1920

Articles from 1920

The Women Lincoln Loved (McCall’s Magazine, 1920)

This brief article, The Women Lincoln Loved, illustrates the strong influences that four remarkable women made in the important process of molding the character of young Abraham Lincoln.

All four of these women share in and are a part of Lincoln’s greatness. They were the most powerful influences in the molding and shaping of the man and his career. Their valuation of life and their aspirations were the secret and noble forces that guided his heart and mind… Out of them was born a great and tender spirit with ‘malice toward none, charity for all.’

George Creel and His Posters (How We Advertised America, 1920)

This essay was written by President Wilson’s Director of the Committee on Public Information, George Creel (1876-1953). It first appeared in Creel’s post-war memoir, How we advertised Americastyle=border:none
and gives a thorough rundown of the planning and the creativity that went into the mass-production of what is today a highly-prized collectible; the American World War I poster.


Twenty years later Creel wrote an article in which he explained his belief that America cannot be censored. Click here to read it.


Click here to read about how the mass-marketing techniques of the W.W. I era was used to promote KKK membership…

The Bad War Poets (Pathfinder Magazine, 1920)

On came the foe, rushing foe,

As down they fell by hundreds.

‘Twas bravery held our men;

They knew they were outnumbered.

‘Hundreds’ and ‘outnumbered’; Tennyson could hardly have done better than that. But even Tennyson would not have tried to rhyme ‘steam and ‘submarine’, as the author of the following succeded in doing:


Brave boys, put on steam;

Be ready at the guns, boys;

‘Tis a German submarine.


etc., etc.

A W.W. I Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Poem (The English Review, 1920)

There can be no doubt that as a term Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is clearly lacking the needed musical quality that would add to the pleasing rhythm of a poem, however the melancholy that is generated by the malady has launched a million poems throughout the course of the last century, which was to date, the bloodiest yet. Most often remembered for her anti-war verses, Lady Margaret Sackville (1881 – 1963) penned this diddly about that legion of crushed and broken men returned to their wives after World War One and how entirely unrecognizable they seemed:


You cannot speak to us nor we reply:


You learnt a different language where men die…

The Books Lincoln Read (Pathfinder Magazine, 1920)

Examine Lincoln’s prose and the fruitage of his reading will appear… The easy quickening of Lincoln’s mind came from books like Aesop’s Fables, Robinson Caruso and Pilgrim’s Progress… To a man who knew intimately so many creatures, both wild and domestic, the fables seemed natural.

Harsh Words for Eugene O’Neill (Theatre Arts Magazine, 1920)

In celebration of being awarded a Pulitzer Prize for having written the best American play of 1920 (Beyond the Horizon), theater critic Walter Prichard Eaton (1878 – 1957) saw fit to slip playwright Eugene O’Neill his back hand with a double-dose of venomous criticism:

…O’Neill’s work to date remains intellectually and spiritually thin.

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