# Julia Emily Johnsen

Julia Emily Johnsen (March 17, 1881- December 18, 1971) was an American author and editor known for compiling and editing reference works on social and political issues.

## Early life

Johnsen was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1881 to John Johnsen and Emma Halverson. She had a brother, Fred, and a sister, Ruth. Her father was a Norwegian immigrant. She published a poem in the oralist publication, The Volta Review, in 1921 implying that she may have had a hearing impairment but little is known about her personal life. She was a supporter of the Theosophical Society and made a substantial bequest to their headquarters in India. She worked as a librarian in Minneapolis according to census records, and then moved to New York City when her employer relocated there.

## Career

Johnsen worked for H.W. Wilson Company as an editor and compiler. Her first publication was a short bibliography entitled Selected Articles on the Recall about the recall of judges. The volume included a summary of the arguments for and against, a selected bibliography, and the reprint of a few short excerpts from articles on the topic. Her later publications for Wilson would replicate this format, called "debaters handbooks," which were in high demand at debate classes and clubs at the time. She primarily assembled works on social issues including racial issues, prison reform, birth control, the Ku Klux Klan and Palestine. In 1934 she worked with Stanley Kunitz and Howard Haycraft to compile material for the publication The Junior Book of Authors, a 400-page illustrated reference work about notable authors which would be accessible for children.
Johnsen created works for two major series by Wilson: the Debaters Handbook Series including such titles as Selected Articles on The Negro Problem (1921) and Selected articles on Social insurance (1922); and The Reference Shelf which included titles such as Metric System (1926) and Financing of State Highways (1929). The latter series, available through individual purchase or a subscription, included many titles seeking answers about a world during and after World War II. In 1943, she compiled a collection of then-current world peace plans which received favorable reviews for her compilation skills. Johnsen worked for Wilson through at least 1950, receiving an award for her forty years of service at the company in June of that year.

## Critical reception

Johnsen's work along with the work of her female colleagues in the Handbook Series was said to be "an intriguing counterpoint to the early male debaters whose success often depended on the thoroughness and analysis of women who were as much as a generation older than they were." Her publications were popular with libraries and her works have been described as "splendid cross-section[s]," "invaluable collection[s] of material," and "what a reference volume should be." She would often write explanatory notes in her works' front matter about the social importance and implications of her topics. Her approaches to complex topics were called "remarkably dispassionate... thorough in comprehension and fair in treatment." Johnsen herself said that her work represented "material on various phases of a controversial question."