Harris Ayres Houghton (February 25, 1874 - September 2, 1946) was a physician and member of the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

military intelligence community during and shortly after

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. He is notable for having arranged the anonymous

translation Translation is the communication of the Meaning (linguistic), meaning of a #Source and target languages, source-language text by means of an Dynamic and formal equivalence, equivalent #Source and target languages, target-language text. The ...

and

publication To publish is to make content available to the general public.Berne Conve ...

, from the

Russian language Russian (russian: русский язык, russkij jazyk, link=no, ) is an East Slavic languages, East Slavic language mainly spoken in Russia. It is the First language, native language of the Russians, and belongs to the Indo-European langua ...

into the

English language English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the is ...

, of the

Protocols of the Elders of Zion ''The Protocols of the Elders of Zion'' () or ''The Protocols of the Meetings of the Learned Elders of Zion'' is a fabricated antisemitic text purporting to describe a Jewish plan for global domination. The hoax was plagiarized from several ...

in the

in 1920. The lead title he was responsible for producing was " Praemonitus Praemunitus."Robert Singerman, "The American Career of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion", American Jewish History', Vol. 71 (1981), pp. 48–78

Biography

Harris was the son of Oscar Allen Houghton (May 15, 1841 - Sept. 22, 1908) and Oscar's first wife Susan Harris Ayres (July 7, 1843 - Dec. 9, 1900). Oscar was a minister who belonged to the Central New York Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. In 1901 Harris graduated from the

Syracuse University Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York. Established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church, the university has been nonsectarian since 1920. Locate ...

School of Medicine. He thereafter pursued advanced study in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

. On Oct. 26, 1902, Harris married Virginia Boyd Dudley (Dec. 8, 1876 - April 8, 1946)http://www.wvculture.org/vrr/va_view.aspx?Id=35770&Type=Death (Certificate of Death #4554 for Virginia Dudley Houghton) of Bramwell, Mercer County, West Virginia. In 1911 he received his commission as

first lieutenant First lieutenant is a commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces; in some forces, it is an appointment. The rank of lieutenant has different meanings in different military formations, but in most forces it is sub-divided into a s ...

in the

Medical Reserve Corps The Medical Reserve Corps (MRC) is a network in the U.S. of community-based units initiated and established by local organizations aimed to meet the public health needs of their communities. It is sponsored by the Office of the Assistant Secretary ...

, achieving the position of Post Surgeon at Fort Totten,

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

, and a few months later was appointed Post Intelligence Office at this installation. And in December 1917 he was transferred and assigned to his position on

Governor's Island Governors Island is a island in New York Harbor, within the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is located approximately south of Manhattan Island, and is separated from Brooklyn to the east by the Buttermilk Channel. The National Park ...

. On or about February 1, 1918, his personal assistant, Miss

Natalie de Bogory Natalie de Bogory (also known as Natalie Debogory or Natalie DeBogory-Mokriyevich) (1887–1939) is primarily known for her work in translating from the Russian language into the English language, and subsequently distributing and participati ...

, brought him an exceedingly rare book, a 1917 edition of

Serge Nilus Sergei Aleksandrovich Nilus (also ''Sergius'', and variants; russian: Серге́й Алекса́ндрович Ни́лус; – 14 January 1929) was a Russian religious writer and self-described mystic. His book ''Velikoe v malom i antik ...

's book on the

anti-Christ In Christian eschatology, the Antichrist refers to people prophesied by the Bible to oppose Jesus Christ and substitute themselves in Christ's place before the Second Coming. The term Antichrist (including one plural form)1 John ; . 2 John . i ...

which incorporated into itself as an ending chapter the notorious

plagiarism Plagiarism is the fraudulent representation of another person's language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions as one's own original work.From the 1995 '' Random House Compact Unabridged Dictionary'': use or close imitation of the language and thought ...

literary forgery Literary forgery (also known as literary mystification, literary fraud or literary hoax) is writing, such as a manuscript or a literary work, which is either deliberately misattributed to a historical or invented author, or is a purported memoir ...

, and

hoax A hoax is a widely publicized falsehood so fashioned as to invite reflexive, unthinking acceptance by the greatest number of people of the most varied social identities and of the highest possible social pretensions to gull its victims into pu ...

subsequently known briefly as the infamous

Protocols of Zion ''The Protocols of the Elders of Zion'' () or ''The Protocols of the Meetings of the Learned Elders of Zion'' is a fabricated antisemitic text purporting to describe a Jewish plan for global domination. The hoax was plagiarized from several ...

. This rare edition had allegedly been brought to the

by an unidentified Russian army officer who obtained it in

Petrograd Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

, Russia. At the time of obtaining the text from Miss de Bogory, Dr. Houghton was a military intelligence officer of the

Department of War attached to the Eastern Department offices located on

in the

City of New York New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

. Noted

bibliographer Bibliography (from and ), as a discipline, is traditionally the academic study of books as physical, cultural objects; in this sense, it is also known as bibliology (from ). English author and bibliographer John Carter describes ''bibliography ...

of Judaica,

Robert Singerman Robert Singerman (born 1942) is a librarian, and a recognized Judaica bibliographer. He is often cited by Judaica rare book dealers. He holds the position of University Librarian, George A. Smathers Libraries, University of Florida, where he was ...

, describes Houghton as a "zealous counter-subversive, obsessed by the lleged

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

threat to America's war effort ...". Singerman further informs us that this obsessiveness led Houghton to engage Miss de Bogory, as his personal assistant, for 9 months, and he paid for her time and work out of his own personal funds. Essentially, he retained her, and another former Russian military officer, former General G. J. Sosnowsky, to translate the

into English. The translation, entitled "Praemonitus Praemunitus", was published in 1920 by the New York-based

Beckwith Company The Beckwith Company was a publishing entity in 1920, based in New York City. It is remembered for publishing a second edition of the forged '' Protocols of the Elders of Zion'', more specifically a second translation from the Russian language ...

; the anonymous editor, disguised under the pseudonym "Peter Beckwith," was Houghton himself.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Houghton, Harris A. 1874 births 1946 deaths American conspiracy theorists American military personnel of World War I Protocols of the Elders of Zion United States Army officers

Biography

See also

References