Pearl Harbour Day

I won't dwell on the subject of Pearl Harbour. Tonight is the first night of Chanukkah. Let us all join in wishing our Jewish brothers and sisters a festive time at this, their feast of the miracle of lights.

With thanks to Garrison Keillor, I give you this sketch of Heywood Broun -- one terrific and not to be forgotten writer.

It's the birthday of journalist and correspondent Heywood Campbell Broun, born in Brooklyn, New York (1888). Broun grew up the privileged son of a large printing plant owner, Heywood Cox Broun, a Scottish emigrant. Heywood Jr. spent most of his life and career as a journalist and political activist fighting for the underdog.

Broun attended exclusive private schools before going off to Harvard University, yet he never finished his degree, instead he left Harvard a few credits short of graduation in 1910.

In the 1920's, Broun wrote a column called "It Seems to Me" for The New York World. Broun's column pioneered the Op-Ed format of journalism, featuring personal views independent of the paper's editorial stance. His personal commentary was sometimes amusing and often highly critical, usually speaking for the underprivileged. This column made him one of the most loved figures in journalism.

In his lifetime Broun was a prolific writer, who could reportedly turn out a column in 30 minutes, and was responsible for some 21,000,000 words. He said, "For the truth there is no deadline." His career spanned many talents, including sports writing, drama criticism, war correspondent and syndicated columnist. He wrote for numerous journals and newspapers including: the Nation, the New Republican, the New York Times, the New Yorker and the New York Post.

In 1933 Heywood founded The Newspaper Guild. Although he had always led a comfortable life and was paid well for his work, he wanted to found a union that would protect the rights of reporters and newspaper employees. His contemporaries called him "The Presiding Saint" of the Newspaper Guild and he was reelected president every year until his death from pneumonia in 1939. Upon his death, president Franklin D. Roosevelt said, "He was a hard fighter, but always a fair adversary, and no matter for whom he worked he wore no man's collar."

Broun said, "I doubt whether the world holds for anyone a more soul-stirring surprise than the first adventure with ice-cream."