David Lawrence (publisher)

David Lawrence (December 25, 1888 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – February 11, 1973 in Sarasota, Florida) was a conservative newspaperman.

Early career

He attended Princeton University (Class of 1910). While there, he was a student of Woodrow Wilson. In 1916, he became the Washington correspondent of the New York Evening Post.

After his re-election as U.S. President, President Woodrow Wilson fired Irish-American White House secretary (chief of staff) Joseph Patrick Tumulty in 1916 to placate anti-Catholic sentiment, particularly from his wife and his advisor, Colonel Edward M. House. Then, Lawrence successfully interceded on Tumulty's behalf to remain.

Political views

During the presidency of Franklin Roosevelt, David Lawrence criticised "The New Deal" in his 1934 book Beyond the New Deal. His observation of economic activity led him to distinguish between free enterprise and corporatism, and he wrote, "Theoretically, corporations are creations of the state."

He sharply criticised the use of the atomic bomb against Japan, comparing it to the gas chambers of Nazi concentration camps, and he maintained that the United States had become guilty and needed to apologize to the world.

Publisher

In 1926, Lawrence founded United States Daily, a weekly newspaper devoted to covering government. Seven years later, he shut it down to start United States News for an audience of community leaders, businessmen, and politicians. In 1948, United States News merged with Lawrence's two-year-old weekly magazine, World Report, to form the news magazine U.S. News & World Report. At the time of his death, the magazine had a circulation of two million.

On April 22, 1970, David Lawrence was presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Richard Nixon.

He died of an apparent heart attack at his Sarasota, Florida, home.

Personal life

Lawrence married Ellanor (Campbell Hayes) Lawrence on July 17, 1918, and they had three children, David Jr., Mark, Nancy. Etienne was a daughter from a previous marriage. Ellanor died June 13, 1969. To honor her memory, in 1971 David Lawrence gave Fairfax County, Virginia, the land that became Ellanor Lawrence Park in Chantilly.

External links

• David Lawrence Papers at the Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library, Princeton University
• David Lawrence: A Profile
• Short biography
• Magazine timeline
• The American Presidency Project - Remarks on Presenting the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Eight Journalists - April 22, 1970