Henry Adams Bellows (September 22, 1885 – December 29, 1939) was a newspaper editor and radio executive who was an early member of the U.S.

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdicti ...

. He is also known for his translation of the ''

Poetic Edda The ''Poetic Edda'' is the modern name for an untitled collection of Old Norse anonymous narrative poems, which is distinct from the ''Prose Edda'' written by Snorri Sturluson. Several versions exist, all primarily of text from the Icelandic med ...

'' for

The American-Scandinavian Foundation The American-Scandinavian Foundation (ASF) is an American non-profit foundation dedicated to promoting international understanding through educational and cultural exchange between the United States and Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Swede ...

Life and career

Born in

Portland, Maine Portland is the largest city in the U.S. state of Maine and the seat of Cumberland County. Portland's population was 68,408 in April 2020. The Greater Portland metropolitan area is home to over half a million people, the 104th-largest metropo ...

, Bellows graduated from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of highe ...

in 1906, and then taught English as an assistant there for three years. He received his Ph.D. in 1910 for a dissertation in

comparative literature Comparative literature is an academic field dealing with the study of literature and cultural expression across linguistic, national, geographic, and disciplinary boundaries. Comparative literature "performs a role similar to that of the study ...

entitled ''The Relations between Prose and Metrical Composition in Old Norse Literature'' and then became an assistant professor of rhetoric at the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public land-grant research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. ...

.William M. Emery, ''The Howland Heirs: Being the Story of a Family and a Fortune and the Inheritance of a Trust Established for Mrs. Hetty H.R. Green'', Bedford, Massachusetts: Anthony, 1919
p. 333
From 1912 to 1919 he was managing editor of ''The Bellman'', a Minneapolis literary magazine, vice president of the Bellman Company, and a director of the Miller Publishing Company; from 1914 to 1925 he was managing editor of ''The Northwestern Miller''.Gerald V. Flannery and Peggy Voorhies, "Bellows, Henry, 1927 – 1928", in Gerald V. Flannery, ed., ''Commissioners of the FCC, 1927–1994'', Lanham, Maryland: University Press of America, 1985,
n.p.
He also worked for the Minnesota Orchestra,"Henry Adams Bellows (1885–1939)", in Robert I. Hedin, ''Where One Voice Ends Another Begins: 150 Years of Minnesota Poetry'', St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society, 2007,
p. 17
in 1921–23 was music critic for the ''Minneapolis Daily News'', and in 1925 was the manager of WCCO, one of the top radio stations in the country. He was also a major in the Minnesota Home Guard during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

. In 1927 Bellows was appointed as one of the first members of the Federal Radio Commission, predecessor of the Federal Communications Commission. He was technical adviser to the first International Radio Telegraph Conference that year. To forestall greater government interference in broadcasting, he advocated stations' programming individually to meet their listeners' needs; he left the FRC 18 months into his three-year term. From 1928 to 1935, he was a director of the

National Association of Broadcasters The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) is a trade association and lobby group representing the interests of commercial and non-commercial over-the-air radio and television broadcasters in the United States. The NAB represents more than ...

; he was manager of Northwestern Broadcasting from 1929 to 1934 and a vice president of the

Columbia Broadcasting System CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

, forerunner of CBS, from 1930 to 1934. In 1930 he set up a transatlantic exchange for radio programs. His final position was as director of public relations for

General Mills General Mills, Inc., is an American multinational manufacturer and marketer of branded processed consumer foods sold through retail stores. Founded on the banks of the Mississippi River at Saint Anthony Falls in Minneapolis, the company or ...

, where he founded the department. He died of

lung cancer Lung cancer, also known as lung carcinoma (since about 98–99% of all lung cancers are carcinomas), is a malignant lung tumor characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. Lung carcinomas derive from transformed, mali ...

on December 29, 1939 in

Minneapolis, Minnesota Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origi ...

.James Gray, ''Business Without Boundary: The Story of General Mills'', Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, 1954,
p. 282

Personal life

He married Mary Sanger, the daughter of Harvard chemistry professor

Charles Robert Sanger Charles Robert Sanger (1860–1912) was a chemist and professor at Harvard University whose research centered on detecting and curing the causes of illness caused by chemicals in the home. Early life Sanger was born on August 31, 1860, in Bosto ...

, in 1911; they had two children. After her death in 1935, he married a second time in 1936 to Alice Eels.

Publications

Bellows is also known for translating the ''

'' for

and Peter Abélard's ''

Historia Calamitatum ''Historia Calamitatum'' (known in English as ''The Story of My Misfortunes'' or ''The History of My Calamities''), also known as ''Abaelardi ad Amicum Suum Consolatoria,'' is an autobiographical work in Latin by Peter Abelard (1079–1142), a med ...

''. The range of his four other books indicates the breadth of his interests: ''Manual for Local Defense'', ''A Treatise on Riot Duty for National Guards'', ''Highland Light, and Other Poems'' and ''A Short History of Flour Milling''.Henry Adams Bellows, ''A Short History of Flour Milling'', Minneapolis: Miller, 1924,

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bellows, Henry Adams 1885 births 1939 deaths Businesspeople from Portland, Maine Harvard University alumni Harvard University faculty University of Minnesota faculty Members of the Federal Communications Commission 20th-century American translators Translators of the Poetic Edda Deaths from lung cancer in Minnesota 20th-century American businesspeople