Joseph Edgar Chamberlin

Last updated • 5 min readFrom Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia

Joseph Edgar "J. E." or "Ed" Chamberlin (August 6, 1851 – July 6, 1935) was an American journalist, columnist, essayist, and editor whose work appeared in newspapers in Chicago, Boston, and New York, as well as in national magazines and journals, beginning in 1871 and continuing until his death in 1935. Beginning in the late 1880s, he wrote a popular column for the Boston Evening Transcript called "The Listener" and thus became known throughout New England as "The Listener of the Transcript." He was a friend and mentor to many aspiring writers, photographers, musicians, and artists, and maintained a close friendship with Helen Keller and her teacher Anne Sullivan for over 40 years. He died in South Hanson, Massachusetts in 1935 and is buried in his birthplace of Newbury, Vermont.

Contents

Early life

Chamberlin was born in Newbury, Vermont, the youngest child of Abner and Mary (Haseltine) Chamberlin. The Chamberlins were descendants of one of Newbury's founding families. [1] Joseph Edgar's early years were spent in Spring Prairie, Wisconsin, where his father, a farmer, moved in 1857. The Chamberlins were staunch and vocal abolitionists, frequently housing itinerant abolitionist speakers and politicians at their home. [2] Young "Ed" was educated in a one-room schoolhouse, and though he wanted to attend college, the family could not afford it, so he was forced to find a trade. He followed his older brother, Everett Chamberlin, already established in the newspaper business, to Chicago in 1868. [3] While there, he provided himself with what he called a "classical" education by reading extensively at the nearby Chicago Public Library. [3]

Career

Chamberlin began his newspaper career as a seventeen-year-old proofreader for the Chicago Evening Post, where his brother Everett was employed. In October 1871, he was one of the first eyewitnesses on the scene of the Great Chicago Fire and his reports were some of the first to go out to the world. [4] He then worked for a short time in Indianapolis for the Indianapolis Daily Journal before returning to Chicago and work for the Chicago Times in 1873. He rose to a managing role at the Times before resigning and moving east in 1880. [3]

He worked briefly as an editor for the Daily Herald in Newport, Rhode Island and the Daily News in Fall River, Massachusetts before moving to Boston in 1884. There, he was the first editor of the Evening Record, and then an editor for the Daily Advertiser. He joined the Boston Evening Transcript in 1886 as an editorial and general writer. [3]

In 1887, Chamberlin began writing a daily column for the Transcript called "The Listener," and subsequently became known throughout New England as "The Listener of the Transcript." He was also attached to The Youth's Companion as editor and writer. [3]

He moved to New York in 1901 and worked for the New York Evening Mail and New York Evening Post . While at the Mail, he worked alongside C. L. Edson and Rube Goldberg.

Over the course of his career, he also authored several books. He wrote two companion books, The Listener in the Town and The Listener in the Country (Copeland and Day, 1896), John Brown (Beacon, 1899), an alternate history book titled The Ifs of History (1907), and Nomads and Listeners (Riverside, 1937). In 1921, he published a limited edition tribute to his son Raymond, killed in action during World War I in Marcheville, France, called The Only Thing for a Man to Do. [3]

He also wrote for national magazines such as Vanity Fair, Harper's Weekly, and The Sunday Magazine. In 1930, he edited The Boston Evening Transcript: A history of its first hundred years. [5]

Family and friendships

In 1873, Chamberlin married Ida Elizabeth Atwood, the daughter of Charles Atwood, a colleague of his at the Chicago Times. Together they had five children and one adopted son. Several of their children died in infancy or childhood. [6]

In 1888, through his Transcript writing and advocacy for the Perkins School for the Blind, Chamberlin began a friendship with Helen Keller and her teacher Anne Sullivan. Keller and Sullivan began visiting Chamberlin and his family at their home called Red Farm in Wrentham, Massachusetts when Helen was nine years old. [7] She often spent weekends and holidays with the Chamberlins and lived with them for a year in 1896-97. Early in the friendship, she began calling Chamberlin "Uncle Ed," which she did until his death more than 40 years later. [8] [9]

Red Farm, the Chamberlins' home on the shores of what was then called King Phillip's Pond, was a gathering place for literary, political, and artistic figures of the day. Notables such as Edward Everett Hale, Louise Imogen Guiney, F. Luis Mora, F. Holland Day, Mary Wilkins Freeman, Bliss Carman, Bradford Torrey, Hamlin Garland, Charles W. Chesnutt, and Native American women artists Zitkala-Sa and Angel de Cora congregated at Red Farm and they, along with Keller and Sullivan, have left archival material that illuminates Chamberlin's career, home, and family life. [10] [11] [12] [13] [14]

His career brought him into contact with many notables of the day. It was said that he interviewed every president of the U.S. from Ulysses S. Grant to Calvin Coolidge. William Dean Howells and Edward Everett Hale both sent congratulatory letters to be read at an event in Boston celebrating the publication of his Listener books in 1896. [15]

Later years and death

Chamberlin's career as a writer and editor spanned more than 60 years. His first wife Ida Atwood Chamberlin died in 1914. Chamberlin married Leonilda Farness (b. Farnese) in 1915. She died in 1923. He married Jenny LeRoyer Chamberlin in 1926. Chamberlin continued to write for the Transcript until his death in South Hanson, Massachusetts on July 6, 1935. He is buried in the Oxbow Cemetery in Newbury, Vermont. Upon his death, tributes were written in publications that included Editor and Publisher magazine and the New York Herald Tribune . The former described Chamberlin as "the dean of Boston editors," [16] and added that the Herald-Tribune said "he was one of the most widely recognized staff writers of his times." [16] He was survived by his daughters Helen Chamberlin Dodd, Elisabeth Chamberlin Darling, Eleanor Chamberlin Boshco, and adopted son Phillip Chamberlin. [6]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Helen Keller</span> American author and activist (1880–1968)

Helen Adams Keller was an American author, disability rights advocate, political activist and lecturer. Born in West Tuscumbia, Alabama, she lost her sight and her hearing after a bout of illness when she was 19 months old. She then communicated primarily using home signs until the age of seven, when she met her first teacher and life-long companion Anne Sullivan. Sullivan taught Keller language, including reading and writing. After an education at both specialist and mainstream schools, Keller attended Radcliffe College of Harvard University and became the first deafblind person in the United States to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anne Sullivan</span> Teacher and companion of Helen Keller (1866–1936)

Anne Sullivan Macy was an American teacher best known for being the instructor and lifelong companion of Helen Keller.

Perkins School for the Blind, in Watertown, Massachusetts, was founded in 1829 and is the oldest school for the blind in the United States. It has also been known as the Perkins Institution for the Blind.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edward Everett Hale</span> American historian and minister (1822–1909)

Edward Everett Hale was an American author, historian, and Unitarian minister, best known for his writings such as "The Man Without a Country", published in Atlantic Monthly, in support of the Union during the Civil War. He was the grand-nephew of Nathan Hale, the American spy during the Revolutionary War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Agnes Irwin (educator)</span> American educator

Agnes Irwin was an American educator, best known as the first dean of Radcliffe College (1894-1909). Prior to that, she served as the principal of the West Penn Square Seminary for Young Ladies in Philadelphia.

Dana McLean Greeley was a Unitarian minister, the last president of the American Unitarian Association and, upon its merger with the Universalist Church in America, was the founding president of the Unitarian Universalist Association.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nathan Haskell Dole</span> American poet

Nathan Haskell Dole was an American editor, translator, and author. A writer and journalist in Philadelphia, New York, and Boston, he translated many of the works of Leo Tolstoy and books of other Russians; novels of the Spaniard Armando Palacio Valdés (1886–90); a variety of works from the French and Italian.

<i>Boston Evening Transcript</i> Daily newspaper in Boston, Massachusetts

The Boston Evening Transcript was a daily afternoon newspaper in Boston, Massachusetts, published for over a century from July 24, 1830, to April 30, 1941.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Epes Sargent (poet)</span> American poet and journalist

Epes Sargent was an American editor, poet and playwright.

Henry Taylor Parker, "known for many years largely by his initials H. T. P.", was an American theater and music critic. Time said Parker's "reviews were famed" and for "29 years he had been Boston's oracle on theatre and music." The magazine also said Parker was a "great critic" as was Philip Hale who died around the same time. Parker was "one of the most distinguished critics of his era, respected for his long, thoughtful, and open‐minded reviews." His biographer said “This remarkable little man of fine perceptions, with his dark eyes burning quizzically in a head bent forward with a sleuthing thrust and emphatic in its nods, was a giant among critics.”

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joseph P. Lash</span> American political activist

Joseph Paul Lash was an American radical political activist, journalist, and writer. A close friend of Eleanor Roosevelt, Lash won both the Pulitzer Prize for Biography and the National Book Award in Biography for Eleanor and Franklin (1971), the first of two volumes he wrote about the former First Lady.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Matthew W. Bullock</span> Social leader, civil servant and leading African-American (1881–1972)

Matthew Washington Bullock was an American lawyer, politician and human rights activist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cleo A. O'Donnell</span> American football player and coach (1883–1953)

Cleo Albert O'Donnell was an American football player and coach. He played college football at Holy Cross from 1904 to 1907. He was a football coach at Everett High School (1909–1915), Purdue University (1916–1917), Holy Cross (1919–1930) and Saint Anselm College (1935–1940). His 1914 Everett team has been ranked as the greatest high school football team of all time, finishing with a 13–0 record and outscoring opponents 600 to 0. In 11 years as the head coach at Holy Cross, his teams compiled a record of 69–27–6. O'Donnell has been inducted into the Holy Cross and Saint Anselm Halls of Fame.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harry Atwood</span> 20th-century American inventor, engineer, and aviation pioneer

Harry Nelson Atwood was an American engineer and inventor known for pioneering work in the early days of aviation, including setting long-distance flying records and delivering the first delivery of air mail in New England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cornelia Walter</span> American newspaper editor

Cornelia Wells Walter is generally considered to have been the first woman editor of a major newspaper in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Helen M. Winslow</span> American journalist

Helen M. Winslow was an American editor, author, publisher, and journalist. She began her work on Boston papers. Winslow served as dramatic editor on The Beacon, 1891–97; editor, Woman's Club Department, Boston Transcript, 1893–98; editor, Woman's Club Department of the Delineator, 1897, and again 1912; editor and publisher, The Club Woman, 1897-1904; and she was the publisher of the Official Register of Women's Clubs in America from 1897. She was the author of Salome Sheppard, Reformer. 1893; Concerning Cats, 1900; Concerning Polly, 1902; Literary Boston or To-day, 1902; The Woman of To-morrow, 1905; The President of Quex, 1906; Peggy at Spinster Farm, 1908; A Woman for Mayor, 1910; The Pleasuring of Susan Smith, 1912; and At the Sign of the Town Pump, 1913. She collaborated with Frances Willard in Occupations for Women, and with Marie Wright in Picturesque Mexico.

Patrick O'Beirne was an Irish-born priest who ministered in the Archdiocese of Boston.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Massachusetts House of Representatives' 19th Suffolk district</span> American legislative district

Massachusetts House of Representatives' 19th Suffolk district in the United States is one of 160 legislative districts included in the lower house of the Massachusetts General Court. It covers part of Suffolk County. The seat is represented by Jeffrey Turco.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Anagnos</span> American Educator

Michael Anagnos was a trustee and later second director of the Perkins School for the Blind. He was an author, educator, and human rights activist. Anagnos is well known for his work with Helen Keller.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lotta S. Rand</span> American social worker

Lotta Stetson Rand was an American social worker and an executive at the American Foundation for the Blind.

References

  1. ↑ Wells, Frederic P. History of Newbury, Vermont, 1704-1902. St. Johnsbury, VT: The Caledonian Company, 1902, 18.
  2. ↑ Chamberlin, Joseph Edgar (1937). Nomads and Listeners. Cambridge: Riverside. pp. 12–13.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Chamberlin, Joseph Edgar (1937). Nomads and Listeners. Cambridge: Riverside. pp. xi - 24.
  4. ↑ Murphy, Jim (2006). The Great Fire. New York: Scholastic Books. p. 33. ISBN   0-439-20307-4.
  5. ↑ Chamberlin, Joseph Edgar (1930). The Boston Transcript: A history of its first hundred years. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.
  6. 1 2 Chamberlin Family Papers.
  7. ↑ Keller, Helen (1921). The Story of My Life. Doubleday, Page & Company. p. 55.
  8. ↑ Helen Keller to Jenny L. Chamberlin, July 7, 1935. Chamberlin Family Papers.
  9. ↑ American Foundation for the Blind, Helen Keller Archives.
  10. ↑ Alexander Graham Bell Family Papers, Library of Congress.
  11. ↑ Smithsonian Archives of American Art, Chamberlin correspondence in the F. Holland Day Papers, Manuscript Division, Microfilm reel 4951.
  12. ↑ Louise Imogen Guiney Papers, Holy Cross College Archives, Worcester, Massachusetts.
  13. ↑ Documents courtesy of the Archives of the Perkins School for the Blind, Helen Keller Archive.
  14. ↑ Digital Collections of the Archives of the Perkins School for the Blind: Helen Keller Collection, Michael Anagnos Correspondence, Arthur Gilman Correspondence, Kindergarten Scrapbooks, Correspondence to the Kindergarten, Nella Braddy Henney Collection.
  15. ↑ The Critic. Eds. J.L. Gilder and J.B. Gilder.Vol. 26, Vol. 29, September 19, 1896, 179.
  16. 1 2 "J.E. Chamberlain is Dead in 83rd Year". Editor and Publisher. July 13, 1895.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.