Robert Underwood Johnson (January 12, 1853 – October 14, 1937) was an American
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 ...
,
poet
A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...
, and
diplomat
A diplomat (from grc, δίπλωμα; romanized ''diploma'') is a person appointed by a state or an intergovernmental institution such as the United Nations or the European Union to conduct diplomacy with one or more other states or internati ...
.
Biography
Robert Underwood Johnson was born in Centerville, Indiana, on January 12, 1853. His brother
Henry Underwood Johnson
Henry Underwood Johnson (October 28, 1850 – June 4, 1939) was an American lawyer and politician who served four terms as a U.S. Representative from Indiana from 1891 to 1899.
Biography
Born in Cambridge City, Indiana, Johnson attended the Ce ...
became a member of Congress from that district (1881-1889). His father, Nimrod Hoge Johnson was a lawyer and judge. His mother, Catherine Coyle Underwood was a
suffragette
A suffragette was a member of an activist women's organisation in the early 20th century who, under the banner "Votes for Women", fought for the right to vote in public elections in the United Kingdom. The term refers in particular to members ...
. He was schooled in Calvinist Presbyterianism by his uncle by marriage, the Reverend Charles H. Raymond, who served as
chargé d’affaires
Chargé () is a commune in the Indre-et-Loire department in central France.
Chargé is a small town near Amboise. The Rock 'in Chargé festival has revitalized the village sinc2006
Population
The inhabitants are called ''Chargéens''.
See a ...
of the
Republic of Texas
The Republic of Texas ( es, República de Tejas) was a sovereign state in North America that existed from March 2, 1836, to February 19, 1846, that bordered Mexico, the Republic of the Rio Grande in 1840 (another breakaway republic from Mex ...
at
Washington
Washington commonly refers to:
* Washington (state), United States
* Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States
** A metonym for the federal government of the United States
** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...
before its admission as a
state of the Union
The State of the Union Address (sometimes abbreviated to SOTU) is an annual message delivered by the president of the United States to a joint session of the United States Congress near the beginning of each calendar year on the current conditio ...
and by Quakerism of the Johnsons.
He attended the Quaker
Earlham College
Earlham College is a private liberal arts college in Richmond, Indiana. The college was established in 1847 by the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) and has a strong focus on Quaker values such as integrity, a commitment to peace and social ...
in Richmond, Indiana, beginning at age fourteen and graduated with a B.S. in 1871. Johnson’s first work was as a clerk in Chicago, Illinois, agency of the educational books of Charles Scribner’s Sons, and in 1873 he entered the firm’s New York office, beginning his long connection with ''
The Century Magazine
''The Century Magazine'' was an illustrated monthly magazine first published in the United States in 1881 by The Century Company of New York City, which had been bought in that year by Roswell Smith and renamed by him after the Century Associatio ...
'', then ''
Scribner’s Monthly
''Scribner's Monthly: An Illustrated Magazine for the People'' was an illustrated American literary periodical published from 1870 until 1881. Following a change in ownership in 1881 of the company that had produced it, the magazine was relaunch ...
'', under
Josiah Gilbert Holland
Josiah Gilbert Holland (July 24, 1819 – October 12, 1881) was an American novelist and poet who also wrote under the pseudonym Timothy Titcomb. He helped to found and edit ''Scribner's Monthly'' (afterwards the ''Century Magazine''), in which ...
. ''The Century Magazine'' was directed at leaders in the political, religious, artistic, and social opinion circles. One of his first major projects for Scribner's was the editing of “Century War Series” (1883) and the subsequent four volumes ''Battles and Leaders of the Civil War'' (1887–88), with the goal of raising circulation (by 100,000), was a series on the great battles of the Civil War from the point of view of officers on both sides based on accounts sourced from soldiers’ family records. Johnson succeeded in securing four papers from General
Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant (born Hiram Ulysses Grant ; April 27, 1822July 23, 1885) was an American military officer and politician who served as the 18th president of the United States from 1869 to 1877. As Commanding General, he led the Union Ar ...
which later formed the basis of Grant’s ''Memoirs''.
He married Katharine McMahon on August 31, 1876, in Washington, DC. They had a son, Owen McMahon Johnson (1878–1952), who became an American writer in his own right, and a daughter, Agnes McMahon Johnson (1880–1968). After their honeymoon that included attendance at the Philadelphia Exhibition, the couple relocated to the Murray Hill neighborhood in New York City. While in New York City, Johnson's love of nature and exploration extended to outings and ramblings. He was surrounded by social friends over for musical and literary evenings and consumed all forms of art, including opera and theater. His friends from the US and abroad included
Tommaso Salvini
Tommaso Salvini (1 January 182931 December 1915) was an Italian actor.
Life
Salvini was born in Milan to parents who were both actors, his mother being the popular actress Guglielmina Zocchi.
Finding the boy had a talent for acting, his father ...
,
Paderewski
Ignacy Jan Paderewski (; – 29 June 1941) was a Polish pianist and composer who became a spokesman for Polish independence. In 1919, he was the new nation's Prime Minister and foreign minister during which he signed the Treaty of Versail ...
Kipling
Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( ; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936)''The Times'', (London) 18 January 1936, p. 12. was an English novelist, short-story writer, poet, and journalist. He was born in British Raj, British India, which inspired much o ...
and Eleonora Duse. By the 1890s, Johnson and his wife became friends with the inventor
transliterating
Transliteration is a type of conversion of a text from one writing system, script to another that involves swapping Letter (alphabet), letters (thus ''wikt:trans-#Prefix, trans-'' + ''wikt:littera#Latin, liter-'') in predictable ways, such as ...
Serbian poems by
Jovan Jovanović Zmaj
Jovan Jovanović Zmaj ( sr-cyr, Јован Јовановић Змаj, pronounced ; 24 November 1833 – 1 June 1904) was a Serbian poet.
Jovanović worked as a physician; he wrote in many poetry genres, including love, lyric, patriotic, poli ...
in ''The Century Magazine''.
International copyright
Johnson was a proponent of the establishment of international copyright protections. As secretary of the American Copyright League, he helped get the Law of 1891 passed, for which he was decorated by the French and Italian governments. The silver fruit stand honoring his role is in the collection of the Academy of Arts & Letters. Johnson’s role in the creation, initial passage, and reauthorization of the act to end intellectual piracy in the US ranged from his position at ''The Century'', as an officer of the Copyright League, lobbying Members of Congress, participation in a conference to secure support from labor unions, negotiating with the Congressional conference committee. Johnson was called the father of
international copyright law
While no creative work is automatically protected worldwide, there are international treaties which provide protection automatically for all creative works as soon as they are fixed in a medium. There are two primary international copyright agreem ...
.
Land preservation
Johnson advocated for the forest reservation system and a scientific national policy of conservation. In 1889, camping out with naturalist
John Muir
John Muir ( ; April 21, 1838December 24, 1914), also known as "John of the Mountains" and "Father of the National Parks", was an influential Scottish-American naturalist, author, environmental philosopher, botanist, zoologist, glaciologist, a ...
at Soda Springs, Johnson encouraged Muir to "start an association" to help protect the Sierra Nevada, inspiring the formation of the Sierra Club in 1892.
Leveraging the influence of ''The Century'', in conjunction with Muir, Johnson was one of the driving forces behind the creation of
Yosemite National Park
Yosemite National Park ( ) is an American national park in California, surrounded on the southeast by Sierra National Forest and on the northwest by Stanislaus National Forest. The park is managed by the National Park Service and covers an ar ...
in California in 1890 and in 1913. He served as chairman of a national commission for the preservation of that area and is credited with writing the bill. Muir dedicated his book ''The Yosemite'' to Johnson.
Johnson also fought persistently though vainly against the acquisition by the city of
San Francisco, California
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
, of the Hetch-Hetchy Valley as a reservoir. In 1906, in letters to President
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt Jr. ( ; October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), often referred to as Teddy or by his initials, T. R., was an American politician, statesman, soldier, conservationist, naturalist, historian, and writer who served as the 26t ...
, he proposed a conference of governors to conserve the forests of the Eastern states, out of which grew the White House Conference on Conservation.
In 2017, a plaque commemorating Johnson’s role in relationship with Muir was erected at Tuolome Meadows – the site where Johnson and Muir held their conversation about land preservation in 1889. Their story was recounted in Ken Burns’s public television series on ''Our National Parks''.
Hall of Fame and American Academy of Arts and Letters
As a founding director of the Hall of Fame of New York University, he helped shape its principles “to instill in both Americans and foreigners, and especially in the youth, the principle of patriotism, a healthy conservatism, and reverence for the traditions of high achievement” along with “respect for scholarship and at the best traditions and standards; secondly, maintenance of the dignity and insistence on the value of literature and the arts; and thirdly, realization that its authority mush rest on the experience and the achievement of its members.” (RY)
He became permanent secretary of the American Academy of Arts and Letters whose formation started in 1899 with Johnson successfully proposing the charter from Congress (1916), purchase of the Venetian Renaissance home on 155th Street, NYC, and the raising of funds for an endowment noting the indebtedness to the ‘finest Spanish scholar in America,
Archer M. Huntington
Archer Milton Huntington (March 10, 1870 – December 11, 1955) was a philanthropist and scholar, primarily known for his contributions to the field of Hispanic Studies. He founded The Hispanic Society of America in New York City, and made n ...
’ and culminating in 1904 (?). The first members to be inducted by secret ballot of their peers were
William Dean Howells
William Dean Howells (; March 1, 1837 – May 11, 1920) was an American realist novelist, literary critic, and playwright, nicknamed "The Dean of American Letters". He was particularly known for his tenure as editor of ''The Atlantic Monthly'', ...
,
Augustus Saint-Gaudens
Augustus Saint-Gaudens (; March 1, 1848 – August 3, 1907) was an American sculptor of the Beaux-Arts generation who embodied the ideals of the American Renaissance. From a French-Irish family, Saint-Gaudens was raised in New York City, he trave ...
,
Edmund Clarence Stedman
Edmund Clarence Stedman (October 8, 1833January 18, 1908) was an American poet, critic, essayist, banker, and scientist.
Early life
Edmund Clarence Stedman was born in Hartford, Connecticut, on October 8, 1833; his father, Major Edmund B ...
,
John La Farge
John La Farge (March 31, 1835 – November 14, 1910) was an American artist whose career spanned illustration, murals, interior design, painting, and popular books on his Asian travels and other art-related topics.
La Farge is best known for ...
,
Mark Twain
Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has p ...
, John Hay and
Edward MacDowell
Edward Alexander MacDowell (December 18, 1860January 23, 1908) was an American composer and pianist of the late Romantic period. He was best known for his second piano concerto and his piano suites '' Woodland Sketches'', ''Sea Pieces'' and '' ...
. The second group inducted at the first meeting were
Henry James
Henry James ( – ) was an American-British author. He is regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language. He was the ...
,
Charles Follen McKim
Charles Follen McKim (August 24, 1847 – September 14, 1909) was an American Beaux-Arts architect of the late 19th century. Along with William Rutherford Mead and Stanford White, he provided the architectural expertise as a member of the partn ...
,
Henry Adams
Henry Brooks Adams (February 16, 1838 – March 27, 1918) was an American historian and a member of the Adams political family, descended from two U.S. Presidents.
As a young Harvard graduate, he served as secretary to his father, Charles Fr ...
,
Charles Eliot Norton
Charles Eliot Norton (November 16, 1827 – October 21, 1908) was an American author, social critic, and Harvard professor of art based in New England. He was a progressive social reformer and a liberal activist whom many of his contemporaries c ...
,
John Quincy Adams Ward
John Quincy Adams Ward (June 29, 1830 – May 1, 1910) was an American sculptor, whose most familiar work is his larger than life-size standing statue of George Washington on the steps of Federal Hall National Memorial in New York City.
Early ye ...
,
Thomas Raynesford Lounsbury
Thomas Raynesford Lounsbury (January 1, 1838 – April 9, 1915) was an American literary historian and critic, born in Ovid, New York, January 1, 1838. He graduated from Yale College in 1859 and subsequently received honorary degrees from Yale, ...
,
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt Jr. ( ; October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), often referred to as Teddy or by his initials, T. R., was an American politician, statesman, soldier, conservationist, naturalist, historian, and writer who served as the 26t ...
, and
Thomas Bailey Aldrich
Thomas Bailey Aldrich (; November 11, 1836 – March 19, 1907) was an American writer, poet, critic, and editor. He is notable for his long editorship of ''The Atlantic Monthly'', during which he published writers including Charles W. Chesnutt. ...
. A core of fifty members was inducted and in 1908 adopted a constitution.
''“The value of a great institution, like the value of a great personality, lies in the potentiality of its influence. Our national ideas need to be firmly established and maintained on an intellectual plane. ….we also need a revival of the gospel that the glory of man is his mind and his soul; and to remember that these, as well as the body, are exposed to starvation and dwarfism and disease and blindness. …”''
• In his book entitled Remembered Yesterdays: “The Temple” RUG poem at the laying for the cornerstone of the Academy’s permanent home. Page 439 is an accounting of the history of the Academy. Said by John Hay” an Academy was more needed in our democracy than in an old-world monarchy, which has its own traditions and inherited standards since here we are more subject to the tyranny of vogue.”
As Secretary of the American Committee, he was a driving force for the effort to acquire and preserve as the Keats-Shelley museum from a museum the rooms in Rome on Spanish Steps leading up to the ''Santa Trinita dei Monti'' church where the poet
John Keats
John Keats (31 October 1795 – 23 February 1821) was an English poet of the second generation of Romantic poets, with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley. His poems had been in publication for less than four years when he died of tuberculo ...
and his friend
Joseph Severn
Joseph Severn (7 December 1793 – 3 August 1879) was an English portrait and subject painter and a personal friend of the famous English poet John Keats. He exhibited portraits, Italian genre, literary and biblical subjects, and a selec ...
spent Keats's final months in 1821.
Percy Shelley
Percy Bysshe Shelley ( ; 4 August 17928 July 1822) was one of the major English Romantic poets. A radical in his poetry as well as in his political and social views, Shelley did not achieve fame during his lifetime, but recognition of his achie ...
apparently resided temporarily in a home across the steps.
Ambassador to Italy
Johnson served as the U.S. Ambassador to Italy from April 1920 to July 1921, and represented the United States as observer at the San Remo conference of the Supreme Council of the League. He was decorated by the Italian government in recognition of his work in behalf of good relations between Italy and the United States.
In 1916 he acted as pallbearer for the funeral of
Alexander Wilson Drake
Alexander Wilson Drake (1843–1916) was an American artist, collector and critic.
Biography
Drake was born near Westfield, New Jersey, Westfield, New Jersey., the son of Isaac Payne Drake (1818–1900) and Charlotte Osborne Drake (1817–190 ...
, director of the ''Century Magazine'' art department and a notable engraver from New Jersey.
Johnson’s activities during World War I afforded him the opportunity to “present the little-known facts of Italy’s important contributions to the Allied cause, and that in general I had written much in prose and verse in admiration of that country and her people.” In 1917 he organized and was chairman of the American Poets' Ambulances in Italy. This organization presented 112 ambulances and 37 field hospitals to the Italian army in four months built from Ford chassis from Milan. In 1918–19 he was president of the New York Committee of the Italian War Relief Fund of America and raised $235,000 which was distributed all over Italy “not merely to minister to the suffering but to show Italians everywhere the sympathy and cooperation of America…the blind, prevention or cure of tuberculosis among children of veterans, benevolent work of San Gregorio in Rome.” After being shown a photograph of a child holding ‘the only doll in the valley’ he wrote a poem by that name, sent out a press appeal and ‘hundreds of dolls’ were distributed to the Val.” He served as the U.S. Ambassador to Italy from April 1920 to July 1921, and represented the United States as observer at the San Remo conference of the Supreme Council of the League. He was decorated by the Italian government in recognition of his work in behalf of good relations between Italy and the United States.
In his first week on the job, represented the United States as observer at the San Remo conference of the Supreme Council of the League (1920.) In his biography, he describes in some detail bemoaning the lack of an official record of the proceedings or decisions despite momentous topics such as Armenia, status of Constantinople, Yugoslavia, borders and troop positions in Italy, Germany as well as Palestine and the Zionists. “It is amazing how frequently Italy seemed to be in the throes of an inescapable crisis, which, however, passed by like a summer storm – much noise and turmoil but little damage.” Informed by his research into the Civil War, he visited the lower Alps battle fields. His duties were largely socially diplomatic but also included conversations with American business interested in working in Italy including Charles M. Schwab as well as a persistent opposition to Soviet intrusions of any kind. A detailed description of the Celebration of Vittorio Veneto – enemy losses topped 500,000. A description of hosting a dinner for the King and Queen of Denmark is rich in description of rituals, atmosphere and attire. Zeppelin Roma purchased by the US, extensive description of two trips. He, and apparently many in the diplomatic corps, operated independently receiving little operational funding or response to their queries from the US State Department. He was decorated by the Italian government in recognition of his work in behalf of good relations between Italy and the United States.
Honors
For his service in securing an international copyright, he received the honorary A.M. degree from Yale University, the decoration of chevalier in the French Legion of Honor in 1891 and the cavaliers of the Crown of Italy in 1895. In addition, Johnson was made a commander of the Order of the Crown of Italy in 1919, an officer of the Order of Leopold II (Belgium) in 1919, and the commander of the Order of St. Sava (Serbian) in 1920. He received the Grand Cordon Order of SS.Maurice and Lazarus (Italian), conferred by King Victor Emanuel III in 1921; was named grand officer of the French Legion of Honor in 1922; and received the grand cordon, with star, order of Polonia Restituta in 1931.
A member of
Phi Beta Kappa
The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal a ...
, he was also an organizer in 1904 and permanent secretary of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, an outgrowth of the National Institute of Arts and Letters, of which he had also been secretary. He was a member of the National Citizens Committee of the Third Hague Conference, Independence Hall Conference to found the League to Enforce Peace, National Association of American Speech, Civil Service Reform Association, Sons of the Revolution, and the Authors, MacDowell (honorary), Century and Sierra clubs.
*
Writings
*with Clarence Clough Buel, ''Battles and Leaders of the Civil War'' (1887–88)
*''The Winter Hour and Other Poems'' (New York: The Century, 1892).
*''Songs of Liberty and Other Poems'' (New York: The Century, 1897).
*''Poems'' (New York: The Century, 1902).
*''Saint Gaudens: An Ode'' (New York: The Century Co.,third edition, 1910)
*''Saint Gaudens: An Ode and Other Poems'' (Indianapolis and New York: The Bobbs-Merrill Col,fourth edition, 1914)
*''Poems of War and Peace'' (Indianapolis and New York: The Bobbs-Merrill Co., 1916)
*''Italian Rhapsody and Other Poems of Italy'' (Published: By The Author, 745 Fifth Avenue, NY, 1917)
*''Collected Poems, 1881–1919'' (New Haven: Yale University, 1920).
* "Collected Poems, 1881-1992" (New Haven: Yale University, 1923) ''Remembered Yesterdays'' (Boston: Little, Brown, 1923).
*''Your
Hall of Fame
A hall, wall, or walk of fame is a list of individuals, achievements, or other entities, usually chosen by a group of electors, to mark their excellence or Wiktionary:fame, fame in their field. In some cases, these halls of fame consist of actu ...
: Being an Account of the Origin, Establishment, and History of This Division of New York University, from 1900 to 1935 inclusive'' (New York: New York University, 1935).
* "Poems of the Longer Flight" (Published: By The Author, 26 East 55th Street, NY, 1928)
* "The Pact and Honor and Other Poems" (Published: By The Author, 1929)
* "Poems of the Lighter Touch" (1930)
* "Poems of Fifty Years" (Published: By The Author, 26 East 55th Street, NY, 1931)
* "Aftermath" (Published: By The Author, NY 745 Fifth Avenue,1933)
* "Heroes, Children and Fun" (Published: By The Author,1934)
The Bancroft Library
The Bancroft Library in the center of the campus of the University of California, Berkeley, is the university's primary special-collections library. It was acquired from its founder, Hubert Howe Bancroft, in 1905, with the proviso that it retai ...