Henry William Massingham

Henry William Massingham (1860-1924) was an English journalist, editor of "The Nation" from 1907 to 1923. [http://www.philsp.com/data/data219.html] In his time it was considered the leading British Radical weekly. [Richard A. Rempel (editor), "The Collected Papers of Bertrand Russell" (2003), p. 3.]

He became editor of London paper "The Star" in 1890, though being replaced by Ernest Parke in 1891. [http://www.geocities.com/thestarfictionindex/the.htm] In 1888 as deputy editor to T. P. O'Connor [http://www.hoganstand.com/general/identity/extras/famousgaels/stories/tpoconnor.htm] he had given George Bernard Shaw his break in journalism, appointing him deputy drama critic to Belfort Bax. [Michael Holroyd, "Bernard Shaw" (1997 one-volume edition), p. 121.]

He edited the "Daily Chronicle" 1897-9, but in November 1899 was forced out because his editorial line on the Second Boer War was hostile to the government. [Alfred F. Havighurst, "Britain in Transition: The Twentieth Century" (1985), p. 9.]

His departure from "The Nation" was a matter of party politics: he had broken from the Liberals under David Lloyd George, in favour of the Labour Party. A change of ownership was putting control in the hands of John Maynard Keynes, a Liberal. Massingham during the short remainder of his life was a columnist, in the "Christian Science Monitor" and "The Spectator". [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,750985,00.html]

The writer Harold J. Massingham was his son.

Notes

Further reading

* [http://www.archive.org/details/whywecametohelpb00massuoft "Why We Came to Help Belgium"] , online text
*"H. W. M.: A selection from the writings of H. W. Massingham" (1925)
* Alfred F. Havighurst (1974), "Radical Journalist: H.W. Massingham, 1860-1924"

External links

* [http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/Jmassingham.htm Spartacus page]