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 Cincinnati ( ; colloquially nicknamed Cincy) is a city in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Settled in 1788, the city is located on the northern side of the confluence of the Licking River (Kentucky), Licking and Ohio Ri ...

. His father was New Jersey bishop, Paul Clement Matthews; and his mother was Elsie Procter, the

Procter & Gamble The Procter & Gamble Company (P&G) is an American multinational consumer goods corporation headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio. It was founded in 1837 by William Procter and James Gamble. It specializes in a wide range of personal health/con ...

heiress. His grandfather was

Stanley Matthews Sir Stanley Matthews (1 February 1915 – 23 February 2000) was an English Association football, footballer who played as an Forward (association football)#Outside forward, outside right. Often regarded as one of the greatest players of the Br ...

. He had five sisters, including Margaret (later Flinsch) and Dorothea (later Dooling). He earned a first bachelor's degree from

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

in 1922 and a second from New College at

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

in 1925.

Career

He joined the staff of ''

The New Republic ''The New Republic'' (often abbreviated as ''TNR'') is an American magazine focused on domestic politics, news, culture, and the arts from a left-wing perspective. It publishes ten print magazines a year and a daily online platform. ''The New Y ...

'' in 1925. There, literary critic

Edmund Wilson Edmund Wilson Jr. (May 8, 1895 – June 12, 1972) was an American writer, literary critic, and journalist. He is widely regarded as one of the most important literary critics of the 20th century. Wilson began his career as a journalist, writing ...

encouraged him to write for the magazine. By 1928, he became an assistant editor and by 1929 an associate editor. He joined ''

Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...

'' in 1929 as book editor and moved up to assistant managing editor, executive editor, and managing editor. (In 1940,

William Saroyan William Saroyan (; August 31, 1908 – May 18, 1981) was an Armenian-American novelist, playwright, and short story writer. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1940, and in 1943 won the Academy Award for Best Story for the film ''The ...

cites him as one of two managing editors at ''Time'' with

Manfred Gottfried ''Manfred: A dramatic poem'' is a closet drama written in 1816–1817 by Lord Byron. It contains supernatural elements, in keeping with the popularity of the ghost story in England at the time. It is a typical example of Gothic fiction. Byro ...

.) Finally, he succeeded ''Time'' co-founder

Henry Luce Henry Robinson Luce (April 3, 1898 – February 28, 1967) was an American magazine magnate who founded ''Time'', ''Life'', '' Fortune'', and ''Sports Illustrated'' magazines. He has been called "the most influential private citizen in the Amer ...

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

Dwight D. Eisenhower Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was the 34th president of the United States, serving from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, he was Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionar ...

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

Adlai Stevenson II Adlai Ewing Stevenson II (; February 5, 1900 – July 14, 1965) was an American politician and diplomat who was the United States ambassador to the United Nations from 1961 until his death in 1965. He previously served as the 31st governor of Ill ...

. 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 Thomas Stearns Eliot (26 September 18884 January 1965) was a poet, essayist and playwright.Bush, Ronald. "T. S. Eliot's Life and Career", in John A Garraty and Mark C. Carnes (eds), ''American National Biography''. New York: Oxford University ...

. 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 Whittaker Chambers (born Jay Vivian Chambers; April 1, 1901 – July 9, 1961) was an American writer and intelligence agent. After early years as a Communist Party member (1925) and Soviet spy (1932–1938), he defected from the Soviet u ...

, 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, author of the

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prizes () are 23 annual awards given by Columbia University in New York City for achievements in the United States in "journalism, arts and letters". They were established in 1917 by the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made his fo ...

-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 Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (September 24, 1896 – December 21, 1940), widely known simply as Scott Fitzgerald, was an American novelist, essayist, and short story writer. He is best known for his novels depicting the flamboyance and exces ...

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,

Valerie Eliot Esmé Valerie Eliot (née Fletcher; 17 August 19269 November 2012) was the second wife and later widow of the Nobel Prize-winning poet T. S. Eliot. She was a major shareholder in the publishing firm of Faber and Faber Limited and the editor and a ...

Robert Graves Captain Robert von Ranke Graves (24 July 1895 – 7 December 1985) was an English poet, soldier, historical novelist and critic. His father was Alfred Perceval Graves, a celebrated Irish poet and figure in the Gaelic revival; they were b ...

Eleanor Green Eleanor () is a feminine given name, originally from an Old French adaptation of the Old Provençal dialect">Provençal name ''Aliénor''. It was the name of a number of women of royalty and nobility in western Europe during the High Middle Ages. ...

Laura (Riding) Jackson Laura Riding Jackson (born Laura Reichenthal; January 16, 1901 – September 2, 1991), best known as Laura Riding, was an American poet, critic, novelist, essayist and short story writer. Early life and education She was born in New York Ci ...

, Schuyler Jackson,

Len Lye Leonard Charles Huia Lye (; 5 July 1901 – 15 May 1980) was a New Zealand artist known primarily for his experimental films and kinetic sculpture. His films are held in archives including the New Zealand Film Archive, British Film Institute, ...

Laurie Lee Laurence Edward Alan Lee, (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 trilogy '' Cider w ...

, William Piel Jr.,

V. S. Pritchett Sir Victor Sawdon Pritchett (also known as VSP; 16 December 1900 – 20 March 1997) was a British writer and literary critic. Pritchett was known particularly for his short stories, collated in a number of volumes. Among his most noteworthy w ...

Lyman Spitzer Lyman Spitzer Jr. (June 26, 1914 – March 31, 1997) was an American theoretical physicist, astronomer and mountaineer. As a scientist, he carried out research into star formation and plasma physics and in 1946 conceived the idea of telesco ...

, and

Adlai Stevenson Adlai Stevenson may refer to: * Adlai Stevenson I Adlai Ewing Stevenson (October 23, 1835 – June 14, 1914) was an American politician and diplomat who served as the 23rd vice president of the United States from 1893 to 1897 under President Gr ...

Private life and death

Matthews was married three times, to: Juliana Stevens Cuyler,

Martha Gellhorn Martha Ellis Gellhorn (8 November 1908 – 15 February 1998) was an American novelist, travel writer and journalist who is considered one of the great war correspondents of the 20th century. She reported on virtually every major world confli ...

, 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

Cavendish Cavendish may refer to: People * The House of Cavendish, a British aristocratic family * Margaret Cavendish (1623–1673), British poet, philosopher, and scientist * Cavendish (author) (1831–1899), pen name of Henry Jones, English auth ...

, 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)

Background

Career

Impact

Private life and death

Works

See also

References

External links