Parke Godwin

Parke Godwin (1816–1904) was an American journalist associated with New York.

[edit] Biography
Parke Godwin was born on February 28, 1816, in Paterson, New Jersey.[1] He became a lawyer and moved to New York City in 1837.[2] He became interested in journalism and by the end of the 1830s was writing for the Evening Post and The United States Magazine and Democratic Review under John L. O'Sullivan.[2]

He became a supporter of Fourierism and wrote a book which became an authority on the movement.[3] However, in 1845, he was critical of the work of Albert Brisbane and his view of Associationism, though he still contributed to the new incarnation of Brisbane's journal The Phalanx printed at Brook Farm in Massachusetts.[4] Godwin saw these sorts of communities as embracing the democratic ideals and equal rights.[5] Further, he believed there was a connection between democracy and religion; as he said "Christianity and Democracy are one."[6] In May 1846, Godwin was elected Foreign Corresponding Secretary of the New England Fourier Society.[7]

In 1850, Godwin and his family allowed Catharine Forrest to stay with them during the public scandal that erupted surrounding her divorce from actor Edwin Forrest.[8] Also in the 1850s, Godwin became an ardent abolitionist and felt that slavery diluted the American concept. In 1855, he asked: "What is America, and who are Americans? ...The real American gives his mind and heart to the grand constituent ideas of the republic... no matter whether his corporeal chemistry was first ignited in Kamschatka [sic] or the moon".[9] Godwin was against slavery, but ridiculed the New England reform movements for not attempting to impact the rest of the country. He said, "If the Deity should consult New England about making a new world, they would advise that it should be made the size of Massachusetts, have no city but Boston and insist in making an occasional donation to a charitable institution and uttering shallow anti-slavery sentiments."[10]

Godwin became an associate editor of Putnam's Magazine with George William Curtis under managing editor Charles Frederick Briggs; the three also collaborated on a gift book called The Homes of American Authors (1852).[11] Godwin expressed his antislavery sentiments in Putnam's and criticized then-president Franklin Pierce; backlash from Democrats hurt the circulation of the magazine, especially after November 1854, when Godwin published his essay "American Despotisms".[12] In 1857, he and fellow editor Curtis supported Frederick Law Olmsted as designer of Central Park.[13]

Godwin became sole editor of Putnam's from January 1868 to November 1870. Later, he edited the posthumous works of William Cullen Bryant as Poetical Works (1883) and Complete Prose Writings (1884) as well as A Biography of William Cullen Bryant, with Extracts from his private Correspondence (1883).

Godwin died of an illness at 5:30 a.m. on January 7, 1904, at his New York home, surrounded by several of his daughters.[14]

[edit] References
^ Baker, Carlos. "Parke Godwin: Pathfinder in Politics and Journalism", Lives of Eighteen from Princeton. Willard Thorp, editor. Princeton University Press, 1946: 213. ISBN 0836909410
^ a b Guarneri, Carl J. The Utopian Alternative: Fourierism in Nineteenth Century America. New York: Cornell University Press, 1991: 40. ISBN 0-8014-8197-X
^ Baker, Carlos. "Parke Godwin: Pathfinder in Politics and Journalism", Lives of Eighteen from Princeton. Willard Thorp, editor. Princeton University Press, 1946: 218. ISBN 0836909410
^ Delano, Sterling F. Brook Farm: The Dark Side of Utopia. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2004: 219. ISBN 0-674-01160-0
^ Guarneri, Carl J. The Utopian Alternative: Fourierism in Nineteenth Century America. New York: Cornell University Press, 1991: 42. ISBN 0-8014-8197-X
^ Widmer, Edward L. Young America: The Flowering of Democracy in New York City. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999: 40. ISBN 0-19-514062-1
^ Delano, Sterling F. Brook Farm: The Dark Side of Utopia. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2004: 270–271. ISBN 0-674-01160-0
^ Baker, Thomas N. Nathaniel Parker Willis and the Trials of Literary Fame. New York, Oxford University Press, 2001: 117. ISBN 0-19-512073-6
^ Widmer, Edward L. Young America: The Flowering of Democracy in New York City. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999: 214–215. ISBN 0-19-514062-1
^ Widmer, Edward L. Young America: The Flowering of Democracy in New York City. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999: 62. ISBN 0-19-514062-1
^ Baker, Carlos. "Parke Godwin: Pathfinder in Politics and Journalism", Lives of Eighteen from Princeton. Willard Thorp, editor. Princeton University Press, 1946: 220. ISBN 0836909410
^ Miller, Perry. The Raven and the Whale: Poe, Melville, and the New York Literary Scene. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997 (first printed 1956): 319. ISBN 0-8018-5750-3
^ Klaus, Melvin. Frederick Law Olmsted: The Passion of a Public Artist. New York: New York University Press, 186. ISBN 9780814746189
^ Baker, Carlos. "Parke Godwin: Pathfinder in Politics and Journalism", Lives of Eighteen from Princeton. Willard Thorp, editor. Princeton University Press, 1946: 230. ISBN 0836909410
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parke_Godwin_(journalist)"