Matthew Josephson

Matthew Josephson (born 15 February 1899 in Brooklyn, New York; died 13 March 1978 in Santa Cruz, California) was an American journalist and author of works on nineteenth-century French literature and twentieth-century American economic history. He graduated from Columbia University and married Hannah Geffen in 1920. Initially Josephson wrote poetry, published in Galimathias (1923), and reported for various "little magazines." He became associate editor of Broom (1922-24) and contributing editor of Transition (1928-29). Josephson was also a regular contributor to The New Republic, The Nation, The New Yorker, and the Saturday Evening Post.

Josephson's first biographies were Zola and His Time (1928) and Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1932). Influenced by Charles A. Beard and the Depression, and with only one major exception, Stendhal: or the Pursuit of Happiness (1946), Josephson changed his focus of interest from literature to economic history when he published The Robber Barons in 1934. This was followed by more full-length works in which Josephson served as a spokesman for intellectuals of his generation who were dissatisfied with the social and political status quo.

Josephson wrote two memoirs, Life Among the Surrealists (1962) and Infidel in the Temple (1967).

Hannah Josephson, librarian of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and an author in her own right, worked closely with her husband on various projects throughout their careers. In 1945 she and Malcolm Cowley edited Aragon, Poet of the Resistance. Matthew and Hannah Josephson collaborated on Al Smith: Hero of the Cities in 1969. They had two sons, Eric and Carl. Hannah died in 1976 and Matthew died March 15, 1978.

For more information see: David E. Shi's biography, Matthew Josephson: Bourgeois Bohemian (1981).

Josephson's collected papers are in the Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University.

Bibliography

Galimathias (1923)
Zola and His Time (1928, biography)
The Robber Barons, The Great American Capitalists, 1861-1901 (1934, nonfiction)
Victor Hugo (1942, biography)
Stendhal (1946, biography)
Sidney Hillman (1952, biography)
Edison (1959, biography)
Life Among the Surrealists (1962, memoir)
Infidel in the Temple (1967, memoir)
The Money Lords, The Great Finance Capitalists, 1925-1950 (1972, nonfiction)