Stephen Bonsal (March 29, 1865 – June 8, 1951) was an American journalist,

war correspondent A war correspondent is a journalist who covers stories first-hand from a war, war zone. War correspondence stands as one of journalism's most important and impactful forms. War correspondents operate in the most conflict-ridden parts of the wor ...

, author, diplomat, and translator, who won the 1945 Pulitzer Prize for History.

Early life and education

Bonsal was born in

Baltimore Baltimore is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the 30th-most populous U.S. city. The Baltimore metropolitan area is the 20th-large ...

, Maryland, in 1865. He was educated at St. Paul's School in

Concord, New Hampshire Concord () is the capital city of the U.S. state of New Hampshire and the county seat, seat of Merrimack County, New Hampshire, Merrimack County. As of the 2020 United States census the population was 43,976, making it the List of municipalities ...

. He continued his studies in

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; ; ) is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fifth-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, and with a population of about 163,000, of which roughly a quarter consists of studen ...

Bonn Bonn () is a federal city in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, located on the banks of the Rhine. With a population exceeding 300,000, it lies about south-southeast of Cologne, in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr region. This ...

, and

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

. He married Henrietta Fairfax Morris in March 1900.Leonard, John William et al. (1906). "Bonsal, Stephen" in Bonsal traveled extensively. He claimed that he had visited all the countries of Europe, South America, and Asia with the exception of

Persia Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

Journalist

Bonsal was later a special correspondent of the ''

New York Herald The ''New York Herald'' was a large-distribution newspaper based in New York City that existed between 1835 and 1924. At that point it was acquired by its smaller rival the '' New-York Tribune'' to form the '' New York Herald Tribune''. Hi ...

'' (1885–1907), reporting the development of military conflicts including: * Serbo-Bulgarian War, 1885 * Macedonian uprising, 1890 *

First Sino-Japanese War The First Sino-Japanese War (25 July 189417 April 1895), or the First China–Japan War, was a conflict between the Qing dynasty of China and the Empire of Japan primarily over influence in Joseon, Korea. In Chinese it is commonly known as th ...

, 1895 * Cuban insurrection, 1897 *

Spanish–American War The Spanish–American War (April 21 – August 13, 1898) was fought between Restoration (Spain), Spain and the United States in 1898. It began with the sinking of the USS Maine (1889), USS ''Maine'' in Havana Harbor in Cuba, and resulted in the ...

, 1898 * Chinese relief expedition, 1900 * Samar, Batangas, Mindanao, 1901 * Venezuela, Matas rebellion, blockage, 1903 *

Russo-Japanese War The Russo-Japanese War (8 February 1904 – 5 September 1905) was fought between the Russian Empire and the Empire of Japan over rival imperial ambitions in Manchuria and the Korean Empire. The major land battles of the war were fought on the ...

, 1904–1905 He was a foreign correspondent for the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' in 1910–1911.

Diplomat

In 1891-1896, Bonsal served as secretary and chargé-d'affaire of the US diplomatic missions in Beijing, Seoul and Tokyo. He also served for a short time at the U.S. embassy in Madrid.

World War I

During

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, Bonsal served in the

American Expeditionary Forces The American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) was a formation of the United States Armed Forces on the Western Front (World War I), Western Front during World War I, composed mostly of units from the United States Army, U.S. Army. The AEF was establis ...

with the rank of lieutenant colonel. Afterwards, he was

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

Woodrow Wilson Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856February 3, 1924) was the 28th president of the United States, serving from 1913 to 1921. He was the only History of the Democratic Party (United States), Democrat to serve as president during the Prog ...

's private translator during the 1919

Peace Conference A peace conference is a diplomatic meeting where representatives of states, armies, or other warring parties converge to end hostilities by negotiation and signing and ratifying a peace treaty. Significant international peace conferences in ...

in Paris.

Later life

''Unfinished Business'' (1944), a diary describing his experiences during the Paris Peace Treaty negotiations and all the Allied infighting and waxing lyrical about the plight of the wounded veterans and their families, won him the 1945 Pulitzer Prize for History. "No one else has presented the plight of the plain people of Europe, in relation to the strained secrecy of the Conference, and few have written of their agony as does Colonel Bonsal in terms so hardheaded and so poignant," ''

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 ...

'' magazine reported on his death. His second son, Philip Bonsal, was a career diplomat. Another son, Dudley Bonsal, was a United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Selected works

*''Morocco as It Is'' (1894, W. H. Allen, London) *''The Real Condition of Cuba Today'' (1897, Harper, New York, NY) *''The Fight for Santiago'' (1899, Doubleday & McClure, New York, NY) *''The Golden Horseshoe'' (1906, Macmillan, New York, NY) *''The American Mediterranean'' (1912, Moffat and Yard, New York, NY) *''Edward Fitzgerald Beale: A Pioneer in the Path of Empire, 1823–1903'' (1912, Putnam, New York, NY) *''Heyday in a Vanished World'' (1937, Norton, New York, NY) (autobiography) *''Unfinished Business'' (1944, Doubleday, New York, NY) (1945 Pulitzer Prize for History) *''When the French Were Here'' (1945, Doubleday, New York, NY) *''Suitors and Supplicants'' (1946, Prentice-Hall, New York, NY) *''The Cause of Liberty'' (1947, M. Joseph, London)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bonsal, Stephen 1865 births 1951 deaths Morris family (Morrisania and New Jersey) Diplomats for the United States American newspaper reporters and correspondents American political writers Writers from Baltimore United States Army personnel of World War I Pulitzer Prize for History winners War correspondents of the Russo-Japanese War War correspondents of the Balkan Wars American war correspondents 20th-century American translators American male essayists 20th-century American essayists 20th-century American male writers Historians from Maryland