Walter Hines Page

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Walter Hines Page
United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom
In office
May 30, 1913 – October 3, 1918
PresidentWoodrow Wilson
Preceded byWhitelaw Reid
Succeeded byJohn W. Davis
Personal details
Born(1855-08-15)August 15, 1855
Randolph-Macon College (BA)
Johns Hopkins University

Walter Hines Page (August 15, 1855 – December 21, 1918) was an American journalist, publisher, and diplomat. He was the

ambassador to Great Britain during World War I. After World War I broke out in 1914 Page was so enthusiastically in favor of Britain during the period of American neutrality (before April 1917) that Wilson and other top officials increasingly discounted his views.[1]
Page was instrumental in negotiating the sale of American war materials, including munitions, food and supplies, to the British, helping to ensure that it had the resources it needed to continue the fight against Germany.

Page made important contributions to the fields of journalism and literature. He founded the State Chronicle, a newspaper in

Doubleday, Page & Company, a prominent publishing house that produced the works of numerous well-known authors such as Rudyard Kipling and Henry James
. In addition Page was a literary critic who actively promoted the works of Southern writers, and he played a crucial part in shaping the development of Southern literature.

Life and career

Page was born in

Randolph-Macon College, and started a master's at Johns Hopkins University.[3] His studies complete, he taught for a time in Louisville, Kentucky.[4]

On November 15, 1880, Page married Willa Alice Wilson. They had a daughter and three sons including Arthur W. Page.

Page began his journalism career as a writer and then editor at the

Boston Post. He intended these letters to educate both the North and the South in a fuller understanding of their mutual dependence. In 1882, he joined the editorial staff of the New York World; among his major work was a series of articles on Mormonism, the result of personal investigation in Utah.[4]

Later in 1882, Page went to

land-grant college
, which could receive federal funds.

Page returned to New York in 1883 and for four years was on the staff of the

Atlantic Monthly (1896–99).[4]

From 1900 to 1913, Page was partner and vice president of

World's Work magazine. Doubleday, Page & Co. became one of the great book publishing companies of the 20th century. The company sometimes published 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 it published in its early years was Rudyard Kipling.[5] In 1986, it was acquired by Bertelsmann AG
.

Page believed that a free and open education was fundamental to democracy. In 1902, he published The Rebuilding of Old Commonwealths, which emphasized that. He felt that nothing (class, economic means, race, or religion) should be a barrier to education.

Ambassador

Page's UK Ambassador nomination

In March 1913, Page was appointed United States ambassador to Great Britain by President Woodrow Wilson,[4]. In August 1915, Page's daughter, Katharine, wed Boston-based architect Charles Greely Loring in a ceremony at St James's Palace in London.[6]

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 believed that the British were fighting a war for democracy. As ambassador, he defended British policies to Wilson and helped to shape a pro-Allied slant in the President and in the United States as a whole. One month after Page sent a message to Wilson, the president sought and received a declarations of war on Germany.

Page was criticized for his unabashedly pro-British stance by those who thought his priority should be defending American interests in the face of British rough handling of American shipping. He and his staff had to deal with the British claim of the right to stop and search American ships, including the examination of mail pouches; the commercial blockade (1915); and the "blacklist,"[7] the names of American firms with whom the British forbade all financial and commercial dealings by their citizens (1916).[4]

In 1918, Page became ill and resigned his post as Ambassador to the Court of St James's. He returned to his home in Pinehurst, North Carolina, where he died.[8] He is buried in Old Bethesda Cemetery in Aberdeen, North Carolina.

Legacy and honors

Publication

  • A Publisher's Confession (1905)

References

  1. ^ Mary R. Kihl, "A Failure of Ambassadorial Diplomacy." Journal of American History 57.3 (1970): 636–653.
  2. ^ Janet B. Silber (n.d.). "Page-Walker Hotel" (PDF). National Register of Historic Places – Nomination and Inventory. North Carolina State Historic Preservation Office. Retrieved 2015-05-01.
  3. ^ https://northcarolinahistory.org/encyclopedia/walter-hines-page-1855-1918/
  4. ^ a b c d e f Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1922). "Page, Walter Hines" . Encyclopædia Britannica (12th ed.). London & New York: The Encyclopædia Britannica Company.
  5. ^ "Rudyard Kipling". Poetry Foundation. Retrieved 2017-07-13.
  6. The Atlanta Journal
    . August 4, 1915. p. 9. Retrieved October 31, 2023 – via newspapers.com.
  7. S2CID 143608191
    .
  8. ^ "WALTER HINES PAGE DIES AT PINEHURST; Sacrificed His Health as America's Ambassador to Britain During War. SERVED NATION IN CRISIS As "President's Ear" Abroad He Also Conciliated Opinion There When Allies Sought Our Aid. Studies Sociological Problems. His Difficult Diplomatic Tasks" (PDF). The New York Times. 23 December 1918. Retrieved 2017-07-13.
  9. ^ "To Walter Hines Page". Time. 1923-03-24. Archived from the original on September 30, 2007.
  10. ^ "Walter Hines Page Scholarship" Archived 2011-07-17 at the Wayback Machine, Teachers.org
  11. ^ "Page Hall". projects.ncsu.edu. Retrieved 2019-12-17.

Further reading

  • Cooper Jr, John Milton. Walter Hines Page: The Southerner As American, 1855–1918 (UNC Press Books, 2018). online
  • Cooper, John Milton. "Walter Hines Page: The Southerner as American." Virginia Quarterly Review 53.4 (1977): 660–676. online
  • Doenecke, Justus D. "Neutrality Policy and the Decision for War." in A Companion to Woodrow Wilson (2013): 241–269. online
  • Gregory, Ross. Walter Hines Page: Ambassador to the Court of St. James's. (University Press of Kentucky, 2014). online
  • Sellers, Charles Grier. "Walter Hines Page and the Spirit of the New South." North Carolina Historical Review 29.4 (1952): 481–499. online

External links

Diplomatic posts
Preceded by
U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom

1913–1918
Succeeded by