Frederick Palmer (January 29, 1873 – September 2, 1958) was an American

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

and

writer A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles and techniques to communicate ideas. Writers produce different forms of literary art and creative writing such as novels, short stories, books, poetry, travelogues, p ...

Biography

Born in Pleasantville, Pennsylvania, Palmer attended

Allegheny College he, תגל ערבה ותפרח כחבצלת , mottoeng = "Add to your faith, virtue and to your faith, knowledge" (2 Peter 1:5)"The desert shall rejoice and the blossom as the rose" (Isaiah 35:1) , faculty = 193 ...

Meadville, Pennsylvania Meadville is a city in and the county seat of Crawford County, Pennsylvania. The city is within of Erie and within of Pittsburgh. It was the first permanent settlement in Northwestern Pennsylvania. The population was 13,388 at the 2010 censu ...

.Roth, Mitchel P. ''et al.'' (1997)
''Historical Dictionary of War Journalism.'' p. 230.
/ref> He was the son of Amos F. Palmer; in February 1896, he married Elsie M. Wither.Marquis Who's Who in America
1901-1902 edition (via

archive.org The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

) The

New York Press ''New York Press'' was a free alternative weekly in New York City, which was published from 1988 to 2011. The ''Press'' strove to create a rivalry with the ''Village Voice''. ''Press'' editors claimed to have tried to hire away writer Nat Hento ...

hired Palmer in 1895 as its

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

correspondent; and this opportunity evolved into a long career.

War correspondent

Foreign Officers and Correspondents after the Battle of Shaho

Palmer's 50 years as a war correspondent began when he was sent to cover the Greco-Turkish War of 1897 for the ''

New York World The ''New York World'' was a newspaper published in New York City from 1860 until 1931. The paper played a major role in the history of American newspapers. It was a leading national voice of the Democratic Party. From 1883 to 1911 under publi ...

'' and for ''

Collier's ''Collier's'' was an American general interest magazine founded in 1888 by Peter Fenelon Collier. It was launched as ''Collier's Once a Week'', then renamed in 1895 as ''Collier's Weekly: An Illustrated Journal'', shortened in 1905 to ''Collie ...

'' magazine. He then covered the gold rush in northwestern Canada. The

Philippine–American War The Philippine–American War or Filipino–American War ( es, Guerra filipina-estadounidense, tl, Digmaang Pilipino–Amerikano), previously referred to as the Philippine Insurrection or the Tagalog Insurgency by the United States, was an arm ...

(1899–1902) provided an opportunity for him to cross the Pacific bound for

Manila Manila ( , ; fil, Maynila, ), officially the City of Manila ( fil, Lungsod ng Maynila, ), is the capital of the Philippines, and its second-most populous city. It is highly urbanized and, as of 2019, was the world's most densely populate ...

. In 1900, Palmer went to China to cover

the Boxer Rebellion The Boxer Rebellion, also known as the Boxer Uprising, the Boxer Insurrection, or the Yihetuan Movement, was an anti-foreign, anti-colonial, and anti-Christian uprising in China between 1899 and 1901, towards the end of the Qing dynasty, ...

(1900); and then he was sent to cover the

Boer War The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the Sou ...

(1899–1902) in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

. Then the prospect of military conflict in Manchuria brought him back to China to cover the

Russo-Japanese War The Russo-Japanese War ( ja, 日露戦争, Nichiro sensō, Japanese-Russian War; russian: Ру́сско-япóнская войнá, Rússko-yapónskaya voyná) was fought between the Empire of Japan and the Russian Empire during 1904 and 1 ...

(1904–1905) for the ''

New York Globe ''The New York Globe'', also called ''The New York Evening Globe'', was a daily New York City newspaper published from 1904 to 1923, when it was bought and merged into ''The New York Sun''. It is not related to a New York City-based Saturday fami ...

''. ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' sent Palmer to cover the

Balkan War The Balkan Wars refers to a series of two conflicts that took place in the Balkan States in 1912 and 1913. In the First Balkan War, the four Balkan States of Greece, Serbia, Montenegro and Bulgaria declared war upon the Ottoman Empire and defea ...

in 1912. In 1914, Palmer was arrested in

Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley o ...

while covering the

Tampico Affair The Tampico Affair began as a minor incident involving U.S. Navy sailors and the Mexican Federal Army loyal to Mexican dictator General Victoriano Huerta. On April 9, 1914, nine sailors had come ashore to secure supplies and were detained by Me ...

(1914) and the

United States occupation of Veracruz The United States occupation of Veracruz (April 21 to November 23, 1914) began with the Battle of Veracruz and lasted for seven months. The incident came in the midst of poor diplomatic relations between Mexico and the United States, and was re ...

for ''

Everybody's Magazine ''Everybody's Magazine'' was an American magazine published from 1899 to 1929. The magazine was headquartered in New York City. History and profile The magazine was founded by Philadelphia merchant John Wanamaker in 1899, though he had little role ...

.''

World Wars

General

John Pershing General of the Armies John Joseph Pershing (September 13, 1860 – July 15, 1948), nicknamed "Black Jack", was a senior United States Army Officer (armed forces), officer. He served most famously as the commander of the American Expeditionary ...

persuaded him to take on the task of press accreditation for the

American Expeditionary Force The American Expeditionary Forces (A. E. F.) was a formation of the United States Army on the Western Front of World War I. The A. E. F. was established on July 5, 1917, in France under the command of General John J. Pershing. It fought alon ...

( AEF). In this period, he was accorded the rank of Colonel. Palmer subsequently became the first war correspondent to win the U.S. Army's

Distinguished Service Medal Distinguished Service Medal (DSM) is a high award of a nation. Examples include: *Distinguished Service Medal (Australia) (established 1991), awarded to personnel of the Australian Defence Force for distinguished leadership in action * Distinguishe ...

. Between World War I and

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, Palmer wrote thirty-one books, including ''Our Greatest Battle'', based on his World War I experiences. In his books, he provided an analysis of the future impact of weapons and strategies he had seen, and soon after the end of World War I predicted that a second world war was on the horizon. He was awarded an

honorary doctorate An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hon ...

from

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

in 1935. Palmer also wrote for the

North American Newspaper Alliance The North American Newspaper Alliance (NANA) was a large newspaper syndicate that flourished between 1922 and 1980. NANA employed some of the most noted writing talents of its time, including Grantland Rice, Joseph Alsop, Michael Stern, Lothrop S ...

in World War II, submitting from London and then Paris at least through April 1945.

Select works

* 1897: ''Going to War in Greece'' * 1899: ''In the Klondyke'' * 1901: ''The Ways of the Service'' * 1904: ''With Kuroki in Manchuria'' * 1906: ''Lucy of the Stars'', novel. * 1910: ''The Big Fellow'', novel * 1910: ''Danbury Rodd: Aviator'', novel * 1910: ''The Vagabond'', novel * 1912: ''Over the Pass'', Western novel * 1914: ''The Last Shot'', novel about a fictional major European war from the point of view of a small set of soldiers and civilians, written before the start of World War I * 1916: ''My Year of the War'', Palmer's account of his experiences as a journalist, starting the day World War I was declared * 1917: ''My Second Year of the War'', Palmer's account of his second year as a World War I war correspondent * 1919: ''Our Greatest Battle'', about the Meuse-Argonne * 1921: ''The Folly of Nations'', tracing the causes of wars in general * 1933: ''With My Own Eyes'', autobiography * 1934: ''Bliss, Peacemaker; the Life and Letters of General Tasker Howard Bliss'', the only biography of the first American 'soldier-statesman" of the 20th century

Notes

References

* Haverstock, Nathan A. (1996)
''Fifty Years at the Front: The Life of War Correspondent Frederick Palmer.''
Washington, D.C.: Brassey's.
OCLC 33041795
* Roth, Mitchel P. and James Stuart Olson. (1997)
''Historical Dictionary of War Journalism.''
Westport, Connecticut:

Greenwood Publishing Group Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc. (GPG), also known as ABC-Clio/Greenwood (stylized ABC-CLIO/Greenwood), is an educational and academic publisher (middle school through university level) which is today part of ABC-Clio. Established in 1967 as Gr ...

. * Hamilton, John M. (2010)
''In Many Wars by Many War Correspondents''
Louisiana State University Press.

External links

*

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Palmer, Frederick 1873 births 1958 deaths 20th-century American novelists 20th-century American memoirists American male novelists United States Army colonels Military personnel from Pennsylvania American autobiographers American war correspondents War correspondents of the Russo-Japanese War War correspondents of the Balkan Wars American people of World War I Recipients of the Distinguished Service Medal (US Army) 20th-century American male writers American male non-fiction writers United States Army personnel of World War I