Norman Hapgood

Norman Hapgood (March 28, 1868 – April 29, 1937) was an American writer, historian, journalist, editor, and critic, and an American Minister to Denmark.

He inspired T. G. Masaryk to write the first memorandum to president Wilson for independence of Czechoslovakia from London to Washington in January 1917.

During the latter part of World War I and into the early post-war period Hapgood served as president of the League of Free Nations Association, which advocated in favor of a League of Nations to adjudicate international disputes. In this capacity Hapgood helped advance the agenda of President Woodrow Wilson, who sought the establishment of such a body at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919.

In 1919 President Wilson appointed Hapgood Minister to Denmark, in which post he served for about six months. He helped expose Henry Ford's antisemitism in his article, "The Inside Story of Henry Ford's Jew-Mania", Part 4, Hearst's International (September 1922) Elizabeth Hapgood, who spoke fluent Russian, was the first English-language translator of writings about acting by Konstantin Stanislavsky (it was Norman Hapgood who had first suggested, in 1914, that the Moscow Art Theatre be invited to America.) .

Norman Hapgood died on April 29, 1937, following prostate surgery at NewYork–Presbyterian Hospital. He was buried in Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn, New York.

Works

(1897). Literary Statesmen and Others Essays on Men Seen from a Distance [reissued by Books for Libraries Press, 1972] (1899). Abraham Lincoln: The Man of the People. (1899). Daniel Webster. (1901). George Washington. (1901). The Stage in America, 1897–1900. (1905) Theodore Roosevelt (1911). Industry and Progress. (1919). The Jewish Commonwealth. (1920). The Advancing Hour. (1927). Professional Patriots (with Sidney Howard, and John Hearley). (1927). Up From the City Streets: A Biographical Study of Alfred E. Smith (with Henry Moskowitz). (1929). Why Janet Should Read Shakspere (sic). (1930). The Changing Years.