Biographical Sketch
Herbert Matthews worked as a journalist for the
New York Times for 45 years. Starting as a
secretary in the business office, Matthews rose to hold a position on the
Times' editorial board from 1949-1967. As a
correspondent, he is most noted for his reporting from Spain during the Spanish
Civil War and, much later, his editorials on Latin America. His 1957 interview
with Fidel Castro was a journalistic coup, and Matthews' articles about Castro
did much to shape American opinion about him.
Born in New York City on 10 January 1900, Matthews was raised and
educated in that city until the age of 18. Matthews enlisted in the army to
fight in the First World War, but arrived in France after hostilities had
ceased. Returning to the United States at the conclusion of his tour of duty,
Matthews entered Columbia University where he studied Romance languages and
medieval history. Matthews intended to pursue a career in book publishing upon
graduation in 1922. To that end, he responded to an advertisement for a
publisher's secretary, only to find that the publisher was the
New York Times.
Matthews worked in the business office of the
Times for three years, and at the same time
pursued a graduate degree in Romance languages at Columbia. In 1925, Matthews
was awarded a Bayard Cutting Taylor Fellowship for one year's study in Europe.
On leave from the
Times, Matthews spent eight months of his
fellowship year in Italy studying Dante at the University of Rome and the
remaining four months in Paris attending lectures at the Sorbonne.
Matthews returned to New York and the
Times in 1926, and was assigned to the news
department as secretary to the acting managing editor, Frederick T. Birchall.
From that post, Matthews went on to hold other positions in the news
department: reporter with the city desk, rewrite man and ultimately night copy
editor--first at the city desk and later at the cable desk. As a copy editor,
Matthews worked side by side with the same individuals who would later edit his
copy from Spain: Raymond McCaw, Clarence Howell, and Neil McNeil, among
others.
Matthews cut his teeth as a war correspondent from 1935-36 while
covering the Abyssinian (Ethiopian) war. The
Times sent Matthews to cover the Italian
side of the hostilities owing to his fluency in the language and his knowledge
of Italian culture. The fact that Matthews' reportage often conflicted with
that of the British and Ethiopian press led him to be labeled a Fascist.
By September of 1936, Matthews had requested a position as correspondent
from Spain where hostilities had already begun. Matthews' reporting from the
Loyalist side of the conflict put him in opposition to Franco's Nationalists,
who were militarily supported by the Italians. The irony of such a reversal was
not lost on Matthews, his editors, or his readers. Matthews was friend and
colleague to Ernest Hemingway during the war, and the latter author
occasionally sent dispatches to the
Times.
Matthews served as Rome correspondent from 1939 to 1945, with a brief
interlude in India from July 1942 to July 1943. At the conclusion of World War
II, Matthews headed the London bureau of the
Times until he joined the Editorial Board in
1949. Matthews penned virtually all of the
Times editorials on Latin America from 1949
until his retirement in 1967. Matthews died in Adelaide, Australia, on 30 July
1977.
Matthews' publications include
Eyewitness in Abyssinia (Secker, 1937),
Two Wars and More to Come (Carrick, 1938),
The Fruits of Fascism (Harcourt, 1943), and
Fidel Castro (Simon & Schuster, 1969).
For additional information on Matthews, the reader should consult Matthews' own
Education of a Correspondent (Harcourt,
1946), and
A World in Revolution: A Newspaperman's Memoir
(Scribner, 1972).
Scope and Contents
Cables, correspondence, memoranda, clippings, periodical articles,
financial records, and assorted printed materials document Matthew's career
with the
New York Times. These files principally come
from the
Times' Managing Editor's office and relate
primarily to Matthews' coverage of the Spanish Civil War, World War II, and
later career as head of the
Times' London bureau from 1929-1949. The
collection is arranged in two series, Series I. Correspondence, 1929-1949 (2
boxes), and Series II. Dispatches, clippings and assorted printed material,
1937-1945 (.5 box).
Series I includes correspondence, primarily cables printed on newsprint,
but also typescript and holograph letters. The materials are arranged
chronologically, with incoming and outgoing correspondence inter-filed; they
arrived arranged in roughly this manner from the collector, and it is believed
that they were maintained in this fashion by the
New York Times. The bulk of the collection,
this series primarily comprises communications between Herbert Matthews and
Edwin James, the
Times managing editor during this period. In
addition, there are items pertaining to Matthews that were sent to James from
other sources, such as inter-office communications and letters to the editor. Of particular interest are
correspondence surrounding Matthews' controversial coverage of the battles at
both Guadalajara (March 1937) and Teruel (December 1937), as well as two
dispatches sent by Ernest Hemingway. The collection also includes
correspondence from Arthur Hays Sulzberger, the
Times' publisher, and from Raymond McCaw,
the
Times' editor for Matthews' coverage of
Guadalajara and Teruel.
The second series includes dispatches from Matthews related to Teruel
(December 1937-January 1938), as well as clippings and assorted printed
materials generated by Matthews, or much later by the collector, Dudley
Althaus, presumably while preparing his Masters thesis.
Photocopies in this collection of originals held by the Columbia
University Department of Special Collections may not be reproduced without
permission.