Simeon Strunsky (July 23, 1879 – February 5, 1948) was a Russian-born Jewish American essayist and editorialist. He is best remembered as a prominent editorialist for 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 ...

'' for more than two decades.

Biography

Early years

Simeon Strunsky was born July 23, 1879 in

Vitsebsk Vitebsk or Viciebsk (russian: Витебск, ; be, Ві́цебск, ; , ''Vitebsk'', lt, Vitebskas, pl, Witebsk), is a city in Belarus. The capital of the Vitebsk Region, it has 366,299 inhabitants, making it the country's fourth-largest ci ...

Belorussia Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by ...

, then part of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

and today part of

Belarus Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by ...

. His parents were Isidor S. and Perl Wainstein. He graduated from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

, where he was a member of the

Philolexian Society The Philolexian Society of Columbia University is one of the oldest college literary and debate societies in the United States, and the oldest student group at Columbia. Founded in 1802, the Society aims to "improve its members in Oratory, Compo ...

, in 1900.

Career

Strunsky was a department editor of the New International Encyclopedia from 1900 to 1906, editorial writer on the ''New York Evening Post'' from 1906 to 1913, and subsequently was literary editor of that paper until 1920. Strunsky's columns also appeared in '' Atlantic Monthly'', '' Bookman'', '' Collier's'', and ''

Harper's Weekly ''Harper's Weekly, A Journal of Civilization'' was an American political magazine based in New York City. Published by Harper & Brothers from 1857 until 1916, it featured foreign and domestic news, fiction, essays on many subjects, and humor, ...

''. He wrote: * ''Through the Outlooking Glass with Theodore Roosevelt'' (1912) * ''The Patient Observer'' (1911) * ''Belshazzar Court, or Village Life in New York City'' (1914): "The simplicity and kindliness of human nature...in the complexities of the modern city". * ''Post-Impressions'' (1914) * ''Little Journeys Towards Paris. By W. Hohenzollern.'' (1918) Strunsky joined the

in 1924 and was on staff until his death in

Princeton, New Jersey Princeton is a municipality with a borough form of government in Mercer County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It was established on January 1, 2013, through the consolidation of the Borough of Princeton and Princeton Township, both of whi ...

after three months of hospitalization. He was married to Socialist activist and historian Manya Gordon; they had a son and a daughter. He had a son, Robert Strunsky, by his first wife, Rebecca Slobodkin (d. 1906). Strunsky's most notable contributions to the Times were his editorial-page essays titled "Topics of the Times." Although it now competes with such departments as "Editorial Observer" and is infrequently seen nowadays, "Topics of the Times" remains a popular feature of the paper.

Death and legacy

Simeon Strunsky died on February 5, 1948, aged 68.

Books

* " Sinbad And His Friends." Henry Holt And Company, 1921. * ''King Akhnaton.'' Longmans, Green & Co., 1928. * "No Mean City" E.P.Dutton and Company Inc., 1944

Footnotes

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Strunsky, Simeon 1879 births 1948 deaths Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United States American people of Russian-Jewish descent Columbia College (New York) alumni American essayists American satirists Journalists from New York City Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters