Pearson, Drew, 1897-1969

Journalist.

Andrew Russell "Drew" Pearson (1897-1969) was a journalist who traveled extensively as a foreign correspondent for several newspapers, including the Baltimore Sun. In 1931, Pearson and Robert S. Allen anonymously co-authored a book entitled Washington Merry-Go-Round, with gossip about the Washington, D.C. higher-ups, President Herbert Hoover, and Congress. In 1932, they wrote another book, entitled More Merry-Go-Round. When their employers discovered who had written the books, they were both fired from their jobs. In 1932, they began writing a daily newspaper column, Washington Merry-Go-Round, which eventually was syndicated in hundreds of newspapers nationwide. From 1938 to 1955 he also had a weekly radio program. When Pearson died in 1969, the column was continued by writer Jack Anderson.

Columnist and radio and television commentator Drew Pearson (Andrew Russell) was born in Evanston, Illinois on December 13, 1897. He was educated at the Phillips Exeter Academy, Exeter, New Hampshire, and Swarthmore College in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania where he received an A.B. degree in 1919.

Mr. Pearson was the director of the American Friends Service Commission in Serbia, Montenegro and Albania from 1919-1921, an instructor in industrial geography at the University of Pennsylvania and he also lectured on American, Australian and New Zealand chautaquas before he began his career as a commentator. He was the United States delegate to the Atlantic Conference in 1959, he has interviewed many important Europeans and he holds foreign decorations. His publications include Washington Merry-Go-Round (1931), The American Diplomatic Game (1935), and The Nine Old Men .

He is presently (August, 1967) farming in Rockville, Maryland when he is not writing his daily newspaper column, The Washington Merry Go-Round . Mr. Pearson belongs to the Overseas Press Club, the National Press Club, the Overseas Writers' Club and the Cosmos Club of Washington. He has been married twice and is maintaining a residence in Washington, D.C.