Robert William St. John
Encyclopedia
Robert William St. John (March 9, 1902 - February 6, 2003) was an American
author
(23 books), broadcaster
(NBC Radio) and journalist
(AP
, etc.).
Ill. His mother Amy (Archer, before her marriage) was a nurse, and his father John, a pharmacist
. He had one brother, two years younger, Archer. In 1910 his parents moved the family to the well to do suburban Oak Park
. There, St. John attended high school, where he was in a writing class with Ernest Hemingway
. According to an interview he gave The Washington Times
in 1994, their teacher kept them both (St. John and Hemingway) after class one day, to tell them they had no future in writing - "Neither one of you will ever learn to write.".
St. John's father died in 1917 and the mother remarried (he had half brother from his mother's second marriage), while St. John, at age 16, lied about his age to enlist in the Navy
during World War I
.
, St. John became the campus correspondent for the "Hartford Courant" while attending Trinity College
in Hartford, Conn
. But he was soon expelled for trying to expose the college president's censorship of an outspoken English professor.
Abandoning formal education, St. John pursued journalism as a reporter for the Chicago Daily News
and the Chicago American. In 1923, with his younger brother Archer St. John (1904-1955), he co-founded the Cicero Tribune in suburban Cicero
, Ill., and at 21, became the youngest editor
-publisher in the United States
. A short while after that his brother Archer founded the "Berwyn
Tribune", in the city of Berwyn near Cicero.
St. John published a series of exposes about Cicero brothels and other operations of gangster Al Capone
. In response, on april 6, 1925 he was accosted by four Capone goons and beaten to a pulp. He brashly complained to the police, and was invited back the next day to meet Capone in person. The gang leader offered St. John money -- which the reporter rejected -- and apologized, saying he liked newsmen and considered the exposes a form of advertising. Soon after these incidents, Capone purchased the Cicero Tribune in order to silence St. John. Faced with an obviously impossible situation, St. John quit and went into partnership with Archer on the Berwyn paper. In 1927, St. John left the Berwyn Tribune for a job as managing editor of a paper in Rutland
, Vermont
. At that point the two brothers' ways departed from each other and Archer was to become the founder of St. John Publications
, in 1947.
's first presidential campaign, then farmed for six years. In 1939, St. John moved to Europe
to report on the imminent war for the Associated Press.
For two years, St. John reported from the Balkans
. The persecution of Jews that he witnessed during that period helped instill in him a deep and enduring interest in Israel
, Jewish issues and anti-Semitism
. Covering the January 1941 pogrom
in Bucharest
, when Romanian fascists tortured and killed about 170 Jews
, marked a watershed for him. "I realized that I had been born into a group that had been doing this sort of thing for 2,000 years and therefore had to bear some of the responsibility," later recalled St. John, who had sheltered a local Jewish family to save them from the massacre. "I promised myself that if I lived out the war, I'd spend the rest of my life trying to atone for these sins, for the atrocities committed in Bucharest by men born Christian and presumably exposed to Christian precepts they had so barbarically violated".
He fled from Belgrade
to Cairo
with other newsmen when Hitler's troops overran Yugoslavia
and was wounded in the right leg by shrapnel while riding in a Greek troop train. He returned home to New York
, where he wrote "what I saw and smelled and heard." The resulting book, "From the Land of Silent People" published in 1942, was his first, and a best seller
.
bureau. He covered the blitz, the Nazi bombing of the city for a year before returning to Washington, D.C.
, and then New York
to broadcast general war news. His broadcast brought the Americans the news about the D Day, in june 6, 1944 and he was the first to announce the end of the second World War in august 14, 1945 .
When he wrote a second book on Yugoslavia, "The Silent People Speak" in 1948, C. L. Sulzberger
, wrote a review in the New York Times Book Review suggesting that his use of Communist sources made him "a subconscious follower of the 'party line.' "
Although intimates said St. John never liked communism, he became one of 151 writers, performers, directors and others listed in the 1950 Red Channels
, an American Business Consultants' report of communist influence in radio and television, and NBC fired him.
, before returning to the United States, always roaming the world to write and broadcast major events on radio or in magazines and books. His work included research around the globe for the World Book Encyclopedia.
He became regarded as a Middle East
specialist after covering the war for Israeli independence. St. John covered the Eichmann trial and five Arab-Israeli wars, including the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon
. At that time, he was 80, by far the oldest of the hundreds of reporters on hand, and the only one who had covered all four previous Arab-Israeli conflicts. He wrote a dozen or so books about the Middle East
and Judaism
, including well-reviewed biographies of David Ben-Gurion
and Gamel Abdel Nasser. An eloquent non-Jewish spokesman for Jewish causes, he maintained close ties with the Jewish state and was honored by Jewish and Israeli institutions. David Ben-Gurion, Israel's first prime minister, called him "our goyisher Zionist".
.
A few of his books were non documantary - the story of Rudolf Kastner
, the Zionist Romanian - Hungarian Jewish leader who was accused of betraying his people to the Nazis was the base upon which he built his fictional novel "The Man who Played God" (Doubleday, 1962).
All in all he wrote 23 books, the last of which in the year 2002, when he turned 100 years old, an autobiography
. He also wrote many articles, some of which got published as booklets.
St. John was married twice. He married first to Eda Guerrieri (marriage dissolved), and second in 1965, to Ruth Bass. He died in Waldorf
, Maryland
on February 6, 2003..
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
(23 books), broadcaster
Presenter
A presenter, or host , is a person or organization responsible for running an event. A museum or university, for example, may be the presenter or host of an exhibit. Likewise, a master of ceremonies is a person that hosts or presents a show...
(NBC Radio) and journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
(AP
AP
A&P or AP or Ap or ap may refer to:-Education:* Advanced Placement, a program that offers college level courses at high schools across the United States and Canada* Ang Pamantasan, a Philippine university student publication...
, etc.).
Early Life
St. John was born in March 9, 1902, in ChicagoChicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
Ill. His mother Amy (Archer, before her marriage) was a nurse, and his father John, a pharmacist
Pharmacist
Pharmacists are allied health professionals who practice in pharmacy, the field of health sciences focusing on safe and effective medication use...
. He had one brother, two years younger, Archer. In 1910 his parents moved the family to the well to do suburban Oak Park
Oak Park, Illinois
Oak Park, Illinois is a suburb bordering the west side of the city of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States. It is the twenty-fifth largest municipality in Illinois. Oak Park has easy access to downtown Chicago due to public transportation such as the Chicago 'L' Blue and Green lines,...
. There, St. John attended high school, where he was in a writing class with Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Miller Hemingway was an American author and journalist. His economic and understated style had a strong influence on 20th-century fiction, while his life of adventure and his public image influenced later generations. Hemingway produced most of his work between the mid-1920s and the...
. According to an interview he gave The Washington Times
The Washington Times
The Washington Times is a daily broadsheet newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States. It was founded in 1982 by Unification Church founder Sun Myung Moon, and until 2010 was owned by News World Communications, an international media conglomerate associated with the...
in 1994, their teacher kept them both (St. John and Hemingway) after class one day, to tell them they had no future in writing - "Neither one of you will ever learn to write.".
St. John's father died in 1917 and the mother remarried (he had half brother from his mother's second marriage), while St. John, at age 16, lied about his age to enlist in the Navy
Navy
A navy is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake- or ocean-borne combat operations and related functions...
during World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
.
An Investigating Reporter
On his return from FranceFrance
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, St. John became the campus correspondent for the "Hartford Courant" while attending Trinity College
Trinity College
-Australia:* Trinity Catholic College Lismore, a Catholic secondary school in New South Wales* Trinity College , part of the University of Melbourne, in Melbourne, Victoria* Trinity College, Gawler, Adelaide, South Australia...
in Hartford, Conn
Conn
Conn is a surname and a masculine given name meaning "chief" in Irish. As a given name it is also used as a short form of Connor.-American:*Billy Conn was a Light-Heavyweight boxing champion famed for his fights with Joe Louis....
. But he was soon expelled for trying to expose the college president's censorship of an outspoken English professor.
Abandoning formal education, St. John pursued journalism as a reporter for the Chicago Daily News
Chicago Daily News
The Chicago Daily News was an afternoon daily newspaper published between 1876 and 1978 in Chicago, Illinois.-History:The Daily News was founded by Melville E. Stone, Percy Meggy, and William Dougherty in 1875 and began publishing early the next year...
and the Chicago American. In 1923, with his younger brother Archer St. John (1904-1955), he co-founded the Cicero Tribune in suburban Cicero
Cicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero , was a Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Roman constitutionalist. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the equestrian order, and is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.He introduced the Romans to the chief...
, Ill., and at 21, became the youngest editor
Editor
The term editor may refer to:As a person who does editing:* Editor in chief, having final responsibility for a publication's operations and policies* Copy editing, making formatting changes and other improvements to text...
-publisher in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. A short while after that his brother Archer founded the "Berwyn
Berwyn, Illinois
Berwyn is a city in Cook County, Illinois, co-existent with Berwyn Township, which was formed in 1908 after breaking off from Cicero Township. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 54,016.-Demographics:...
Tribune", in the city of Berwyn near Cicero.
St. John published a series of exposes about Cicero brothels and other operations of gangster Al Capone
Al Capone
Alphonse Gabriel "Al" Capone was an American gangster who led a Prohibition-era crime syndicate. The Chicago Outfit, which subsequently became known as the "Capones", was dedicated to smuggling and bootlegging liquor, and other illegal activities such as prostitution, in Chicago from the early...
. In response, on april 6, 1925 he was accosted by four Capone goons and beaten to a pulp. He brashly complained to the police, and was invited back the next day to meet Capone in person. The gang leader offered St. John money -- which the reporter rejected -- and apologized, saying he liked newsmen and considered the exposes a form of advertising. Soon after these incidents, Capone purchased the Cicero Tribune in order to silence St. John. Faced with an obviously impossible situation, St. John quit and went into partnership with Archer on the Berwyn paper. In 1927, St. John left the Berwyn Tribune for a job as managing editor of a paper in Rutland
Rutland
Rutland is a landlocked county in central England, bounded on the west and north by Leicestershire, northeast by Lincolnshire and southeast by Peterborough and Northamptonshire....
, Vermont
Vermont
Vermont is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state ranks 43rd in land area, , and 45th in total area. Its population according to the 2010 census, 630,337, is the second smallest in the country, larger only than Wyoming. It is the only New England...
. At that point the two brothers' ways departed from each other and Archer was to become the founder of St. John Publications
St. John Publications
St. John Publications was an American publisher of magazines and comic books. During its short existence , St. John's comic books established several industry firsts. Founded by Archer St. John , the firm was located in Manhattan at 545 Fifth Avenue. After the St...
, in 1947.
AP
St. John joined The Associated Press and covered Franklin D. RooseveltFranklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
's first presidential campaign, then farmed for six years. In 1939, St. John moved to Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
to report on the imminent war for the Associated Press.
For two years, St. John reported from the Balkans
Balkans
The Balkans is a geopolitical and cultural region of southeastern Europe...
. The persecution of Jews that he witnessed during that period helped instill in him a deep and enduring interest in Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
, Jewish issues and anti-Semitism
Anti-Semitism
Antisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...
. Covering the January 1941 pogrom
Pogrom
A pogrom is a form of violent riot, a mob attack directed against a minority group, and characterized by killings and destruction of their homes and properties, businesses, and religious centres...
in Bucharest
Bucharest
Bucharest is the capital municipality, cultural, industrial, and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania, located in the southeast of the country, at , and lies on the banks of the Dâmbovița River....
, when Romanian fascists tortured and killed about 170 Jews
Jews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
, marked a watershed for him. "I realized that I had been born into a group that had been doing this sort of thing for 2,000 years and therefore had to bear some of the responsibility," later recalled St. John, who had sheltered a local Jewish family to save them from the massacre. "I promised myself that if I lived out the war, I'd spend the rest of my life trying to atone for these sins, for the atrocities committed in Bucharest by men born Christian and presumably exposed to Christian precepts they had so barbarically violated".
He fled from Belgrade
Belgrade
Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...
to Cairo
Cairo
Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...
with other newsmen when Hitler's troops overran Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
and was wounded in the right leg by shrapnel while riding in a Greek troop train. He returned home to New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, where he wrote "what I saw and smelled and heard." The resulting book, "From the Land of Silent People" published in 1942, was his first, and a best seller
Best Seller
Best Seller is a 1987 film written by Larry Cohen, directed by John Flynn and starring Brian Dennehy and James Woods. The plot concerns a career hitman, played by Woods, who wants to turn his life story into a book, to be written by Dennehy's character, a veteran police officer turned...
.
NBC Radio
After writing the book, St. John switched to broadcast reporting for NBC Radio, moving in 1942 to head its LondonLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
bureau. He covered the blitz, the Nazi bombing of the city for a year before returning to Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, and then New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
to broadcast general war news. His broadcast brought the Americans the news about the D Day, in june 6, 1944 and he was the first to announce the end of the second World War in august 14, 1945 .
When he wrote a second book on Yugoslavia, "The Silent People Speak" in 1948, C. L. Sulzberger
C. L. Sulzberger
Cyrus Leo Sulzberger II was a U.S. journalist, diarist, and author, and a member of the family that owns the New York Times. During the 1940s and 1950s, he was that newspaper's lead foreign correspondent....
, wrote a review in the New York Times Book Review suggesting that his use of Communist sources made him "a subconscious follower of the 'party line.' "
Although intimates said St. John never liked communism, he became one of 151 writers, performers, directors and others listed in the 1950 Red Channels
Red Channels
Red Channels: The Report of Communist Influence in Radio and Television is an anti-Communist tract published in the United States at the height of the Red Scare...
, an American Business Consultants' report of communist influence in radio and television, and NBC fired him.
Author
St. John spent the next 15 years based in SwitzerlandSwitzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
, before returning to the United States, always roaming the world to write and broadcast major events on radio or in magazines and books. His work included research around the globe for the World Book Encyclopedia.
He became regarded as a Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
specialist after covering the war for Israeli independence. St. John covered the Eichmann trial and five Arab-Israeli wars, including the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon
Lebanon
Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...
. At that time, he was 80, by far the oldest of the hundreds of reporters on hand, and the only one who had covered all four previous Arab-Israeli conflicts. He wrote a dozen or so books about the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
and Judaism
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
, including well-reviewed biographies of David Ben-Gurion
David Ben-Gurion
' was the first Prime Minister of Israel.Ben-Gurion's passion for Zionism, which began early in life, led him to become a major Zionist leader and Executive Head of the World Zionist Organization in 1946...
and Gamel Abdel Nasser. An eloquent non-Jewish spokesman for Jewish causes, he maintained close ties with the Jewish state and was honored by Jewish and Israeli institutions. David Ben-Gurion, Israel's first prime minister, called him "our goyisher Zionist".
.
A few of his books were non documantary - the story of Rudolf Kastner
Rudolf Kastner
Rudolf Israel Kastner was a Jewish-Hungarian journalist and lawyer who became known for facilitating the departure of Jews out of Nazi-occupied Hungary during the Holocaust...
, the Zionist Romanian - Hungarian Jewish leader who was accused of betraying his people to the Nazis was the base upon which he built his fictional novel "The Man who Played God" (Doubleday, 1962).
All in all he wrote 23 books, the last of which in the year 2002, when he turned 100 years old, an autobiography
Autobiography
An autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...
. He also wrote many articles, some of which got published as booklets.
St. John was married twice. He married first to Eda Guerrieri (marriage dissolved), and second in 1965, to Ruth Bass. He died in Waldorf
Waldorf
- People :* William Waldorf Astor, 1st Viscount Astor , financier and statesman* Waldorf Astor, 2nd Viscount Astor , businessman and politician- Communities :United States* Waldorf, Maryland* Waldorf, MinnesotaGermany...
, Maryland
Maryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
on February 6, 2003..