Joseph Fels Barnes (1907–1970) 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 ...

, who also served as executive director of the

Institute of Pacific Relations The Institute of Pacific Relations (IPR) was an international NGO established in 1925 to provide a forum for discussion of problems and relations between nations of the Pacific Rim. The International Secretariat, the center of most IPR activity ov ...

(IPR).

Background

Barnes was born in 1907. he 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 higher le ...

in 1927, where he was managing editor and president of the ''

Harvard Crimson The Harvard Crimson are the intercollegiate athletic teams of Harvard College. The school's teams compete in NCAA Division I. As of 2013, there were 42 Division I intercollegiate varsity sports teams for women and men at Harvard, more than at ...

''. He studied at the London School of Slavonic Studies.

Career

Institute of Pacific Relations

Barnes worked on staff in the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

and

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

at the

(IPR) from 1932 to 1934. He was a journalist for the ''

New York Herald Tribune The ''New York Herald Tribune'' was a newspaper published between 1924 and 1966. It was created in 1924 when Ogden Mills Reid of the ''New-York Tribune'' acquired the ''New York Herald''. It was regarded as a "writer's newspaper" and competed ...

'' based in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

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 ...

, and

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 * '' ...

from 1934 to 1948. That was interrupted by service as director of the

Office of War Information The United States Office of War Information (OWI) was a United States government agency created during World War II. The OWI operated from June 1942 until September 1945. Through radio broadcasts, newspapers, posters, photographs, films and other ...

overseas branch and

Voice of America Voice of America (VOA or VoA) is the state-owned news network and international radio broadcaster of the United States of America. It is the largest and oldest U.S.-funded international broadcaster. VOA produces digital, TV, and radio content ...

radio show (1941–1944).

PM / New York Star

Barnes was an editor of '' PM'', which he bought from

Marshall Field III Marshall Field III (September 28, 1893 – November 8, 1956) was an American investment banker, publisher, racehorse owner/breeder, philanthropist, grandson of businessman Marshall Field, heir to the Marshall Field department store fortune, a ...

with

Bartley Crum Bartley Crum (November 28, 1900 – December 9, 1959) was an American lawyer who became prominent as a member of the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry, his book on that experience, and for defending targets of House Un-American Activities Commit ...

and renamed '' New York Star''. Barnes remained editor until the ''Star'' folded in 1949.

Simon & Schuster

Barnes worked as an editor of

Simon & Schuster Simon & Schuster () is an American publishing company and a subsidiary of Paramount Global. It was founded in New York City on January 2, 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. As of 2016, Simon & Schuster was the third largest publ ...

and was a faculty member at

Sarah Lawrence College Sarah Lawrence College is a Private university, private liberal arts college in Yonkers, New York. The college models its approach to education after the Supervision system, Oxford/Cambridge system of one-on-one student-faculty tutorials. Sara ...

Allegations of Communism

Often affiliated with left-wing causes, Barnes was accused in the 1950s of being a member of the

Communist Party USA The Communist Party USA, officially the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA), is a communist party in the United States which was established in 1919 after a split in the Socialist Party of America following the Russian Revo ...

by several witnesses, e.g.,

Whittaker Chambers Whittaker Chambers (born Jay Vivian Chambers; April 1, 1901 – July 9, 1961) was an American writer-editor, who, after early years as a Communist Party member (1925) and Soviet spy (1932–1938), defected from the Soviet underground (1938), ...

as reported on in August 1951:

Whittaker Chambers, confessed former Communist courier, said that a Red leader in 1937 told him that Joseph Barnes, a member of the faculty of
Sarah Lawrence College Sarah Lawrence College is a Private university, private liberal arts college in Yonkers, New York. The college models its approach to education after the Supervision system, Oxford/Cambridge system of one-on-one student-faculty tutorials. Sara ...
, was a member of a Communist underground cell in New York. Mr. Chambers identified his informant as J. Peters... Mr. Barnes, former foreign editor of the ''New York Herald Tribune'' and former secretary of the American
Institute of Pacific Relations The Institute of Pacific Relations (IPR) was an international NGO established in 1925 to provide a forum for discussion of problems and relations between nations of the Pacific Rim. The International Secretariat, the center of most IPR activity ov ...
who is now an editor of Simon & Schuster, New York publishers, denied the accusation – as he has on three previous occasions....

Chambers stated that Barnes had attended meetings regularly at a Communist group headed by

Frederick Vanderbilt Field Frederick Vanderbilt Field (April 13, 1905 – February 1, 2000) was an American leftist political activist, political writer and a great-great-grandson of railroad tycoon Cornelius "Commodore" Vanderbilt, disinherited by his wealthy relatives for ...

and held at the Central Park West home of Field's mother; Barnes dismissed the allegations by explaining that he had married Field's former wife.

Personal life and death

Around 1935, Barnes married Elizabeth G. Brown of Duluth, Minnesota, former first wife of Frederick Vanderbilt Field. Barnes died in 1970 of cancer in New York City.

Awards

PEN Translation Prize The PEN Translation Prize (formerly known as the PEN/Book-of-the-Month Club Translation Prize through 2008) is an annual award given by PEN America (formerly PEN American Center) to outstanding translations into the English language. It has been pr ...

for ''The Story Of A Life''

Legacy

Barnes' papers at the Library of Congress contain an unpublished biography of

Wendell L. Willkie Wendell Lewis Willkie (born Lewis Wendell Willkie; February 18, 1892 – October 8, 1944) was an American lawyer, corporate executive and the 1940 History of the United States Republican Party, Republican nominee for President of the United State ...

plus correspondence with Irita Taylor Van Doren, George Bergal,

Norman Corwin Norman Lewis Corwin (May 3, 1910 – October 18, 2011) was an American writer, screenwriter, producer, essayist and teacher of journalism and writing. His earliest and biggest successes were in the writing and directing of radio drama during the ...

, Bartley Cavanaugh Crum, William Fitz Gibbon, and J.L. Jones.

Works

* ''Behind the Far Eastern Conflict'' with Frederick V. Field (1933) * ''Empire in the East'' (1934) (1970) * ''Days and Nights'' by

Konstantin Simonov Konstantin Mikhailovich Simonov, born Kirill Mikhailovich Simonov (russian: link= no, Константин Михайлович Симонов, – 28 August 1979), was a Soviet author, war poet, playwright and wartime correspondent, arguabl ...

(1945) * ''Willkie: The Events He was Part of, the Ideas He Fought for'' (1952) * ''The Story of a Life'' by

Konstantin Paustovsky Konstantin Georgiyevich Paustovsky ( rus, Константи́н Гео́ргиевич Паусто́вский, p=pəʊˈstofskʲɪj; – 14 July 1968) was a Soviet writer nominated for the Nobel Prize for literature in 1965. Early life ...

(1964) * ''Fierce and Beautiful World: Stories by

Andrei Platonov Andrei Platonov (russian: Андре́й Плато́нов, ; – 5 January 1951) was the pen name of Andrei Platonovich Klimentov (russian: Андре́й Плато́нович Климе́нтов), a Soviet Union, Soviet Russian people, Rus ...

'' (1970)

References

External links

Library of Congress
Joseph Barnes papers, 1930-1952 {{DEFAULTSORT:Barnes, Joseph Fels 1907 births 1970 deaths Editors of New York City newspapers The Harvard Crimson people People of the United States Office of War Information