William Anthony Caldwell (December 5, 1906 – April 11, 1986)"William A(nthony) Caldwell." ''Contemporary Authors Online''. Detroit: Gale, 2003. Gale Biography In Context. Web. Aug. 9, 2011. was an American journalist and columnist who spent 48 years at ''
The Record
The Record may refer to:
Music
* ''The Record'' (album), a 1982 studio album by the hardcore-punk band Fear
* The Records, an English power pop band
* '' Their Greatest Hits: The Record'', a 2001 greatest-hits album by the pop-music group Bee Ge ...
'' of
Bergen County, New Jersey
Bergen County is the most populous county in the U.S. state of New Jersey.Pulitzer Prize for Commentary
The Pulitzer Prize for Commentary is an award administered by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism "for distinguished commentary, using any available journalistic tool". It is one of the fourteen American Pulitzer Prizes that are ...
.
Caldwell was born in
Butler, Pennsylvania
Butler is a city and the county seat of Butler County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is located north of Pittsburgh and is part of the Greater Pittsburgh region. As of the 2020 census, the city population was 13,502.
History
Butler was na ...
and grew up in
Titusville, Pennsylvania
Titusville is a city in the far eastern corner of Crawford County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 5,601 at the 2010 census and an estimated 5,158 in 2019. Titusville is known as the birthplace of the American oil industry and for ...
. When he was eleven, his family moved to
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...
and he attended
Hasbrouck Heights High School
Hasbrouck Heights High School is a comprehensive four-year public high school serving students in ninth through twelfth grades from Hasbrouck Heights and Teterboro in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States, operating as the lone high school ...
. In his sophomore year, his father, a newspaper editor, died. His newspaper career began at age 15 when he became a part-time editor of the weekly ''Hasbrouck Heights Newsletter''. By the time he graduated from high school in 1924, he had worked for the
Associated Press
The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...
as a clerk and part-time for the ''
Hudson Dispatch
The ''Hudson Dispatch'' was a newspaper covering events in Hudson and Bergen counties in Northern New Jersey. It published continuously from 1874 until 1991, when it was purchased by Newhouse Newspapers. Its headquarters were located at 400 38th ...
'' of
Union City, New Jersey
Union City is a city in the northern part of Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. According to the 2020 United States Census the city had a total population of 68,589,
His long career at ''The Record'' began in 1924 as a
stringer
Stringer may refer to:
Structural elements
* Stringer (aircraft), or longeron, a strip of wood or metal to which the skin of an aircraft is fastened
* Stringer (slag), an inclusion, possibly leading to a defect, in cast metal
* Stringer (stairs), ...
covering local sports. He became a full-time sports writer in 1926 and then began covering local
Prohibition era
Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacturing, manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption ...
politics. In 1927, he and another reporter uncovered a scandal involving a new sewer system in
Lodi Township, New Jersey
Lodi Township was a township that existed in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States, from 1826 to 1935.
History
Lodi Township was formed by an act of the New Jersey Legislature, on March 1, 1826, from the southern portion of New Barbadoes To ...
, which resulted in a senator being expelled from the
New Jersey Senate
The New Jersey Senate was established as the upper house of the New Jersey Legislature by the Constitution of 1844, replacing the Legislative Council. There are 40 legislative districts, representing districts with an average population of 232, ...
. In October 1931 he covered the opening of the
George Washington Bridge
The George Washington Bridge is a double-decked suspension bridge spanning the Hudson River, connecting Fort Lee, New Jersey, with Manhattan in New York City. The bridge is named after George Washington, the first president of the United St ...
.
In 1931 he began writing his six-day-a-week editorial column called "Simeon Stylites", named after Saint
Simeon Stylites
Simeon Stylites or Symeon the Stylite syc, ܫܡܥܘܢ ܕܐܣܛܘܢܐ ', Koine Greek ', ar, سمعان العمودي ' (c. 390 – 2 September 459) was a Syrian Christian ascetic, who achieved notability by living 37 years on a smal ...
, a 5th-century
ascetic
Asceticism (; from the el, ἄσκησις, áskesis, exercise', 'training) is a lifestyle characterized by abstinence from sensual pleasures, often for the purpose of pursuing spiritual goals. Ascetics may withdraw from the world for their p ...
who lived on top of a pillar for 39 years. Each column was exactly 85 lines long and he wrote about 12,000 of them until he retired in 1972, the year after he won the Pulitzer Prize. In 1972,
Rutgers University Press
Rutgers University Press (RUP) is a nonprofit academic publishing house, operating in New Brunswick, New Jersey under the auspices of Rutgers University.
History
Rutgers University Press, a nonprofit academic publishing house operating in New B ...
published a compilation of 112 of Caldwell's "Simeon Stylites" as ''In the Record: the Simeon Stylites Columns of William A. Caldwell'' (1972).
He retired to
Martha's Vineyard
Martha's Vineyard, often simply called the Vineyard, is an island in the Northeastern United States, located south of Cape Cod in Dukes County, Massachusetts, known for being a popular, affluent summer colony. Martha's Vineyard includes the s ...
but continued to write a Sunday column for ''The Record'' and served as a columnist and editor for the ''
Vineyard Gazette
The ''Vineyard Gazette'' is one of two paid circulation newspapers on the island of Martha's Vineyard. Founded in 1846, it also circulates in many other states and countries to seasonal residents of the resort island. History
The ''Gazette'' was f ...