Matthew Josephson
Matthew Josephson (February 15, 1899 – March 13, 1978) was an American journalist and author of works on nineteenth-century French literature and American political and business history of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Josephson popularized the term "robber baron". Biography. He was born in Brooklyn, New York on February 15, 1899 to Jewish immigrant parents Julius and Sarah (née Kasindorf) Josephson. His father was from Iasi, Romania and his mother from Rostov-na-Donu, Russia. Julius Josephson was a printer who became a bank president before his death in 1925. Matthew Josephson graduated from Columbia University  and married Hannah Geffen in 1920. They lived in Europe in the 1920s. His wife, librarian of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and an author in her own right, worked closely with her husband on various projects throughout their careers. In 1945 she and Malcolm Cowley edited "Aragon, Poet of the Resistance". Matthew and Hannah Josephson collaborated on "Al Smith: Hero of the Cities" in 1969. They had two sons, Eric and Carl. Initially Josephson wrote poetry, published in "Galimathias" (1923), and reported for various "little magazines." He became associate editor of "" (1922–24) and contributing editor of "Transition  (1928–29). Josephson was also a regular contributor to The New Republic", "The Nation"," The New Yorker", and the "Saturday Evening Post". Josephson's first biographies were "Zola and His Time" (1928) and "Jean-Jacques Rousseau" (1932). Influenced by Charles A. Beard and the Depression, and with only one major exception, "Stendhal: or the Pursuit of Happiness" (1946), Josephson changed his focus of interest from literature to economic history when he published "The Robber Barons" in 1934. This was followed by more full-length works in which Josephson served as a spokesman for intellectuals of his generation who were dissatisfied with  the social and political status quo. Josephson wrote two memoirs, "Life Among the Surrealists" (1962) and "Infidel in the Temple" (1967). He died on March 13, 1978 at the Community Hospital in Santa Cruz, California. Legacy. Josephson's collected papers are in the Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University.