial and news policies of that paper.
Professor Edward A. Ross has been an aggressive pioneer in the field of sociology in this country and has written many books on social problems. His study of the suppression of news, the results of which were published in the Atlantic for March, 1910, grew out of his interest in the newspaper as a social force.
Henry Watterson, who takes issue with Professor Ross in his article on “The Personal Equation in Journalism,” in the Atlantic for July, 1910, is the last of the great editorial leaders of Civil War days. For half a century his trenchant editorial comments in the Louisville Courier-Journal, of which he has been the editor since 1868, have been reprinted in newspapers all over the country.
An Observer has seen much service as the Washington correspondent of an important newspaper. “The Problem of the Associated Press” was printed in the Atlantic for July, 1914.
Melville E. Stone, who defends the Associated Press, has been its general manager for twenty-five years. Previous to his connection with that organization he was associated with Victor F. Lawson in the establishment and development of the Chicago Daily News. He has written a number of articles on the work of the Associated Press.
“Paracelsus” sketches briefly his own career in journalism in his “Confessions of a Provincial Editor,” published in the Atlantic for March, 1902.
Charles Moreau Harger, as head of the department of journalism at the University of Kansas from 1905 to 1907, was one of the first college instructors of journalism in this country. At the same time he was editor of the Abilene (Kan.) Daily Reflector, which he has published for thirty years. “The Country Editor of To-day” is taken from the Atlantic for January, 1907, and “Journalism as a Career,” from that for February, 1911.