Harry Lewis Golden (May 6, 1902 – October 2, 1981) was an American writer and newspaper publisher.

Early life

Golden was born Herschel Goldhirsch (or Goldenhurst) in the

shtetl A shtetl or shtetel (; yi, שטעטל, translit=shtetl (singular); שטעטלעך, romanized: ''shtetlekh'' (plural)) is a Yiddish term for the small towns with predominantly Ashkenazi Jewish populations which existed in Eastern Europe before ...

Mikulintsy,

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...

. His mother Nuchama (nee Klein) was Romanian and his father Leib was Austrian. In 1904 Leib Goldhirsch, a former Hebrew teacher, emigrated to

Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749,6 ...

, only to move the family to New York City the next year and "became an editor of the

Jewish Daily Forward ''The Forward'' ( yi, פֿאָרווערטס, Forverts), formerly known as ''The Jewish Daily Forward'', is an American news media organization for a Jewish American audience. Founded in 1897 as a Yiddish-language daily socialist newspaper, ' ...

." For a time, Harry worked as a newspaper seller on the Lower East Side and could remember shouting out headlines about the

Leo Frank Leo Max Frank (April 17, 1884August 17, 1915) was an American factory superintendent who was convicted in 1913 of the murder of a 13-year-old employee, Mary Phagan, in Atlanta, Georgia. His trial, conviction, and appeals attracted national at ...

case about which he later wrote a book. As a teenager, he became interested in

Georgism Georgism, also called in modern times Geoism, and known historically as the single tax movement, is an economic ideology holding that, although people should own the value they produce themselves, the economic rent derived from land—includi ...

, and later spoke on its behalf. He became a stockbroker but lost his job in the 1929

stock market crash A stock market crash is a sudden dramatic decline of stock prices across a major cross-section of a stock market, resulting in a significant loss of paper wealth. Crashes are driven by panic selling and underlying economic factors. They often foll ...

. Convicted of mail fraud because he had held onto funds entrusted and thereby caused a loss to investors, Golden served four years in a Federal prison at

Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,7 ...

and, decades later President Richard M. Nixon gave Golden a full presidential pardon for the mail fraud conviction.

Desegregation

In 1941, he moved to

Charlotte Charlotte ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 census, making Charlotte the 16th-most populo ...

, where, as a reporter for the ''Charlotte Labor Journal'' and ''

The Charlotte Observer ''The Charlotte Observer'' is an American English-language newspaper serving Charlotte, North Carolina, and its metro area. The Observer was founded in 1886. As of 2020, it has the second-largest circulation of any newspaper in the Carolinas. I ...

'', he wrote about and spoke out against

racial segregation Racial segregation is the systematic separation of people into race (human classification), racial or other Ethnicity, ethnic groups in daily life. Racial segregation can amount to the international crime of apartheid and a crimes against hum ...

and the

Jim Crow laws The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws enforcing racial segregation in the Southern United States. Other areas of the United States were affected by formal and informal policies of segregation as well, but many states outside the Sout ...

of the time. From 1942 to 1968, Golden published ''The Carolina Israelite'' as a forum, not just for his political views but also observations and reminiscences of his boyhood in New York's Lower East Side. He traveled widely: in 1960 to speak to Jews in

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

and again to cover the 1961 trial of Adolf Eichmann in

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

for ''

Life Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as Cell signaling, signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for Cell growth, growth, reaction to Stimu ...

''. He is referenced in the lyrics to Phil Ochs' song, "

Love Me, I'm a Liberal "Love Me, I'm a Liberal" is a satirical song by Phil Ochs, an American singer-songwriter. Originally released on his 1966 live album, '' Phil Ochs in Concert'', "Love Me, I'm a Liberal" was soon one of Ochs's most popular concert staples. Introd ...

": "You know, I've memorized

Lerner Lerner is a German and Jewish family name. Its literal meaning can be either "student" or "scholar". It may refer to: Organizations * Lerner Enterprises, a real estate company * Lerner Newspapers * Lerner Publishing Group, a publisher of child ...

and Golden." His satirical "The Vertical Negro Plan," involved removing the chairs from any to-be-integrated building, since Southern whites did not mind standing with blacks such as at bank tellers' windows, only sitting with them. Golden reportedly convinced a southern department store manager to put an "Out of Order" sign by the water fountain marked ''White''; within three weeks all were drinking from the ''Colored''-designated drinking fountain.

Calvin Trillin Calvin Marshall Trillin (born 5 December 1935) is an American journalist, humorist, food writer, poet, memoirist and novelist. He is a winner of the Thurber Prize for American Humor (2012) and an elected member of the American Academy of Arts ...

devised the Harry Golden Rule, which states that "in present-day America it's very difficult, when commenting on events of the day, to invent something so bizarre that it might not actually come to pass while your piece is still on the presses."Winokur, Jon, ed. ''The Portable Curmudgeon''. NAL Books, 1987, p. 79. Golden's books include three collections of essays from the ''Israelite'' and a biography of his friend, poet

Carl Sandburg Carl August Sandburg (January 6, 1878 – July 22, 1967) was an American poet, biographer, journalist, and editor. He won three Pulitzer Prizes: two for his poetry and one for his biography of Abraham Lincoln. During his lifetime, Sandburg ...

. One of those collections, ''Only in America'', was the basis for a play by

Jerome Lawrence Jerome Lawrence (born Jerome Lawrence Schwartz; July 14, 1915 – February 29, 2004) was an American playwright and author. After graduating from the Ohio State University in 1937 and the University of California, Los Angeles in 1939, Lawrence pa ...

and Robert E. Lee. He also maintained a correspondence with

Billy Graham William Franklin Graham Jr. (November 7, 1918 – February 21, 2018) was an American evangelist and an ordained Southern Baptist minister who became well known internationally in the late 1940s. He was a prominent evangelical Christi ...

Personal

His Irish Catholic wife, the former Genevieve Gallagher, had predeceased him.

Critical attention

Theodore Solotaroff addressed the "Harry Golden phenomenon" in "Harry Golden & the American Audience" in ''

Commentary Commentary or commentaries may refer to: Publications * ''Commentary'' (magazine), a U.S. public affairs journal, founded in 1945 and formerly published by the American Jewish Committee * Caesar's Commentaries (disambiguation), a number of works ...

'' magazine, March 1961.

Irving Howe Irving Howe (; June 11, 1920 – May 5, 1993) was an American literary and social critic and a prominent figure of the Democratic Socialists of America. Early years Howe was born as Irving Horenstein in The Bronx, New York. He was the son of ...

compared

Philip Roth Philip Milton Roth (March 19, 1933 – May 22, 2018) was an American novelist and short story writer. Roth's fiction—often set in his birthplace of Newark, New Jersey—is known for its intensely autobiographical character, for philosophicall ...

's early novel ''

Portnoy's Complaint ''Portnoy's Complaint'' is a 1969 American novel by Philip Roth. Its success turned Roth into a major celebrity, sparking a storm of controversy over its explicit and candid treatment of sexuality, including detailed depictions of masturbation u ...

'' to ''For 2¢ Plain'' in a critical review of Roth's novel in ''Commentary'' when ''Complaint'' was published in 1969. Remnick, David
"Into the clear" (profile of Roth)
''The New Yorker'', May 8, 2000, p. 85. Retrieved 2013-03-21.

Bibliography

* 1944-1968: ''The Carolina Israelite.'' (Weekly newspaper published in Charlotte, NC) * 1950: (With Martin Rywell) ''Jews in American History: Their Contributions to the United States of America.'' (Henry, Martin Lewis Co.) * 1955: ''Jewish Roots in the Carolinas: A Pattern of American Philo-Semitism.'' * 1958: ''Only in America.'' (World Publishing Co.) Republished 1972 by World Publishing Co. * 1958: ''For 2¢ Plain.'' (World Publishing Co.) Republished 1976 by Amereon Ltd., . * 1960: ''Enjoy, Enjoy!'' (World Publishing Co.) * 1961: ''Carl Sandburg.'' (World Publishing Co.) Republished 1988 by Univ. of Illinois Press, . * 1962: (Martin Levin, Ed.) ''Five Boyhoods.'' * 1962: ''You're Entitle.'' (World Publishing Co.) * 1962: ''The Harry Golden Omnibus.'' (Cassell & Co.) * 1962: '' O. Henry Stories.'' (Platt & Munk) . * 1963: ''Forgotten Pioneer.'' (World Publishing Co.) * 1964: ''Mr. Kennedy and the Negroes.'' (World Publishing Co.) * 1964: ''So What Else is New?'' (G.P. Putnam's) * 1965: ''A Little Girl is Dead'' (World Publishing Co., about the

case) * 1965: ''Amerikah Sheli (My America).'' Hebrew. Selections from ''Only in America'' and ''For 2¢ Plain.'' (Jerusalem: Steimatzky) * 1966: ''Ess, Ess, Mein Kindt (Eat, Eat, My Child).'' (G.P. Putnam's) * 1966: ''The Lynching of Leo Frank'' (Cassell & Co., British version of ''A Little Girl is Dead'') * 1967: ''The Best of Harry Golden.'' (World Publishing Co.)* * 1968: ''The Humor Gazette - Funniest Stories from Country Papers.'' (Hallmark Editions) * 1969: ''The Right Time: An Autobiography.'' (G.P. Putnam's) * 1970: ''So Long As You're Healthy.'' (G.P. Putnam's) * 1971: ''The Israelis: Portrait of a People.'' (G.P. Putnam's) * 1972: ''The Golden Book of Jewish Humor.'' (G.P. Putnam's) * 1972: ''The Greatest Jewish City in the World.'' (Doubleday & Co.) * 1973: (With Richard Goldhurst) ''Travels Through Jewish America.'' (Doubleday & Co.) * 1974: ''Our Southern Landsmen.'' (G.P. Putnam's) * 1975: ''Long Live Columbus (Leben Zul Columbus).'' (G.P. Putnam's) * 1981: (Unfinished) ''America, I Love You.''

Awards

*Golden is honored with a memorial on the central campus of

Central Piedmont Community College Central Piedmont Community College (Central Piedmont) is a public community college in Charlotte, North Carolina. With an enrollment of more than 40,000 students annually, Central Piedmont is the second largest community college in the North Caro ...

in Charlotte.

References

See also, "Carolina Israelite: How Harry Golden Made Us Care About Jews, the South, and Civil Rights" by Kimberly Marlowe Hartnett, The University of North Carolina Press, 2015.

External links

The Harry Golden Papers-Pt.1
J. Murrey Atkins Library, UNC Charlotte
The Harry Golden Papers-Pt.2
J. Murrey Atkins Library, UNC Charlotte
Biography of Harry Golden
{{DEFAULTSORT:Golden, Harry 1902 births 1981 deaths People from Ternopil Oblast People from the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria Jews from Galicia (Eastern Europe) Ukrainian Jews Austro-Hungarian emigrants to the United States American people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent Jewish American writers American male journalists 20th-century American journalists Writers from Charlotte, North Carolina Stockbrokers American male essayists 20th-century American essayists 20th-century American male writers American satirists Jewish anti-racism activists Activists for African-American civil rights Jewish American journalists American people convicted of mail and wire fraud Recipients of American presidential pardons 20th-century American Jews Georgists