Allen Sangree

Infobox Writer
name = Allen Sangree
birthname = Allen Luther Sangree
birthdate = 1878
birthplace = Pennsylvania
deathdate = March 2, death year and age|1924|1878|mf=y
deathplace = Trenton, New Jersey, United States
nationality = American
genre = Sports Writer, War Journalist
subject = Baseball Writer, Boer War

Allen Luther Sangree, also as Allan or Alan

Life

Father: Milton H. Sangree, Mother: Jane E. Hudson. Born around 1878, most likely in the Harrisburg or Steelton Pennsylvania areacite book
last =
first =
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = Commemorative Biographical Encyclopedia of Dauphin County, Containing Sketches of Representative Citizens, and Many of the Early Scotch-Irish and German Settlers.
publisher = J. M. Runk & Company
date = 1896
location = Chambersburg, Pa.
pages = 273-274
url =
doi =
id =
url = http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/pa/dauphin/bios/runk/sangree-milton-h.txt
accessdate = 2007-08-18
isbn = ]

Attended Gettysburg College (class of 1892) [Citation
last =
first =
author-link =
last2 =
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author2-link =
title = Local Happenings
newspaper = New Oxford Item
pages =
year = 1916
date = 07-20-1916 ] [cite book
last = Stover
first = Clyde B.
authorlink =
coauthors = Charles M. Beechem
title = The alumni record of Gettysburg College, 1832-1932
location = Gettysburg PA
publisher = Gettysburg College
volume =
issue =
pages = 778
date = 1932
doi =
id = ] [cite journal
last =
first =
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coauthors =
title =
journal = Residence Directory of the Sigma Chi Fraternity
volume =
issue =
pages = 592
date = 1902
url = http://books.google.com/books?id=qqoAAAAAYAAJ
doi =
id =
accessdate = 2007-08-16 ] [Some early references say Pennsylvania College, which was the original name for Gettysburg College.] [Oral Sangree family history has it that Milton H. Sangree placed great importance in attending college.] Member of the Sigma Chi Theta fraternity [cite journal
last =
first =
authorlink =
coauthors =
title =
journal = The Sigma Chi Quarterly
volume = VIII
issue =
pages = 41
date = 1889
url = http://books.google.com/books?id=mBQTAAAAIAAJ
doi =
id =
accessdate = 2007-08-16 ]

On the staff of the New York Sun some time around 1896

With the New York World as a correspondent traveling to Africa reporting on the trouble between Great Britain and the South Africa Republic prior to the Boer war. He reported for the Collier's Weekly during the Boer WarCitation
last =
first =
author-link =
last2 =
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author2-link =
title = Obit
newspaper = New York Times
pages = 17
year = 1924
date = 03-3-1924 ] as well as for CosmopolitanCitation
last = Sangree
first = Allen
author-link =
last2 =
first2 =
author2-link =
title = General De Wet and His Campaign
journal = Cosmopolitan
pages =
year = 1901
date = 05-1901 ] Citation
last = Sangree
first = Allen
author-link =
last2 =
first2 =
author2-link =
title = The Youngest Soldiers in the World
journal = Cosmopolitan
pages =
year = 1901
date = 06-1901 ]

quotation
...Incidentally the favorite baseball paper this summer, if merit counts in making popularity, will be the Evening World. With the best baseball men in the country, Allen Sangree and Bozeman Bulger, sticking closer to the Giants and the Highlanders then the lamb ever stuck to Mary, there will be little of straight baseball or the humorous incident characteristic of the game that readers of the Evening World will miss.

In fact, Mr. Sangree and Mr. Bulger are sure to knock out a home run every day.
Edgrens Column (March 1st, 1905)|New York Evening World [Citation
last =
first =
author-link =
last2 =
first2 =
author2-link =
title = Edgrens Column
newspaper = New York Evening World
pages = 12
year = 1905
date = 03-1-1905
url = http://www.loc.gov/chroniclingamerica/lccn/sn83030193/1905-03-01/ed-1/seq-12
accessdate = 2007-08-16]

Started writing as one the featured baseball writers for the New York Evening World on March 11th 1905 [Citation
last =
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last2 =
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author2-link =
title = New York Evening World
newspaper = New York Evening World
pages = 6
year = 1905
date = 03-11-1905
url = http://www.loc.gov/chroniclingamerica/lccn/sn83030193/1905-03-11/ed-1/seq-6
accessdate = 2007-08-16]

quotation
Allen Sangree, newspaper man, author, world-wanderer, and one of the cleverest pencillers who ever sat behind the wired screen at a baseball game, is a happy husband today ...
New York Evening World (Nov 4th 1905) [Citation
last =
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last2 =
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title = Allen Sangree Takes A Bride
newspaper = New York Evening World
pages = 6
year = 1905
date = 11-04-1905
url = http://www.loc.gov/chroniclingamerica/lccn/sn83030193/1905-11-04/ed-1/seq-6
accessdate = 2007-08-16] Married Kate Bradley (1888-1952) on November 4th, 1905

In October 2, 1908 Allen Sangree was asked by William McMutrie Speer [Information about William McMutrie Speer's paperscite web
last =
first =
coauthors =
title = William McMurtrie Speer Papers 1880-1936
work =
publisher = Columbia University Libraries
date =
url = http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/eresources/archives/collections/html/4079809.html
format =
doi =
accessdate = 2007-08-18 ] (a member of the editorial staff of the World) via the city editor George Carteret, to locate some Panamanians who had recently came to town with a possible connection to William Nelson Cromwell and the Panama Canal. Allen was unable to locate them, reported back to the editorial staff with no story and the assignment was crossed off. However Allen's investigation did appear to have stirred up William Nelson Cromwell's PR staff who approached Caleb Van Hamm (the managing editor) and "demanded ... what the World meant by getting after "his boss" with out giving him a look-in."cite book
last = Seitz
first = Don Carlos
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = Joseph Pulitzer, his life & letters
publisher = Simon & Schuster
date = 1924
location = New York
pages = 352
url =
doi =
id =
isbn = ] [It appears that this series of events ended with the libel suite against Joseph Pulitzer, Caleb Van Hamm and Robert Hunt Lyman of the New York World as well as the World itself, and the Press Publishing Company for libel against William Nelson Cromwell, J.P. Morgan, Douglas Robinson, Charles P. Taft, Elihu Root, and Theodore Roosevelt.

The case went to the US Supreme Court with a unanimous ruling in favor of the New York Worldcite court
litigants= United Sates v. Press Publishing Company
vol= 219
reporter= U.S.
opinion= 1
pinpoint=
court=
date= 1911
url= http://supreme.justia.com/us/219/1/case.html
accessdate = 2007-08-18

See also cite web
last = McHam
first = David
coauthors =
title = Class notes on Judicial Review
work =
publisher = University of Huston
date =
url = http://www.class.uh.edu/comm/classes/comm4303/section3/judicialreview.html#puliter
format =
doi =
accessdate = 2007-08-18 for some commentary on the actual libel case.]

quotation
... Quite a few of our old friends and acquaintances have left us Sid. Are Alan Sangree and Bill MacBeth still present? And is Bill Farnsworth still on that Atlanta paper? ..."
letter from Hal Chase to Sid Mercer (1942)|Hal Chase [cite book
last = Kohout
first = Martin Donell
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = Hal Chase: The Defiant Life and Turbulent Times of Baseball's Biggest Crook
publisher = McFarland & Company
date = 2001
location =
pages = 271, 272
url =
doi =
id =
isbn = 0-7864-1067-1 ]

Died March 2nd 1924 in Trenton NJ after having been hospitalized for a break down two years earlier

Writings

A turn of the century (1900's) writer.

Early references

1892 he had a position with McClure's syndicate in New York and wrote for McClure's magazine.

South Africa and the Boer War

* Wrote a character sketch of Cecil Rhodes in the February 1900 issue of Ainslee [cite journal
last =
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coauthors =
title =
journal = The Salt Lake Herald
volume =
issue =
pages = 5
date = February 12, 1900
url = http://www.loc.gov/chroniclingamerica/lccn/sn85058130/1900-02-12/ed-1/seq-5
doi =
id =
accessdate = 2007-08-16 ]
* Was a New York journalist who was at one time stationed in Cape Town South Africa as the secretary of the US consul-general. [http://books.google.com/books?id=z5OAeh9e1wcC&pg=PA363]
* He covered the Boer War in South Africa [http://books.google.com/books?id=-egAAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA774&dq=%22allen+sangree%22] traveled with General Christiaan De Wet [ cite book
last = van Hartesveldt
first = Fred R.
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = The Boer War: Historiography and Annotated Bibliography (Bibliographies of Battles and Leaders)
publisher = Greenwood Press
date = May 30, 2000
location =
pages = 182
url =
doi =
id =
isbn = 0313306273
isbn = 978-0313306273 ] quotation|"General DeWet and His Campaign," is the title of a well-written and beautifully Illustrated article in the May number of The Cosmopolitan. To quote the editor of this magazine: "Nothing which has appeared in The Cosmopolitan for a long time will be received with as much interest as this authentic picture of General De Wet, the strategist, and his campaign. Mr. Allen Sangree, who was with General De Wet in a large number of his campaigns, is one of the distinguished men who risked their lives to present to the world a vivid account of what many military men believe to be the most wonderful campaign ever fought in any age." Portions of Mr. Sangree's article are extremely pathetic. He speaks of the young Burghers, "many of them mere school children whose astonishing adventures will scarcely be believed by posterity," who will nevertheless, "go down in history as the bravest of the brave." Speaking of De Wet an author says: "Compared with his achievements, those of Baden-Powell or Kitchener are like a burning match dropped in the ocean."|'Dominicana: A Magazine of Catholic Literature (1901)cite journal
last =
first =
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = review
journal = Dominicana
volume = II
issue = 1
pages = 361
date = January 1901
url = http://books.google.com/books?id=iLQOAAAAIAAJ
doi =
id =
accessdate = 2007-08-15 ]

Sports writer

* Wrote the often quoted piece Quotation
The fundamental reason for the popularity of the game is the fact that it is a national safety valve. Voltaire says that there are no real pleasures without real needs. Now a young, ambitious and growing nation needs to "let off steam." Baseball furnishes the opportunity. Therefore, it is a real pleasure.... That is what baseball does for humanity. It serves the same purpose as a revolution in Central America or a thunderstorm on a hot day.... A tonic, an exercise, a safety-valve, baseball is second only to Death as a leveler. So long as it remains our national game, America will abide no monarchy, and anarchy will be too slow
Allen Sangree (1907)
New York World
* Wrote the short story "The Jinx" in 1910 which was included later in his book "The Jinx: Stories of the Diamond" (1911) [http://books.google.com/books?id=rEQeAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA7&dq=%22allen+sangree%22#PPA2,M1] which is probably one of the earliest written references to the word 'Jinx' to mean someone being unlucky [cite web
last = Quinion
first = Michael
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = Words to the Wise, your Etymological Queries Answered
work =
publisher =
date =
url = http://www.takeourword.com/TOW118/page2.html
format =
doi =
accessdate = 2007-08-14 ] [The book review from the New York Times implies that the word Jinx was not in the dictionary at that time cite web
last =
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authorlink =
coauthors =
title = Book review
work =
publisher = New York Times
date = October 29, 1911
url = http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F40D15FE355517738DDDA00A94D8415B818DF1D3
format =
doi =
accessdate = 2007-08-14 ]
** A review of the book "The Jinx: Stories of the Diamond"Quotation
Mr. Allen Sangree, the well-known sporting writer, has made a most valuable addition to baseball literature by his recent volume of tales from the diamond. This attractive little book published by the G. W. Dillingham Co., contains seven thrilling stories which embody in full measure, all the fire and dash and enthusiasm of the great game they typify. ... It is most fitting that baseball should have a literature all its own, and no inconsiderable step in the attainment of this literature is represented in this bright, clever and interesting volume from the pen of Mr. Sangree
book reviewer (Jan 1912)
BaseBall Magazine [cite journal
last =
first =
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coauthors =
title = Baseball Books, Recent additions to the Literature of the National Game
journal = Baseball Magazine
volume = VIII
issue = 3
pages =
date = January 1912
url = http://www.aafla.org/SportsLibrary/BBM/1912/bbm83an.pdf
doi =
id =
accessdate = 2007-08-14 ]

* Was a member of the Baseball Writers Association of America in 1911 and 1914 [cite web
last =
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authorlink =
coauthors =
title = Sportswriters: BBWAA Members, 1911-1914
work =
publisher = Society for American Baseball Research
date = 2002-08-02
url = http://forums.sabr.org/htdocs/dcforum/DCForumID18/10.html
format =
doi =
accessdate = 2007-08-15 ]

Other Works

Poet "Your Old Uncle Sam" which was put to the music of the Old Grey Mare [cite book
last = Rust
first = Brian
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = The Columbia Master Book Discography, Volume II: Principal U.S. Matrix Series, 1910-1924 (Discographies)
publisher = Greenwood Press
date = May 30, 1999
location =
pages = 223
url =
doi =
id =
isbn = 978-0313308222 ]

Bibliography

* cite book
last = Sangree
first = Allen
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = The Jinx: Stories of the Diamond
publisher = G. W. Dillingham Company
date = 1911
location = New York
pages =
url =
doi =
id =
isbn =
* cite journal
last = Sangree
first = Allen
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = De Wet and His Campaign
journal = Cosmopolitan
volume =
issue = 31
pages = 65–74
date = May 1901
url =
doi =
id =
accessdate =
* cite journal
last = Sangree
first = Allen
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = "Fans" and Their Frenzies; The Wholesome Madness of Baseball
journal = Everybody's Magazine
volume =
issue = 17
pages = 378–87
date = September 1907
url =
doi =
id =
accessdate =
* cite journal
last = Sangree
first = Allen
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = No more war in baseball Great Conflicts in the History of the Game - Part II
journal = Baseball Magazine
volume = VII
issue = 5
pages = 21–29
date = September 1911
url = http://www.la84foundation.org/SportsLibrary/BBM/1911/bbm75j.pdf
doi =
id =
accessdate = 2007-08-14

Short Stories

* A Break in Training The Saturday Evening Post Feb 18 1911
* The Naive Mr. Dasher-Story of a Baseball Jinx The Saturday Evening Post May 28 1910
* The Ringer The Saturday Evening Post May 6 1911
* In Dutch The Saturday Evening Post Jun 17 1911
* The Indian Sign The Saturday Evening Post Sep 9 1911
* That Load of Hay Top-Notch Sep 20 1914
* A Time Exposure The Popular Magazine Feb 7 1915
* The Sacrifice Hit The Popular Magazine Sep 7 1915
* The Limited Male The Popular Magazine Sep 20 1916
* Nix on the Slaughter Ainslee’s Oct 1916

Articles

* Americans in South Africa Munsey’s Mar 1900
* The Lonely Idol of the Fickle “Fans” The Saturday Evening Post Jul 29 1905
* Why Nobody Loves the Umpire The Saturday Evening Post Sep 2 1905

Samuel Gompers and the labor movement

There is a reference to Allen Sangree in the papers of Samuel Gompers where a friend, writesQuotation
...The Manufacturer's Association has organized a "Secret Service" system, the business of which will be to procure information as to the habits of labor leaders, and for the purpose of obtaining evidence of something of a criminal character against such leaders. I am informed that they are particularly anxious to get something on you. ... A man named Allen Sangree is the general manager, and the information that I have is that he has fifty men employed under him. This Mr. Sangree was formerly employed on the New York Journal as its "Sporting Editor"|John Morrison (Oct 22, 1907)|Private correspondence, Samuel Gompers Papers [cite book
last = Gompers
first = Samuel
authorlink =
coauthors = Stuart J Kaufman, Peter J. Albert, Grace Palladino
title = The Samuel Gompers Papers, Vol. 7: The American Federation of Labor under Siege, 1906-1909 (Samuel Gompers Papers)
publisher = University of Illinois Press
date = May 25, 1999
location =
pages = 256, 257n
url =
doi =
id =
isbn = ]

There is a reference in the US Congressional Record [cite book
author = 63rd Congress First Session
title = Maintenance of a lobby to influence legislation / hearings before a subcommittee of the committee on the judiciary United States Senate
version = Vol 4
publisher = US Congress
date = July 22 to August 14, 1913
pages = 1909, 1910
url =
format =
accessdate = ] quotation|Briefly, Mr. Brownell sent Allen Sangree to Maine last February or March toassist Dr. Crockett in preparing the book on Gompers' career in Maine. ...

References