Heywood Campbell Broun

Heywood Campbell Broun , 1888-1939, American newspaper columnist and critic, b. Brooklyn, N.Y. He worked on the New York Tribune (1912-21) and the New York World (1921-28), where his syndicated column, "It Seems to Me," began. In 1928 he transferred it to the Scripps-Howard newspapers, including the New York World-Telegram, where it appeared until he moved it to the New York Post just before his death. In his column Broun constantly championed the underdog, criticized social injustice, and backed emerging labor unions. A founder of the American Newspaper Guild, he was its first president from 1933 until his death. In 1930, Broun ran unsuccessfully for congress as a Socialist. His books include The A. E. F. (1918); The Boy Grew Older (1922) and Gandle Follows His Nose (1926), novels; and a biography of Anthony Comstock (with Margaret Leech, 1927). It Seems to Me (1935) and Collected Edition (ed. by H. H. Broun, 1941) give the best of his column.

Broun, Heywood [Campbell] (1888–1939), New York columnist and critic, was a consistent opponent of social injustice through his articles in the New York Tribune and World, The Nation, and The New Republic. His books include The A.E.F. (1918), describing his experiences as a correspondent with the American forces in France; Pieces of Hate, and Other Enthusiasms (1922) and Sitting on the World (1924), selected from his newspaper columns; and Anthony Comstock (1927), a biography written with Margaret Leech. A Collected Edition of the best of Broun's work was issued in 1941.

Broun, Heywood [Campbell] (1888–1939), critic. Born in Brooklyn and educated at Harvard, he worked as a reporter for several newspapers before becoming drama critic for the New York World (1921–28). He was also drama editor for Vanity Fair as well as a popular lecturer on theatre. Broun appeared in Round the Town (1924) and produced and appeared in Shoot the Works (1931), a revue designed to give some employment to out‐of‐work performers and writers. His criticism was marked by a refreshing directness and wit. Reviewing Barrymore's Hamlet he began, “John Barrymore is far and away the finest Hamlet we have ever seen. He excels all others we have known in grace, fire, wit, and clarity. This final quality should be stressed. Back in high school we remember being asked whether Hamlet was really mad. If we had seen Barrymore it would have been possible for us to tell the teacher, ‘Don't be silly.’”