Russell D. Owen (January 8, 1889 – April 3, 1952) was an American journalist employed by ''
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 ...
''.
He covered Arctic and Antarctic exploration both as a reporter and in books.
Owen Peak, originally named "Mount Russell Owen," was named in his honor after having traveled as a ''Times'' correspondent with the first
Byrd Antarctic Expedition (1928-30).
Life
Born 1889 in Chicago, Owen worked for ''
The Sun'' of New York City from 1906 to 1920. He and Ethel J. McGregor married in 1913. She died in 1948. They had one daughter.
After short stints elsewhere, Owen moved to ''The New York Times'' in 1921 and returned in 1926 after two years running the General Electric news bureau.
That year he covered the air race to the North Pole, flying with
Roald Amundsen
Roald Engelbregt Gravning Amundsen (, ; ; 16 July 1872 – ) was a Norwegian explorer of polar regions. He was a key figure of the period known as the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration.
Born in Borge, Østfold, Norway, Amundsen bega ...
(airship ''
Norge
Norge is Norwegian (bokmål), Danish and Swedish for Norway.
It may also refer to:
People
* Kaare Norge (born 1963), Danish guitarist
* Norge Luis Vera (born 1971), Cuban baseball player
Places
* 11871 Norge, asteroid
Toponyms:
*Norge, Oklah ...
'') as far as
Ny-Ålesund
Ny-Ålesund ("New Ålesund") is a small town in Oscar II Land on the island of Spitsbergen in Svalbard, Norway. It is situated on the Brøgger peninsula ( Brøggerhalvøya) and on the shore of the bay of Kongsfjorden. The company town is owned and ...
,
Svalbard
Svalbard ( , ), also known as Spitsbergen, or Spitzbergen, is a Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. North of mainland Europe, it is about midway between the northern coast of Norway and the North Pole. The islands of the group range ...
and meeting
Richard Evelyn Byrd there. (Ny-Ålesund was the northernmost point of departure for both.)
Owen joined the
First Byrd Antarctic Expedition of 1928–1930. He submitted graphic radio dispatches that were printed in many newspapers and won the annual
Pulitzer Prize for Reporting
The Pulitzer Prize for Reporting was awarded from 1917 to 1947.
Winners
*1917: Herbert Bayard Swope, ''New York World'', for articles which appeared October 10, October 15 and from November 4 daily to November 22, 1916, inclusive, entitled, "Ins ...
in 1930 citing the 1929 portion of that work. He also appeared in the
documentary film
A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...
''
With Byrd at the South Pole
''With Byrd at the South Pole'' (1930) is a documentary film about Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd and his 1st quest to the South Pole beginning at the Little America-Exploration Base. The film's soundtrack consists mostly of music and sound effect ...
'' (Paramount, 1930). His book about the expedition was published in 1934, entitled ''South of the Sun'', and he wrote two more polar books later.
Books
* ''South of the Sun'' (
The John Day Company
The John Day Company was a New York publishing firm that specialized in illustrated fiction and current affairs books and pamphlets from 1926 to 1968. It was founded by Richard J. Walsh in 1926 and named after John Day, the Elizabethan printer. ...
, 1934) (some edition, )
* ''Antarctic Ocean'' (McGraw-Hill, 1941)
* ''The Conquest of the North and South Poles: adventures of the Peary and Byrd expeditions'' (Random House, 1952), illustrated by
Lynd Ward
See also
*
List of Antarctic expeditions
This list of Antarctic expeditions is a chronological list of expeditions involving Antarctica. Although the existence of a southern continent had been hypothesized as early as the writings of Ptolemy in the 1st century AD, the South Pole was no ...
*
List of Arctic expeditions
References
External links
*
1889 births
1952 deaths
American newspaper reporters and correspondents
American radio reporters and correspondents
American male journalists
Pulitzer Prize for Reporting winners
The New York Times Pulitzer Prize winners
Place of death missing
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