Samuel Gardner Welles (1913–1981) was an American journalist for ''

TIME Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...

'' magazine, author of ''Profile of Europe'', and connected

Whittaker Chambers Whittaker Chambers (born Jay Vivian Chambers; April 1, 1901 – July 9, 1961) was an American writer-editor, who, after early years as a Communist Party member (1925) and Soviet spy (1932–1938), defected from the Soviet underground (1938) ...

to Raymond E. Murphy, whose investigation helped lead to Alger Hiss’s departure from the State Department.

Background

Samuel Gardner Welles was born in 1913. According to Chambers, "Samuel Gardner Welles... was the son of a reverend Episcopal clergyman (died 1940) and brother of bishop." His parents were Samuel Gardner Welles and Mabel De Geer of Cincinnati, Ohio; his brother was Edward Randolph Welles (1907–1991). In 1935, he graduated from

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...

and was a Rhodes Scholar.

Career

By the late 1930s, Welles was part of a group of young writers, many of them ''Herald Tribune'' employees and led by Isabel Paterson. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, Welles left ''TIME'' and joined the

United States Department of State The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the Federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government responsible for the country's fore ...

. In 1942, Welles put special investigator Raymond E. Murphy in touch with his ''TIME'' colleague Whittaker Chambers. (Murphy's investigations led to a report against Alger Hiss, who subsequently left State.) By 1944, Welles was serving as special assistant to H.E.

John Gilbert Winant John Gilbert Winant (February 23, 1889 – November 3, 1947) was an American diplomat and politician with the Republican party after a brief career as a teacher in Concord, New Hampshire. John Winant held positions in New Hampshire, national, an ...

, US Ambassador to the United Kingdom. Welles was a career journalist at ''TIME'' and ''LIFE''. In 1947, Welles interviewed Polish Prince Prince Christopher Radziwill ( Krzysztof Mikołaj Radziwiłł) while he was an associate editor and foreign news writer, based in Europe. In 1949, Welles visited Burma, which he described as "most distressful country that ever I have seen." In 1954, he was Chicago bureau chief for ''TIME'', during which period he interviewed the Archbishop of Canterbury, Geoffrey Fisher. In 1959, he was a senior editor at ''LIFE''.

Personal life and death

Welles married Margery Miller; they had a daughter and two sons. Samuel Gardner Welles aged 67 or 68 died in 1981.

Works

While stationed in Europe for ''TIME'', Welles wrote ''Profile of Europe'', noted by Kirkus Reviews for its "informed viewpoints." More than half the book is on the

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

. * ''Profile of Europe'' (1948) * "Commencement addresses, Conduct of life," ''LIFE'' (1952)

References

1913 births 1981 deaths 20th-century American journalists American male journalists Time (magazine) people Life (magazine) people {{US-journalist-1910s-stub