Anne O'Hare McCormick
Anne O'Hare McCormick | |
---|---|
Born | Anne O'Hare May 16, 1880 Wakefield, Yorkshire, England |
Died | May 29, 1954 New York, United States | (aged 74)
Nationality | British, American |
Occupation | Journalist |
Years active | 1910-1954 |
Known for | First woman recipient of a major Pulitzer Prize in journalism, first woman to join the editorial board of The New York Times |
Anne O'Hare McCormick (16 May 1880 – 29 May 1954) was an English-American journalist who worked as a foreign news correspondent for The New York Times. In an era where the field was almost exclusively "a man's world", she became the first woman to receive a Pulitzer Prize in a major journalism category, winning in 1937 for correspondence. Her husband's job led to frequent travels abroad, and her career as a journalist became more specialized.
In 1921, she approached The New York Times about the prospect of becoming a freelance contributor from Europe. In 1936, she became the first woman to be appointed to the editorial board of the Times.
In 1939, with World War II imminent, McCormick spent five months in 13 different nations, speaking with both political leaders and ordinary citizens in reporting the growing crisis. She was reported to have spent time with President Franklin D. Roosevelt discussing policy. For her reporting during World War II, the War Department honored McCormick in 1946 with a campaign medal in recognition of "outstanding and conspicuous service with the armed forces under difficult and hazardous combat conditions."[1] Also in 1946, McCormick was selected to represent the US as a member of the first delegation to the UNESCO conference at the United Nations.
According to reporter Julia Edwards, in the chapter 'Anne O'Hare McCormick and the Changing Times' in her book Women of the World: The Great Foreign Correspondents, McCormick "established a new standard for commentary on world affairs. Displacing generations of armchair pundits, she explored a world in conflict to answer the question - Why?" [2]
Early life
McCormick was born in
After her graduation in 1898 as valedictorian, the family moved to Cleveland, where McCormick's mother sold her book, Songs at Twilight,[6] and both of them became associate editors for the Catholic Universe Bulletin.[5] Anne O'Hare married Dayton businessman Francis J. McCormick, Jr. (1872–1954), an importer and executive of the Dayton Plumbing Supply Company,[7] on 14 September 1910.[4][8] They settled in a Dayton house called "Hills and Dales," which they left in the 1930s to take up residence in the Gotham and then the Carlyle hotel in New York City, when not traveling in Europe.[9] The import-export business of her husband and her career coincided well together. At first, she travelled with him until her assignments became too demanding to follow her husband. He retired and travelled with her while arranging all their affairs.[10]
Journalism career
In Dayton, McCormick began freelance writing and traveling to Europe on her husband's buying trips. Her work was first published by the
While credited with predicting Mussolini’s importance, as a New York Times special correspondent and later as the columnist for foreign politics, she "carried on a political love affair with an idealized Italy and its noble leader"
In 1935, McCormick was named one of America's ten outstanding women by the suffragist Carrie Chapman Catt.[2][20] The New York Times publisher, Adolph Ochs did not hire women reporters, so she remained a special correspondent until he died. The next publisher, Arthur Hays Sulzberger put her on staff June 1, 1936, as the first woman member of the editorial board, at a starting salary of $7,000 per year. When she died in the 1950s she earned $30,624, more than all but four men in the paper's news staff.[21] In her letter to Sulzberger accepting the position, she said she wouldn't "revert to 'woman's-point-of-view' stuff."[12] Her dispatches from Europe that year were recognized with the Pulitzer Prize in 1937.[4]
She began a regular column February 1, 1937.
Death and legacy
McCormick died in New York on May 29, 1954, and is buried at Gate of Heaven cemetery in Hawthorne, NY.[25] Her death was reported on the front page of the paper.[26] President Eisenhower called her "a truly great reporter, respected at home and abroad for her keen analysis and impartial presentation of the news developments of our day. She will be greatly missed by all the members of the newspaper profession and the hundreds of thousands of readers who followed her column in the New York Times." Times reporter James Reston said, "She put a glow on everything she wrote," and in 1999, 45 years after her death, said, "She is in my mind still."[27] British Foreign Minister Anthony Eden called her a "champion of all good causes." French Foreign Minister Georges Bidault said "this woman... has left us at a moment when her courage and her clairvoyance would have been particularly precious for us."[26]
Honors
In 1945, the
In 1949, the American Irish Historical Society presented McCormick with a gold medal "in recognition of her eminence in journalism."[29]
The New York Newspaper Women's Club, where McCormick served multiple terms as vice president,[30][31][32] created the Anne O'Hare McCormick Journalism Scholarship in her memory.[33] The scholarship is for female students at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, with the first $500 memorial scholarship being awarded to Mary Kay Johnson of Wakefield, Rhode Island, in 1955.[33][34][35]
McCormick received the
Books
- St. Agnes Church. Cleveland. Ohio. An interpretation (1920)
- The Hammer and the Scythe: Communist Russia Enters the Second Decade (1928)
- The World at Home (1956)
- Vatican Journal 1921-1954 (1957)
- Europa e Stati Uniti secondo il New York Times : la corrispondenza estera di Anne O'Hare McCormick, 1920-1954 (2000)
References
- ^ Edy 2016, pp. 1-2.
- ^ a b c Edwards 1989, p. 69.
- ^ a b Edwards 1989, p. 70.
- ^ a b c d e Sicherman & Hurd Green 1980, pp. 439-440.
- ^ a b c d Robertson 1992, pp. 21-22.
- ^ O'Hare, Teresa Beatrice (1898). Songs at Twilight. Cleveland: Columbus Printing Company.
- ^ Drury 1909, p. 625.
- ^ "Ann O'Hare McKormick - Great American Biographies". Constitutional Law Reporter. Retrieved 2018-05-29.
- ^ Robertson 1992, p. 36.
- ^ a b Edwards 1989, p. 73.
- ^ Robertson 1992, p. 24.
- ^ a b "She Was The Times's First Female Pulitzer Winner". New York Times. April 17, 2018. Retrieved October 10, 2023.
- ^ McCormick, Anne O'Hare. "The New York Times - Anne O'Hare McCormick". Times Machine-Archives of New York Times. Retrieved April 25, 2020.
- ^ Block 1940, pp. 530-531.
- ^ Fischer & Fischer 1987, p. 49.
- ^ a b Diggins 1972, pp. 47-48.
- ^ a b Diggins 1972, pp. 19-20.
- ^ Migone 2015, pp. pp. 67-68.
- ^ Diggins 1972, pp. 24-25.
- ^ "Mrs. Catt Names Ten 'First Women'". New York Times. December 10, 1935. Retrieved April 25, 2020.
- ^ Robertson 1992, p. 41.
- ^ McCormick, Anne O'Hare (1937-02-01). "In Europe; Contrast of Visits of Goering and Bishops to Rome". New York Times. Retrieved 2020-04-25.
- ^ O'Hare McCormick, Anne (July 10, 1933). "Hitler Seeks Jobs For All Germans]". The New York Times. Retrieved October 22, 2023.
- ^ Robertson 1992, p. 39.
- ^ "MCCORMICK, ANNE (O'HARE) | Encyclopedia of Cleveland History | Case Western Reserve University". Encyclopedia of Cleveland History | Case Western Reserve University. 11 May 2018. Retrieved 2018-05-29.
- ^ a b "Anne O'Hare McCormick Is Dead; Member of Times Editorial Board; Interpreted News in Her Column, 'Abroad',". The New York Times. May 30, 1954. Retrieved April 24, 2020.
- ^ Robertson 1992, p. 20.
- ^ "Honor for Mrs. McCormick". The New York Times. Vol. XCIV, no. 31961 (Late City ed.). July 27, 1945. p. 11. Retrieved November 18, 2020.
- ^ "To Receive Gold Medal". The New York Times. Vol. XCVIII, no. 33330 (Late City ed.). April 26, 1949. p. 27. Retrieved November 18, 2020.
- ^ "Newspaper Women Elect". The New York Times. Vol. XCIV, no. 31890 (Late City ed.). May 17, 1945. p. 17. Retrieved November 18, 2020.
- ^ "News Women Elect". The New York Times. Vol. XCVII, no. 32989 (Late City ed.). May 20, 1948. p. 26. Retrieved November 18, 2020.
- ^ "Newspaper Women Elect". The New York Times. Vol. CII, no. 34816 (Late City ed.). May 21, 1953. p. 33. Retrieved November 18, 2020.
- ^ a b "M'Cormick Fund Planned". The New York Times. Vol. CIV, no. 35373 (Late City ed.). November 29, 1954. p. 16. Retrieved November 18, 2020.
- ^ "Five Women Here Get Awards for Newspaper Work". The New York Times. Vol. CV, no. 35742 (Late City ed.). December 3, 1955. p. 38. Retrieved November 17, 2020.
- ^ "Create Scholarship". Daily News. Vol. 27, no. 139. New York. December 4, 1945. p. 35. Retrieved November 17, 2020.
Sources
- Block, Maxine, ed. (1940). Current Biography Yearbook 1940. New York, N.Y.: H.W. Wilson Company.
- OCLC 1192887928.
- Drury, Augustus Waldo (1909). History of the city of Dayton and Montgomery County, Ohio. Chicago-Dayton: S.J. Clarke Publishing Company.
- Edwards, Julia (1989). Women of the World: The Great Foreign Correspondents. New York, N.Y.: Ivy Books. ISBN 0-8041-0491-3.
- Edy, Carolyn M. (2016). The Woman War Correspondent, The U.S Military, and The Press, 1846–1947. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books. OCLC 958798216.
- Fischer, Heinz Dietrich; Fischer, Erika J., eds. (1987). International Reporting, 1928-1985: From the Activities of the League of Nations to Present-day Global Problems, Volume 1. München, London, New York, Oxford, Paris: K.G. Saur Verlag KG. ISBN 3-598-30171-5.
- Migone, Gian Giacomo (2015). The United States and Fascist Italy: The Rise of American Finance in Europe. New York, N.Y.: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-107-00245-6.
- OCLC 24065184.
- Sicherman, Barbara; Hurd Green, Carol, eds. (1980). Notable American Women: The Modern Period, a Biographical Dictionary, Volume 4. Cambridge, MA & London: Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-62732-6.
- "Elizabeth A. McCormick", Ohio History Central, July 1, 2005.
- Papers of Anne O'Hare McCormick at the New York Public Library
- Archives of Catholic Universe Bulletin at the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland