Oswald Garrison Villard

Oswald Garrison Villard 1872-1949, American editor and author, b. Wiesbaden, Germany, grad. Harvard (B.A., 1893; M.A., 1896). The son of Henry Villard and the grandson, on his mother's side, of William Lloyd Garrison, he was a lifelong liberal and a pacifist. In 1897 he became an editorial writer on the New York Evening Post and after inheriting the paper from his father was its editor until he sold it in 1918. He retained its weekly edition, the Nation, and as its editor made it a leading liberal journal; he sold it in 1932, remaining as publisher and contributor until 1935, but finally severed all connections when the Nation became nonpacifist in 1940. His writings include John Brown: A Biography Fifty Years After (1910), Newspapers and Newspaper Men (1923), and an autobiography, The Fighting Years (1939).

Villard, Oswald Garrison (1872–1949), son of Henry Villard, born in Germany, was educated at Harvard and began his journalistic career in Philadelphia (1896). He was an editorial writer for the New York Evening Post (1897–1918), of which he was owner and president after his father's death. Villard purchased The Nation (1908), which, during his editorship until 1933, was established as a leading journal of liberal opinion. His books include John Brown, 1800–1859—A Biography Fifty Years After (1910), Some Newspapers and Newspaper Men (1923), an autobiography entitled Fighting Years (1939), and The Disappearing Daily (1944), the development of the U.S. press brought up to date from his 1923 volume.

Villard, Oswald and Fanny Garrison, pacifists, antiracists, and feminists.This mother and son team carried on the political tradition of Fanny Garrison Villard's father, reformer William Lloyd Garrison.

Fanny Garrison (1844–1928) married the German‐born business entrepreneur and newspaperman Henry Villard in 1866. Her adult political work had begun with efforts to help newly freed slaves during Reconstruction. She continued her charity work through the Diet Kitchen Association (dedicated to improving nutrition for the poor), the New York Infirmary for Women and Children, and the Woman's Exchange. In 1898, both she and her youngest son, Oswald (1872–1949), spoke against the imperialist position taken by the United States in the Spanish‐American War. In 1914, both became active in the anti–World War I movement. Fanny acted through the Woman's Peace Party and the suffrage movement; Oswald, for a time, through the Fellowship of Reconciliation. More notably, Oswald, like his grandfather, voiced his antiwar sentiment as a journalist and publisher, first via the New York Evening Post and then the Nation (founded in part by his uncle, Wendell).

Fanny's voice continued from 1919 to her death in 1928 through the Women's Peace Society, an “absolutely” pacifist organization. Oswald also stood for pacifism to his death in 1949. Both were also among the founders and activists of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
[See also Peace and Antiwar Movements.]

Bibliography

D. Joy Humes , Oswald Garrison Villard: Liberal of the 1920's, 1960.
Michael Wreszin , Oswald Garrison Villard: Pacifist at War, 1965. (There is currently no biographical study of Fanny Garrison Villard.)

Harriet Hyman Alonso