Edward Arnold Harris (October 20, 1910, in

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

– March 14, 1976, in

Front Royal, Virginia Front Royal is the only incorporated town in Warren County, Virginia, United States. The population was 15,011 at the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Warren County. History The entire Shenandoah Valley including the area to become F ...

) was an American journalist. He was a longtime reporter for the ''

St. Louis Post-Dispatch The ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch'' is a major regional newspaper based in St. Louis, Missouri, serving the St. Louis metropolitan area. It is the largest daily newspaper in the metropolitan area by circulation, surpassing the ''Belleville News-De ...

'' and a winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 1946.

Early life and education

Harris was born in St. Louis, the son of Nathan Harris and Rose (Goldman) Harris. He graduated from

Washington University in St. Louis Washington University in St. Louis (WashU or WUSTL) is a private research university with its main campus in St. Louis County, and Clayton, Missouri. Founded in 1853, the university is named after George Washington. Washington University is r ...

with an A.B. Degree in 1933. He later earned a master's degree from the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California S ...

Career

St. Louis and Washington

From 1931 to 1933, while he was still a student, Harris served as campus correspondent for the '' St. Louis Star-Times''. After graduating from university, he became a general reporter and columnist for that newspaper, working there until 1940. Between 1936 and 1943, he also served as the St. Louis correspondent for the TimeLife publications, ''Time'' magazine, ''Life'' magazine, and ''Fortune'' magazine. In 1940 he became a City Hall reporter for the ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch''. From 1940 to 1943, he was a rewrite specialist, reporter, and local political writer for that newspaper. In 1943, he was assigned to the newspaper's Washington bureau, from which he covered the White House,

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, and national political conventions. He also focused on civil liberties and corruption. He continued to work in the Washington bureau until 1954. An account of the Truman presidency notes that at a presidential press conference, Harris "almost had his head taken off by Truman for asking whether the president and General MacArthur were finally in agreement over Formosa." Truman replied to Harris: "Let me tell you something that will be good for your soul....It's a pity that you columnists and reporters...can't understand the ideas of two intellectually honest men when they meet." Stating that MacArthur was loyal to both the government and president, Truman added that he wished "a lot of your papers" were loyal in the same way.

Pauley case

When President Truman appointed

Edwin W. Pauley Edwin Wendell Pauley Sr. (January 7, 1903 – July 28, 1981) was an American businessman and political leader. Early life Born in Indianapolis, Indiana, to Elbert L. Pauley and the former Ellen Van Petten, he attended Occidental College, in nor ...

, an

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and former

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treasurer, to be Undersecretary of the Navy in 1946, Pauley's effort to prevent government control of tidewater oil reserves by offering a substantial contribution to the party was uncovered in a series of articles by Harris. The revelations turned the public against the appointment, led Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes to resign in protest against the appointment, and made Pauley's confirmation impossible. The articles won Harris the Pulitzer Prize.

After Washington

After leaving Washington, Harris served as chief of the ''Post-Dispatch's'' West Coast bureau.According to one source, he worked in the West Coast bureau from 1951 to 1957; another source says 1954 to 1958. In 1957, he took a leave of absence to study for an M.S. degree from the University of California at Los Angeles. In 1959, according to his obituary in ''

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'', Harris "left journalism to enter the real estate business in Virginia." In the same year, he bought Hidden Valley Farm, located in the foothills of the

Blue Ridge Mountains The Blue Ridge Mountains are a Physiographic regions of the world, physiographic province of the larger Appalachian Mountains range. The mountain range is located in the Eastern United States, and extends 550 miles southwest from southern Pennsy ...

in Virginia. From that date on, he was a working farmer. Between 1960 and 1963 he also wrote a weekly syndicated agricultural column entitled "Down on the Farm." One source states that he was president of Edward A. Harris & Associates from 1963 to 1976.

Books

Harris contributed to a 1946 book entitled ''Public Men, in and out of Office'', edited by J. T. Salter. In 1958 he published a book entitled ''Love Thy Neighbor''.

Personal life

Harris married Miriam Sima Levy in 1938. They had three children, phoebe bridgers, julien baker, lucy dacus He was an "able amateur hypnotist," as ''Life'' magazine reported in a photo spread in November 1941.

Honors and awards

Harris was awarded the

1946 Pulitzer Prize The following are the Pulitzer Prizes for 1946. Journalism awards *Public Service: **''Scranton Times'' for its fifteen-year investigation of judicial practices in the United States District Court for the middle district of Pennsylvania, resulti ...

for Telegraphic Reporting (National). He also received the following awards: *Journalism Award, Fontbonne College, MO 1947 *Alumni Citation,

, MO, 1957 *Award of Distinction,

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California ...

Department of Journalism, 1958 *Agricultural Writers' Award, 1961

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Harris, Edward A. 1910 births 1976 deaths 20th-century American journalists American male journalists Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting winners Washington University in St. Louis alumni University of California, Los Angeles alumni