Stephen Bonsal (March 29, 1865 – June 8, 1951) was an American journalist, war correspondent, author, diplomat, and translator, who won the 1945

Pulitzer Prize for History The Pulitzer Prize for History, administered by Columbia University, is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes that are annually awarded for Letters, Drama, and Music. It has been presented since 1917 for a distinguished book about the history ...

Early life

Bonsal was born in

Baltimore, Maryland Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

, in 1865. He was educated at St. Paul's School in

Concord, New Hampshire Concord () is the capital city of the U.S. state of New Hampshire and the seat of Merrimack County. As of the 2020 census the population was 43,976, making it the third largest city in New Hampshire behind Manchester and Nashua. The village of ...

. He continued his studies in

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...

Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr r ...

, and

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

. He married Henrietta Fairfax Morris in March 1900.Leonard, John William et al. (1906). "Bonsal, Stephen" in Bonsal traveled extensively. He claimed that he had visited all the countries of Europe, Asia (with the exception of Persia), and South America.

Journalist

Bonsal was later a special correspondent of the ''

New York Herald The ''New York Herald'' was a large-distribution newspaper based in New York City that existed between 1835 and 1924. At that point it was acquired by its smaller rival the ''New-York Tribune'' to form the '' New York Herald Tribune''. His ...

'' (1885–1907), reporting the development of military conflicts including: *

Serbo-Bulgarian War The Serbo-Bulgarian War or the Serbian–Bulgarian War ( bg, Сръбско-българска война, ''Srăbsko-bălgarska voyna'', sr, Српско-бугарски рат, ''Srpsko-bugarski rat'') was a war between the Kingdom of Serb ...

, 1885 * Macedonian uprising, 1890 *

First Sino-Japanese War The First Sino-Japanese War (25 July 1894 – 17 April 1895) was a conflict between China and Japan primarily over influence in Korea. After more than six months of unbroken successes by Japanese land and naval forces and the loss of the po ...

, 1895 * Cuban insurrection, 1897 *

Spanish–American War , partof = the Philippine Revolution, the decolonization of the Americas, and the Cuban War of Independence , image = Collage infobox for Spanish-American War.jpg , image_size = 300px , caption = (clock ...

, 1898 * Chinese relief expedition, 1900 * Samar, Batangas, Mindanao, 1901 * Venezuela, Matas rebellion, blockage, 1903 *

Russo-Japanese War The Russo-Japanese War ( ja, 日露戦争, Nichiro sensō, Japanese-Russian War; russian: Ру́сско-япóнская войнá, Rússko-yapónskaya voyná) was fought between the Empire of Japan and the Russian Empire during 1904 and 1 ...

, 1904–1905 He was a foreign correspondent 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 d ...

'' in 1910–1911.

Diplomat

In 1891-1896, Bonsal served as secretary and chargé-d'affaire of the US diplomatic missions in Beijing, Seoul and Tokyo. He also served for a short time at the U.S. embassy in Madrid.

World War I

During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, Bonsal served in the

American Expeditionary Forces The American Expeditionary Forces (A. E. F.) was a formation of the United States Army on the Western Front of World War I. The A. E. F. was established on July 5, 1917, in France under the command of General John J. Pershing. It fought alon ...

with the rank of lieutenant colonel. Afterwards, he was

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

Woodrow Wilson Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856February 3, 1924) was an American politician and academic who served as the 28th president of the United States from 1913 to 1921. A member of the Democratic Party, Wilson served as the president of ...

's private translator during the 1919

Peace Conference A peace conference is a diplomatic meeting where representatives of certain states, armies, or other warring parties converge to end hostilities and sign a peace treaty. Significant international peace conferences in the past include the follo ...

in Paris.

Later life

''Unfinished Business'' (1944), a diary describing his experiences during the Paris Peace Treaty negotiations and all the Allied infighting and waxing lyrical about the plight of the wounded veterans and their families, won him the 1945

. "No one else has presented the plight of the plain people of Europe, in relation to the strained secrecy of the Conference, and few have written of their agony as does Colonel Bonsal in terms so hardheaded and so poignant" (

Time Magazine ''Time'' (stylized in all caps) is an American news magazine based in New York City. For nearly a century, it was published weekly, but starting in March 2020 it transitioned to every other week. It was first published in New York City on Mar ...

). His second son,

Philip Bonsal Philip Wilson Bonsal (May 22, 1903 – June 28, 1995) was an American career diplomat with the U.S. Department of State. A specialist in Latin American affairs, he served as United States Ambassador to Cuba from February 1959 until October 1960, ...

, was a career diplomat. Another son, Dudley Bonsal was a United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Selected works

*''Morocco as It Is'' (1894, W. H. Allen, London) *''The Real Condition of Cuba Today'' (1897, Harper, New York, NY) *''The Fight for Santiago'' (1899, Doubleday & McClure, New York, NY) *''The Golden Horseshoe'' (1906, Macmillan, New York, NY) *''The American Mediterranean'' (1912, Moffat and Yard, New York, NY) *''Edward Fitzgerald Beale: A Pioneer in the Path of Empire, 1823–1903'' (1912, Putnam, New York, NY) *''Heyday in a Vanished World'' (1937, Norton, New York, NY) (autobiography) *''Unfinished Business'' (1944, Doubleday, New York, NY) (1945

) *''When the French Were Here'' (1945, Doubleday, New York, NY) *''Suitors and Supplicants'' (1946, Prentice-Hall, New York, NY) *''The Cause of Liberty'' (1947, M. Joseph, London)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bonsal, Stephen 1865 births 1951 deaths Morris family (Morrisania and New Jersey) American diplomats American newspaper reporters and correspondents American political writers Writers from Baltimore United States Army personnel of World War I Pulitzer Prize for History winners War correspondents of the Russo-Japanese War War correspondents of the Balkan Wars American war correspondents 20th-century American translators American male essayists 20th-century American essayists 20th-century male writers 20th-century American male writers Historians from Maryland