Herbert J. Seligmann

Herbert Jacob Seligmann (1891 - March 3, 1984) was an American author and journalist[1] known for his writings on civil rights issues, African Americans, bigotry, the U.S. occupation of Haiti, and the rise of Nazism in Europe. He also wrote about well known artists such as Georgia O'Keeffe and John Marin,[2] and about writers like D. H. Lawrence, Albert R. Brand, and J. Hendrix McLane. His review of Lady Chatterley's Lover appeared in The New York Sun but was removed from later editions because of the obscenity ban. His book on Lawrence was the first by an American.[3] Seligmann was the first publicity director for the NAACP between 1919 and 1932,[4] and was interviewed about the group's history on WNYC's radio program for African American subject matter.[5] He also worked for the Jewish Telegraph Agency.[2]

Early life

He graduated from Harvard University.[1] In 1918 he traveled around the Southern United States and wrote about African Americans willing and able to defend themselves.[6] His first marriage was to Lilias H. MacLane, a dancer, and his second to Lise née Rueff Seligmann.[2][1][7]

Professional work

He worked for various periodicals including The New Republic, The New York Evening Post, The New York Globe, Down East and The New York Tribune. He also worked for a couple of Jewish organizations, including the Joint Distribution Committee. He took photographs of Jews in Europe in the period after World War I.[8] In 1920 he wrote about the "menace of race hatred" in Europe.[9]

Civil rights work

Seligmann's 1920 book, The Negro Faces America, described an American psychosis when it came to skin color with economic and media difficulties exacerbating the problem.[10] Basing his conclusions on first-hand looks at areas of where riots occurred,[11] Seligmann makes the case that race colors all aspects of American life that disadvantages and disenfranchises African Americans and lays the conditions for race riots.[10] Excerpts from the book were published in The Crisis.[12] In his review in The Journal of Negro History, D. A. Lane (Jr) writes that the very fact that such a book was written gives hope for a new dawn in race relations in the United States.[10] A review in The New Republic, expressed uneasiness with the "aggressive insistence upon race inequality and the right of intermarriage", a statement which, in a 2015 opinion in the same magazine, was called out as being "filtered through the magazine's privileged white writers" and of "justifying racism".[13] The phrase "New Negro" emerged during the Harlem Renaissance. H. L. Mencken faulted the book for a lack of criticism of blacks and for idealizing them as a group instead of addressing issues Southern whites actually experienced in their encounters.[14][15] During the American occupation of Haiti in 1920, Seligmann reported on atrocities by occupying American forces.[16][17]

In 1929 he wrote about the first 20 years of NAACP history.[16] He nominated Eddie Tolan for the NAACP's Spingarn Medal in 1932.[18]

In 1939, Seligmann published an expose on the Nazi Party and their views on race. Franz Boas wrote the introduction to his book on Nazi race theories.[19]

Photography

Alfred Stieglitz, a friend of Seligmann's, photographed him producing a palladium print. Seligmann transcribed conversations and comments by Stieglitz, publishing them as Alfred Stieglitz Talking in 1966.[20]

The Cleveland Museum of Art has a gelatin silver print photograph Seligmann photographed of the Brooklyn Bridge.[21]

A collection of his photographs of Romanian Jews taken from 1936 to 1938 was published in 2016.[22] Eight of his sketches are part of the John Marin collection at the Smithsonian.[23]

George Santayana wrote to him in 1911 about his thesis.[24]

Seligman wrote for Down East in the 1950s including an entry on Marsden Hartley.[25]

Bibliography
  • The Negro Faces America, Harper & Brothers (1920)[10][26]
  • "The Menace of Race Hatred", The Atlantic (March, 1920)[27]
  • D.H. Lawrence: An American Interpretation (1924)[28]
  • Sun and Tides (1932), a book of poems
  • Race Against Man (1939)[29]
  • Man and Bird Together, a memoir of Albert R. Brand
  • Voyages
  • A South Carolina Independent of the 1880's: J. Hendrix McLane (1965)[30]
  • Alfred Stieglitz Talking (1966).

References
  1. "Herbert J. Seligmann". The New York Times. March 7, 1984 – via NYTimes.com.
  2. Herbert J. Seligmann Papers, 1908-1984 The New York Public Library, Humanities and Social Sciences Library, Manuscripts and Archives Division
  3. Lawrence, D. H. (August 8, 2002). The Letters of D. H. Lawrence. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521006989 – via Google Books.
  4. Aptheker, Herbert (1989). The Literary Legacy of W.E.B. Du Bois. ISBN 9780527036935.
  5. "One of the Country's Earliest African-American Radio Programs on WNYC 1929-1930 | WNYC | New York Public Radio, Podcasts, Live Streaming Radio, News". WNYC.
  6. Krugler, David F. (December 8, 2014). 1919, The Year of Racial Violence: How African Americans Fought Back. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781316195000 – via Google Books.
  7. "MRS. H. J. Seligmann". The New York Times. 24 August 1964.
  8. "archives.nypl.org -- Herbert J. Seligmann papers". archives.nypl.org.
  9. J.Seligmann, Herbert (March 1, 1920). "The menace of race hatred". Harper's Magazine.
  10. Lane, D. A. (April 1, 1921). "Herbert J. Seligmann, The Negro Faces America". The Journal of Negro History. 6 (2): 256–258. doi:10.2307/2713738. JSTOR 2713738.
  11. https://commons.lib.jmu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1722&context=va-teacher
  12. "Modernist Journals | Crisis. A Record of the Darker Races. Vol. 19, No. 6". modjourn.org.
  13. Heer, Jeet (29 January 2015). "The New Republic's Legacy on Race: A historical reflection". The New Republic.
  14. Mencken, H. L. (December 1, 2000). H.L. Mencken's Smart Set Criticism. Regnery Publishing. ISBN 9780895262318 – via Google Books.
  15. Scruggs, Charles (December 1, 2019). The Sage in Harlem: H. L. Mencken and the Black Writers of the 1920s. JHU Press. ISBN 9781421431390 – via Google Books.
  16. SELIGMANN, HERBERT J. "American Atrocities in Haiti? | Maclean's | AUGUST 15, 1920". Maclean's | The Complete Archive.
  17. "The Conquest of Haiti by Herbert J. Seligman, July 10, 1920 from Selections from The Nation magazine 1865-1990". www.thirdworldtraveler.com.
  18. Memorandum from Herbert J. Seligmann to N.A.A.C.P. Spingarn Medal Award Committee, November 18, 1932 University of Massachusetts at Amherst
  19. "Expose of Nazi Race Theories Published in Book by Seligmann, Former J.D.C. Aide". March 26, 1939.
  20. "Herbert J. Seligmann". www.nga.gov.
  21. "Brooklyn Bridge". Cleveland Museum of Art. October 30, 2018.
  22. Mitsel, Mikhail (December 29, 2016). "Jewish Life in Eastern Europe Before the Holocaust through the Eyes of the JDC Photographer Herbert J. Seligmann". Revista de Istorie a Evreilor din Romania. 1 (16–17): 386–394 – via www.ceeol.com.
  23. "John Marin printed material and drawings, 1929-1955". www.aaa.si.edu.
  24. Santayana, George (December 29, 2001). The Letters of George Santayana. MIT Press. ISBN 9780262194662 – via Google Books.
  25. "Annual Report of the American Historical Association". 1959.
  26. Lane, D. A. (April 1, 1921). "Herbert J. Seligmann, The Negro Faces America". The Journal of Negro History. 6 (2): 256–258. doi:10.2307/2713738. JSTOR 2713738 – via journals.uchicago.edu (Atypon).
  27. J.Seligmann, Herbert. "Herbert J. (Herbert Jacob) Seligmann | Harper's Magazine". harpers.org.
  28. "Seligmann, Herbert J. (Herbert Jacob), 1891- | The Online Books Page". onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu.
  29. Seligmann, Herbert Jacob (June 18, 1939). "Race against man". New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons – via Trove.
  30. Seligmann, Herbert Jacob (June 18, 1965). "A South Carolina Independent of the 1880's: J. Hendrix McLane" – via Google Books.
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