Walter Hines Page
Encyclopedia
Walter Hines Page was an American
journalist
, publisher, and diplomat
. He was the United States
ambassador to the United Kingdom during World War I
.
, Page was educated at Trinity College (Duke University
), then at Randolph-Macon College
and Johns Hopkins University
. His studies complete, he taught for a time in Louisville, Kentucky
.
He then began a journalistic career editing the St. Joseph
Gazette. (The St. Joseph Gazette was a newspaper in St. Joseph, Missouri from 1845 until June 30, 1988, when its morning position was taken over by its sister paper, the St. Joseph News-Press.) After two years at the Gazette, in 1881 he resigned to travel through the South
, having arranged to contribute letters on southern sociological conditions to the New York World
, the Springfield Republican
and the Boston Post
. These letters were helpful in educating the North and the South to a fuller understanding of their mutual dependence. In 1882, he joined the editorial staff of the New York World and wrote a series of articles on Mormonism
, the result of personal investigation in Utah
.
Later in 1882, Page went to Raleigh, North Carolina
, where he founded the State Chronicle. He was also a founding member of the Watauga Club in 1884, along with Arthur Winslow and William Joseph Peele. Together, they petitioned the North Carolina General Assembly
early in 1885 to create an institution for instruction in "wood-work, mining, metallurgy, practical agriculture and in such other branches of industrial education as may be deemed expedient," establishing what is now North Carolina State University
.
Page returned to New York in 1883 and for four years was on the staff of the Evening Post. From 1887 to 1895, he was, first, manager and then, after 1890, editor of The Forum, a monthly magazine. From 1895 to 1900, he was literary adviser to Houghton, Mifflin and Company, and for most of the same period editor of The Atlantic Monthly
(1896–99).
From 1900 to 1913, Page was partner and vice president of Doubleday, Page & Co. , as well as editor, of World's Work
magazine.
Page had founded the publishing company Doubleday, Page, and Co. along with Frank Nelson Doubleday
. It became one of the great book publishing companies of the 20th century. In 1986, it was acquired by Bertelsmann AG
. The company sometimes publishes under the name "Country Life Press" in Garden City
, New York, where Page resided in the years prior to World War I. Among the great writers in the early days of Doubleday was Rudyard Kipling
.
Page believed that a free and open education was fundamental to democracy. In 1902, he published The Rebuilding of Old Commonwealths (New York: Doubleday, Page). He felt that nothing—class, economic means, race, religion—should be a barrier to education.
In March 1913, Page was appointed as ambassador to Britain
by President Woodrow Wilson
. Page was one of the key figures involved in bringing the United States into World War I
on the Allied side. A proud Southerner
, he admired his British roots and assumed that the United Kingdom
was fighting a war for democracy. As ambassador to Britain, he defended British policies to Wilson and so helped to shape a pro-Allied slant in the President and in America as a whole. One month after Page sent a message to Wilson, the U.S. Congress declared war on Germany.
Page was criticized for his unabashedly pro-British stance as it seemed to keep him from what his job was supposed to be, the defending of the USA's interests in the face of British criticism. Among the problems with which he had to deal were the British claim of the right to stop and search American ships, including examination of mail pouches; the commercial blockade (1915); and the “blacklist,” containing the names of American firms with whom all financial and commercial dealings on the part of the British were forbidden (1916).
In 1918, Page became ill and resigned his post as Ambassador to the Court of St. James and returned to his home in Pinehurst, North Carolina, where he died. He is buried in Old Bethesda Cemetery in Aberdeen, North Carolina. A memorial plaque in his honor rests in Westminster Abbey
in Westminster
, London
, UK.
, a U.S. Representative from North Carolina, and Henry A. Page, a North Carolina representative
and a founder of the North Carolina Highway System
.
The Life and Letters of Walter H. Page, by Burton J. Hendrick
, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Biography
in 1923, and The Training of an American: The Earlier Life and Letters of Walter H. Page, by Burton J. Hendrick
, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Biography in 1929.
There is a Walter Hines Page Senior High School in Greensboro, North Carolina, and a Walter Hines Page Research Professor of Literature (currently Ariel Dorfman
) at Duke University.
Today, scholarship
s are awarded by the English-Speaking Union
(ESU), in Walter Hines Pages' name to teachers from the United Kingdom to study in the United States and Canada.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
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...
, publisher, and diplomat
Diplomat
A diplomat is a person appointed by a state to conduct diplomacy with another state or international organization. The main functions of diplomats revolve around the representation and protection of the interests and nationals of the sending state, as well as the promotion of information and...
. He was the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
ambassador to the United Kingdom 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...
.
Biography
Born in Cary, North CarolinaCary, North Carolina
Cary is a large town and suburb of Raleigh, North Carolina in Wake and Chatham counties in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located almost entirely in Wake County, it is the second largest municipality in that county and the third largest municipality in The Triangle after Raleigh and Durham...
, Page was educated at Trinity College (Duke University
Duke University
Duke University is a private research university located in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present day town of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco industrialist James B...
), then at Randolph-Macon College
Randolph-Macon College
Randolph–Macon College is a private, co-educational liberal arts college located in Ashland, Virginia, United States, near the capital city of Richmond. Founded in 1830, the school has an enrollment of over 1,200 students...
and Johns Hopkins University
Johns Hopkins University
The Johns Hopkins University, commonly referred to as Johns Hopkins, JHU, or simply Hopkins, is a private research university based in Baltimore, Maryland, United States...
. His studies complete, he taught for a time in Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kentucky, and the county seat of Jefferson County. Since 2003, the city's borders have been coterminous with those of the county because of a city-county merger. The city's population at the 2010 census was 741,096...
.
He then began a journalistic career editing the St. Joseph
Saint Joseph, Missouri
Saint Joseph is the second largest city in northwest Missouri, only second to Kansas City in size, serving as the county seat for Buchanan County. As of the 2010 census, Saint Joseph had a total population of 76,780, making it the eighth largest city in the state. The St...
Gazette. (The St. Joseph Gazette was a newspaper in St. Joseph, Missouri from 1845 until June 30, 1988, when its morning position was taken over by its sister paper, the St. Joseph News-Press.) After two years at the Gazette, in 1881 he resigned to travel through the South
Southern United States
The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive area in the southeastern and south-central United States...
, having arranged to contribute letters on southern sociological conditions to the New York World
New York World
The New York World was a newspaper published in New York City from 1860 until 1931. The paper played a major role in the history of American newspapers...
, the Springfield Republican
Springfield Republican
The Republican is a newspaper based in Springfield, Massachusetts. It is owned by Newhouse Newspapers, a division of Advance Publications. It played important roles in the United States Republican Party's founding, Charles Dow's career, and the invention of the pronoun "Ms."-Beginning:Established...
and the Boston Post
Boston Post
The Boston Post was the most popular daily newspaper in New England for over a hundred years before it folded in 1956. The Post was founded in November 1831 by two prominent Boston businessmen, Charles G...
. These letters were helpful in educating the North and the South to a fuller understanding of their mutual dependence. In 1882, he joined the editorial staff of the New York World and wrote a series of articles on Mormonism
Mormons
The Mormons are a religious and cultural group related to Mormonism, a religion started by Joseph Smith during the American Second Great Awakening. A vast majority of Mormons are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints while a minority are members of other independent churches....
, the result of personal investigation in Utah
Utah
Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...
.
Later in 1882, Page went to Raleigh, North Carolina
Raleigh, North Carolina
Raleigh is the capital and the second largest city in the state of North Carolina as well as the seat of Wake County. Raleigh is known as the "City of Oaks" for its many oak trees. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the city's 2010 population was 403,892, over an area of , making Raleigh...
, where he founded the State Chronicle. He was also a founding member of the Watauga Club in 1884, along with Arthur Winslow and William Joseph Peele. Together, they petitioned the North Carolina General Assembly
North Carolina General Assembly
The North Carolina General Assembly is the state legislature of the U.S. state of North Carolina. The General Assembly drafts and legislates the state laws of North Carolina, also known as the General Statutes...
early in 1885 to create an institution for instruction in "wood-work, mining, metallurgy, practical agriculture and in such other branches of industrial education as may be deemed expedient," establishing what is now North Carolina State University
North Carolina State University
North Carolina State University at Raleigh is a public, coeducational, extensive research university located in Raleigh, North Carolina, United States. Commonly known as NC State, the university is part of the University of North Carolina system and is a land, sea, and space grant institution...
.
Page returned to New York in 1883 and for four years was on the staff of the Evening Post. From 1887 to 1895, he was, first, manager and then, after 1890, editor of The Forum, a monthly magazine. From 1895 to 1900, he was literary adviser to Houghton, Mifflin and Company, and for most of the same period editor of The Atlantic Monthly
The Atlantic Monthly
The Atlantic is an American magazine founded in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1857. It was created as a literary and cultural commentary magazine. It quickly achieved a national reputation, which it held for more than a century. It was important for recognizing and publishing new writers and poets,...
(1896–99).
From 1900 to 1913, Page was partner and vice president of Doubleday, Page & Co. , as well as editor, of World's Work
World's Work
World's Work was a monthly magazine which celebrated the American way of life and its expanded role on the world stage. In 1932 it was purchased by and merged into the journal Review of Reviews. It was founded in 1900 and edited by Walter Hines Page until 1913 when his son Arthur W...
magazine.
Page had founded the publishing company Doubleday, Page, and Co. along with Frank Nelson Doubleday
Frank Nelson Doubleday
Frank Nelson Doubleday , known to friends and family as “Effendi”, was a famous U.S. publisher. His most significant achievement was as founder of the eponymous Doubleday & McClure Company in 1897.-Biography:...
. It became one of the great book publishing companies of the 20th century. In 1986, it was acquired by Bertelsmann AG
Bertelsmann
Bertelsmann AG is a multinational media corporation founded in 1835, based in Gütersloh, Germany. The company operates in 63 countries and employs 102,983 workers , which makes it the most international media corporation in the world. In 2008 the company reported a €16.118 billion consolidated...
. The company sometimes publishes under the name "Country Life Press" in Garden City
Garden City, New York
Garden City is a village in the town of Hempstead in central Nassau County, New York, in the United States. It was founded by multi-millionaire Alexander Turney Stewart in 1869, and is located on Long Island, to the east of New York City, from mid-town Manhattan, and just south of the town of...
, New York, where Page resided in the years prior to World War I. Among the great writers in the early days of Doubleday was Rudyard Kipling
Rudyard Kipling
Joseph Rudyard Kipling was an English poet, short-story writer, and novelist chiefly remembered for his celebration of British imperialism, tales and poems of British soldiers in India, and his tales for children. Kipling received the 1907 Nobel Prize for Literature...
.
Page believed that a free and open education was fundamental to democracy. In 1902, he published The Rebuilding of Old Commonwealths (New York: Doubleday, Page). He felt that nothing—class, economic means, race, religion—should be a barrier to education.
In March 1913, Page was appointed as ambassador to Britain
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
by President Woodrow Wilson
Woodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States, from 1913 to 1921. A leader of the Progressive Movement, he served as President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and then as the Governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913...
. Page was one of the key figures involved in bringing the United States into 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...
on the Allied side. A proud Southerner
Southern United States
The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive area in the southeastern and south-central United States...
, he admired his British roots and assumed that the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
was fighting a war for democracy. As ambassador to Britain, he defended British policies to Wilson and so helped to shape a pro-Allied slant in the President and in America as a whole. One month after Page sent a message to Wilson, the U.S. Congress declared war on Germany.
Page was criticized for his unabashedly pro-British stance as it seemed to keep him from what his job was supposed to be, the defending of the USA's interests in the face of British criticism. Among the problems with which he had to deal were the British claim of the right to stop and search American ships, including examination of mail pouches; the commercial blockade (1915); and the “blacklist,” containing the names of American firms with whom all financial and commercial dealings on the part of the British were forbidden (1916).
In 1918, Page became ill and resigned his post as Ambassador to the Court of St. James and returned to his home in Pinehurst, North Carolina, where he died. He is buried in Old Bethesda Cemetery in Aberdeen, North Carolina. A memorial plaque in his honor rests in Westminster Abbey
Westminster Abbey
The Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster, popularly known as Westminster Abbey, is a large, mainly Gothic church, in the City of Westminster, London, United Kingdom, located just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is the traditional place of coronation and burial site for English,...
in Westminster
City of Westminster
The City of Westminster is a London borough occupying much of the central area of London, England, including most of the West End. It is located to the west of and adjoining the ancient City of London, directly to the east of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, and its southern boundary...
, London
London
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...
, UK.
Legacy
Walter Hines Page was also the brother of Robert N. PageRobert N. Page
Robert Newton Page was a U.S. Representative from North Carolina.Born in Cary, North Carolina, Page attended the Cary High School and Bingham Military School in Mebane, North Carolina....
, a U.S. Representative from North Carolina, and Henry A. Page, a North Carolina representative
North Carolina House of Representatives
The North Carolina House of Representatives is one of the two houses of the North Carolina General Assembly. The House is a 120-member body led by a Speaker of the House, who holds powers similar to those of the President pro-tem in the state senate....
and a founder of the North Carolina Highway System
North Carolina Highway System
The North Carolina Highway System consists of a vast network of Interstate highways, U.S. routes, and state routes, managed by the North Carolina Department of Transportation...
.
The Life and Letters of Walter H. Page, by Burton J. Hendrick
Burton J. Hendrick
Burton Jesse Hendrick born in New Haven, Connecticut. While attending Yale University, Hendrick was editor of both The Yale Courant and The Yale Literary Magazine. He received his BA in 1895 and his master's in 1897 from Yale. After completing his degree work, Hendrick became editor of the New...
, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Biography
Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography
The Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography has been presented since 1917 for a distinguished biography or autobiography by an American author.-1910s:* 1917: Julia Ward Howe by Laura E...
in 1923, and The Training of an American: The Earlier Life and Letters of Walter H. Page, by Burton J. Hendrick
Burton J. Hendrick
Burton Jesse Hendrick born in New Haven, Connecticut. While attending Yale University, Hendrick was editor of both The Yale Courant and The Yale Literary Magazine. He received his BA in 1895 and his master's in 1897 from Yale. After completing his degree work, Hendrick became editor of the New...
, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Biography in 1929.
There is a Walter Hines Page Senior High School in Greensboro, North Carolina, and a Walter Hines Page Research Professor of Literature (currently Ariel Dorfman
Ariel Dorfman
Vladimiro Ariel Dorfman is an Argentine-Chilean novelist, playwright, essayist, academic, and human rights activist. A citizen of the United States since 2004, he has been a professor of literature and Latin American Studies at Duke University, in Durham, North Carolina since 1985.-Personal...
) at Duke University.
Today, scholarship
Scholarship
A scholarship is an award of financial aid for a student to further education. Scholarships are awarded on various criteria usually reflecting the values and purposes of the donor or founder of the award.-Types:...
s are awarded by the English-Speaking Union
English-Speaking Union
The English-Speaking Union is an international educational charity which was founded by the journalist Evelyn Wrench in 1918. The ESU aims to "bring together and empower people of different languages and cultures," by building skills and confidence in communication, such that individuals realize...
(ESU), in Walter Hines Pages' name to teachers from the United Kingdom to study in the United States and Canada.