John Jay Chapman

John Jay Chapman
Born John Jay Chapman
(1862-03-02)March 2, 1862
New York City, New York
Died November 4, 1933(1933-11-04) (aged 71)
Poughkeepsie, New York
Occupation Literary Critic, Essayist, Lecturer, Journalist, Writer
Nationality American
Education Harvard University
Notable works Causes and Consequences, Practical Agitation
Spouse Minna Timmins
Elizabeth Astor Winthrop Chanler
Children Victor Emmanuel Chapman
John Jay Chapman, Jr.
Conrad Chapman
Relatives Henry Grafton Chapman
Eleanor Jay
Signature

John Jay Chapman (March 2, 1862 – November 4, 1933) was an American author.

Biography

He was born in New York City.[1] His father, Henry Grafton Chapman, was a broker who eventually became president of the New York Stock Exchange. His grandmother, Maria Weston Chapman, was one of the leading campaigners against slavery and worked with William Lloyd Garrison on The Liberator.[2] He was educated at St. Paul's School, Concord and Harvard, and after graduating in 1884, Chapman traveled around Europe before returning to study at the Harvard Law School. He was known for injuring himself so badly, in remorse after a student brawl, that medical staff amputated his left hand.[3] He was admitted to the bar in 1888, and practiced law until 1898. Meanwhile, he had attracted attention as an essayist of unusual merit. His work is marked by originality and felicity of expression, and the opinion of many critics has placed him in the front rank of the American essayists of his day.[4][5]

In 1912, on the one year anniversary of the lynching of Zachariah Walker in Coatesville, Pennsylvania, Chapman gave a speech in which he called the lynching "one of the most dreadful crimes in history" and said "our whole people are...involved in the guilt." It was published as A Nation's Responsibility.

Chapman's second wife Elizabeth Astor Winthrop Chanler (1866-1937) by John Singer Sargent.

He married Minna Timmins in 1889 and they had three children, one the military aviator Victor Chapman. Timmins died giving birth to their third child, Conrad. Chapman later married Elizabeth Astor Winthrop Chanler, second daughter of John Winthrop Chanler and Margaret Astor Ward of the Astor family, and sister of soldier and explorer William A. Chanler. Elizabeth and John Jay had one child, a son named Chanler Armstrong, in 1901.

Chapman became involved in politics[6] and joined the City Reform Club and the Citizens' Union. He was opposed to the Tammany Hall political and business grouping, which at that time dominated New York City.[7] He lectured on the need for reform and edited the journal The Political Nursery (1897-1901).[8]

Bibliography

Non-Fiction

Fiction

Articles

Translations

Collected works

Notes

  1. ↑ "Retrospections." In John Jay Chapman and his Letters, De Wolfe Howe (ed.), Houghton Mifflin Company, 1937.
  2. ↑ "The relationship between Chapman's writings and his family history received more attention at midcentury. Chapman's grandmother was an ardent abolitionist and colleague of William Lloyd Garrison. Her grandson inherited her crusading spirit, but substituted the influence of money in politics for slavery." — Russello, Gerald J. (1999). "A Hero for the Truth," The New Criterion, Vol. 17, p. 74.
  3. ↑ http://harvardmagazine.com/2001/01/john-jay-chapman.html
  4. ↑ Hovey, Richard B. (1959). John Jay Chapman - An American Mind, Columbia University Press.
  5. ↑ Wilson, Edmund (1976). "John Jay Chapman: The Mute and the Open Strings." In The Triple Thinkers, Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
  6. ↑ Crawford, Allan Pell (2013). "The Anti-Alinsky," The American Conservative, August 7.
  7. ↑ https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Jay-Chapman
  8. ↑ Stocking, David (1960). "John Jay Chapman and Political Reform," American Quarterly, Vol. 2, No.1, pp. 62-70.

Further reading

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