Thomas Stanley Matthews (January 16, 1901 – January 4, 1991) was an American magazine editor, journalist, and writer. He served as editor of ''Time'' magazine from 1949 to 1953.

Background

Thomas Stanley Matthews was born on January 16, 1901, in Cincinnati, Ohio. His father was New Jersey bishop, Paul Clement Matthews; and his mother was Elsie Procter, the Procter & Gamble heiress. His grandfather was

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. He had five sisters, including Margaret (later Flinsch) and Dorothea (later Dooling). He earned a first bachelor's degree from Princeton University in 1922 and a second from New College at Oxford University in 1925.

Career

He joined the staff of '' The New Republic'' in 1925. There, literary critic

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encouraged him to write for the magazine. By 1928, he became an assistant editor and by 1929 an associate editor. He joined '' Time'' in 1929 as book editor and moved up to assistant managing editor, executive editor, and managing editor. (In 1940,

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cites him as one of two managing editors at ''Time'' with Manfred Gottfried.) Finally, he succeeded ''Time'' co-founder Henry Luce as the magazine's editor, serving in that position from 1949 to 1953. Matthews' relationship with ''Time'' soured over the 1952 presidential election. Luce favored Republican nominee

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but Matthews preferred his Democratic rival (and his Princeton classmate)

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. At Luce's instigation, Matthews moved to England to study a British version of ''Time.'' When the project did not carry through, he remained in Britain. There, he wrote numerous books and poetry, including an autobiography and a book on T. S. Eliot. He also reviewed books for the ''New York Times''.

Impact

The ''New York Times'' credited Matthews with "bringing depth and refinement to the news weekly in a 25-year career." It described him as a "lean, athletic editor" with "clipped, quiet speech was filled with obscure literary references" who rid the magazine of its double-barreled adjectives, puns and backward sentences." Whittaker Chambers, who started after and ended before Matthews at ''Time'', summarized as follows: "T. S. Matthews' contribution to the humanity of ''Time'', both in the intellectual and personal sense of the word, cannot be overstated." However,

W.A. Swanberg William Andrew Swanberg (November 23, 1907 in St. Paul, Minnesota – September 17, 1992 in Southbury, Connecticut) was an American biographer. He is known for ''Citizen Hearst'', a biography of William Randolph Hearst, which was recommended by th ...

, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning biography ''Luce and His Empire'', criticized Matthews for emphasizing the readability of ''Time'' at the expense of objectivity. “For him to be managing editor of America's most politically oriented and propagandist 'newsmagazine' was as if F. Scott Fitzgerald were Secretary of State," Swanberg wrote. Swanberg also characterized Matthews as being “as close to being politically obtuse as such an otherwise cultivated man could be.” Princeton University holds his papers, which include writings, notebooks, correspondence, files from ''Time'' (1940s, 1950s, including the ''Time-in-Britain'' project), subject files, legal and financial correspondence, photographs, and printed material from 1910 to 1991. These include datebooks 1950–1991. Correspondents include John W. Aldridge, Whittaker Chambers, T. S. Eliot,

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, Robert Graves, Eleanor Green, Laura (Riding) Jackson, Schuyler Jackson, Len Lye,

Laurie Lee Laurence Edward Alan "Laurie" Lee, MBE (26 June 1914 – 13 May 1997) was an English poet, novelist and screenwriter, who was brought up in the small village of Slad in Gloucestershire. His most notable work is the autobiographical trilog ...

, William Piel Jr.,

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, Lyman Spitzer, and Adlai Stevenson.

Private life and death

Matthews was married three times, to: Juliana Stevens Cuyler, Martha Gellhorn, and Pamela Firth Peniakoff. He married Gellhorn in 1954 and lived with her in London; they divorced in 1963. He had four sons: Thomas S. Matthews Jr., John P. C. Matthews, Paul C. Matthews, and W. Alexander P. Matthews. He died of lung cancer in

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, England.

Works

The Library of Congress holds the following books by Matthews: * ''To the Gallows I must go'' (1931) * ''Sugar Pill: An Essay on Newspapers'' (1957, 1959) * ''Name and Address: An Autobiography'' (1960, 1961) * ''O My America! Notes on a Trip'' (1962) * ''Great Tom: Notes Towards the Definition of T. S. Eliot'' (1974) * ''Jacks or Better: A Narrative'' (1977) * ''Under the Influence: Recollections of Robert Graves, Laura Riding, and Friends'' (1979, 1983) * ''Angels Unawares: Twentieth-Century Portraits (1985) Articles appearing online include: * "Football Morals" (November 26, 1976) Poems appearing online include: * "After Such Knowledge: T.S. Eliot" (undated)

References

External sources

Princeton
T. S. Matthew Papers
Princeton Weekly Bulletin
image of Matthews
Getty Images
photo Matthews among TIME staff ca. 1948
Wheatmark Press
painting of Matthews * {{DEFAULTSORT:Matthews, T. S. 1901 births 1991 deaths American male journalists 20th-century American journalists 20th-century American non-fiction writers Princeton University alumni 20th-century American male writers