Johnson, Robert Underwood, 1853-1937

Author; United States ambassador to Italy.

Epithet: Editor 'The Century Magazine' New York

Magazine editor, ambassador to Italy; resident of New York City.

Robert Underwood Johnson, American writer and editor. He was a founding member of the Keats-Shelley Memorial Association.

Editor of the CENTURY MAGAZINE and American Ambassador to Italy, 1920-1921.

Father of other Brooks-correspondent, Agnes Holden.

Poet and editor.

A native of Washington, D.C., Johnson attended Earlham College. He moved to New York and worked as an editor and writer of poetry and prose.

Author and editor.

Robert Underwood Johnson was an American author. A long-time editor of Century magazine, he also published numerous volumes of poetry. He also worked for the improvement of international copyright laws, and to have land set aside for what would become Yosemite National Park.

American poet, editor, and diplomat Robert Underwood Johnson was born on January 12, 1853, on Capitol Hill, Washington D.C. He served as American ambassador to Italy from 1920-1921 and, together with naturalist John Muir, helped to instigate the movement that resulted in the creation of Yosemite National Park.

Robert Underwood Johnson served on the staff of Century Magazine from 1873 to 1913. He was ambassador to Italy in 1920-1921, and published several books of poems.

Born in Washington, D.C. on January 12, 1853, poet, editor, and diplomat, Robert Underwood Johnson spent his childhood in Indiana where his father served as a judge. He graduated from Earlham College in 1871, and then joined the staff of The Century Magazine, becoming associate editor in 1881, a position he occupied until 1913. A prolific poet, Johnson several volumes including The Winter Hour, and Other Poems (1891) and Poems, first published in 1902 with several subsequent editions. He also served as the permanent secretary of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Additionally, Johnson dedicated himself to the conservation of America’s natural resources. With John Muir, he began the movement that created Yosemite National Park as well as applying pressure to President Roosevelt, which resulted in White House conferences on conservation.

Italy was another of Johnson’s interests. Besides admiration of Italian art and culture, Johnson served as president of the New York Committee of the Italian War Relief Fund of America and the “American Poets Ambulances in Italy” which provided the Italian army with 112 ambulances. From April 1920 to July 1921, Johnson was the U. S. Ambassador to Italy while also representing the United States as observer at the San Remo Conference and the Supreme Council of the League.

After returning to the United States, Johnson focused on publishing poetry and his memoirs, Remembered Yesterdays, until he passed away in 1937.

Source:

Robert Underwood Johnson Collection." University of Delaware Library, Special Collections Department. Accessed December 5, 2011.

American poet, editor, and diplomat Robert Underwood Johnson was born on January 12, 1853, on Capitol Hill, Washington D.C. He served as American ambassador to Italy from 1920–1921 and, together with naturalist John Muir, helped to instigate the movement that resulted in the creation of Yosemite National Park. Johnson was named after his great-grandfather, Robert Underwood, who was one of the earliest settlers of Washington and a mathematician of noted ability. Johnson's father was a lawyer and later a judge in Indiana, where Johnson spent his childhood. In 1867 Johnson entered Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana; he graduated in 1871 at the age of eighteen.

After college Johnson became a clerk for Scribner Educational Books in Chicago. Within two years he was promoted to a position with the editorial staff of Scribner's Monthly, which later became the Century Magazine . He was again promoted in 1881 to associate editor under R. W. Gilder. Upon Gilder's death in 1909, Johnson became editor, a position he held until 1913. While at Century Publishing, Johnson co-edited the Century War Series, which was serialized in the magazine and later published in four volumes as Battles and Leaders of the Civil War . He also produced several volumes of his own poetry, including The Winter Hour, and Other Poems (1891) and Poems, published in 1902 and enlarged in 1908, 1919, and 1931. Because he regularly wrote to commemorate illustrious persons and occasions, Johnson was often referred to as the unofficial poet laureate of the United States.

Johnson was involved in numerous literary organizations. He served for many years as treasurer and then secretary of the American Copyright League, and was active in the international copyright movement. For his service in this area he was decorated by the French and Italian governments and received an honorary M.A. from Yale University. A member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters and secretary of the Institute from 1903 to 1909, he became the preliminary secretary of the Academy of Arts and Letters during its formation. Johnson's devotion to literature and the arts can also be seen by his origination of the Keats and Shelley Memorial in Rome.

In addition to his literary pursuits, Johnson dedicated himself to the conservation of America's natural resources. Together with John Muir, he instigated the movement which resulted in the creation of Yosemite National Park. In 1913 he was made chairman of the National Committee for the Preservation of Yosemite National Park. He directly appealed to President Roosevelt for a conference of governors to conserve the Eastern states' forests, and was thus responsible for generating what became the White House conferences on conservation.

Another of Johnson's interests was Italy. In addition to displaying a love of the Italian arts and culture, he showed an unwavering dedication to the welfare of the country. He organized the New York committee of the Italian War Relief Fund of America, which raised a total of $225,000, and the "American Poets Ambulances in Italy," which administered aid to the Italian army during 1917. In 1920 President Wilson appointed him Ambassador to Italy. He served as ambassador until 1921.

Upon his return to the United States, Johnson remained active in many of his former organizations. He lectured and continued to write until his death in 1937. His autobiography, Remembered Yesterdays, was published in 1923.

Biographical information is derived from the collection and from the New York Times 15 Oct. 1937: 23.

Born in Washington, D.C. on January 12, 1853, poet, editor, and diplomat, Robert Underwood Johnson spent his childhood in Indiana where his father served as a judge.

He graduated from Earlham College in 1871, and then joined the staff of The Century Magazine, becoming associate editor in 1881, a position he occupied until 1913. A prolific poet, Johnson several volumes including The Winter Hour, and Other Poems (1891) and Poems, first published in 1902 with several subsequent editions. He also served as the permanent secretary of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He also served as a U. S. ambassador to Italy and was a passionate conservationist.

Biography

Robert Underwood Johnson, author, conservationist, and diplomat, was born in New York in 1853. For more than forty years he was associated with The Century Magazine. Associate Editor under Richard Watson Gilder, he succeeded to the editorship from 1909-1913. In 1920-1921 he served as Ambassador to Italy and represented the United States at the San Remo Conference. After his return to this country he devoted himself chiefly to the publication of poetry and his memoirs, Remembered Yesterdays, until his death in 1937.

In the summer of 1889, Johnson came to California to organize a series of articles for The Century. He met John Muir and with him visited Yosemite -an experience which profoundly influenced his life. He spent the next twenty five years actively promoting all the movements to safeguard the natural beauty of the West. He aided campaigns to make Yosemite Valley and the Sequoia Big Tree groves National Parks. In 1913, he spearheaded in the East the unsuccessful fight to preserve the Hetch Hetchy Valley from becoming the reservoir for San Francisco's water supply.

Robert Underwood Johnson, born in 1853, was an editor of The Century Magazine from 1879 until 1913. He also served as the American Ambassador to Italy from 1920-1921, and was a founding member of the American Copyright League. He was a published poet, and active in a number of humanitarian and artistic pursuits, including the Keats-Shelley Memorial Association, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the National Committee for the Preservation of Yosemite National Park, the Italian War Relief Fund of America, and the American Poets Ambulances in Italy.

Robert Underwood Johnson was born in Washington, D.C., in 1853. In 1871 He graduated from Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana, at the age of eighteen. Shortly thereafter, he took a position as a clerk for Scribner Educational Books, and within two years he was promoted to the editorial staff of Scribner's Monthly, from which The Century Magazine evolved.

Under the editorial auspices of Richard Watson Gilder, The Century became one of the most widely read general periodicals in the United States, reaching its peak of popularity in 1884 with the publication of its series Battles and Leaders of the Civil War . Johnson became managing editor in 1879, and succeeded Josiah Gilbert Holland as associate editor upon Holland's death in 1881. When Gilder died in 1909, Johnson assumed his position as chief editor, although by this time the era of American literary periodicals was in decline. As editor, Johnson had hoped to launch a new and less expensive magazine to compete in the evolving market, but the board of directors did not back him in this pursuit. Johnson resigned in 1913; The Century Magazine merged with The Forum magazine in 1930.

As a published writer himself, Johnson was passionately devoted to the development and strengthening of copyright laws in the United States and abroad. The American Copyright League was organized in 1883 in response to the rampant piracy suffered by American authors whose works were regularly reproduced outside the United States without authorization. It evolved from Richard Watson Gilder's Authors Club and became the main vehicle of authors and publishers to lobby Congress for the passage of the International Copyright Act.

Johnson was made secretary of the League in 1888, and he remained a tireless activist for copyright law until his death. He was decorated by the governments of France and Italy for his efforts in this arena, and was awarded an honorary degree from Yale. The work of the League paid off; The International Copyright Act was passed into law in 1891. Among the League's prominent members were R. R. Bowker, Andrew Carnegie, Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain), Theodore Roosevelt, and Thorvald Solberg, the country's first Register of Copyrights.

Johnson was also an early proponent of conservation policy, and together with noted conservationist John Muir, he used his political clout to mobilize the movement which resulted in the creation of Yosemite National Park. He became chairman of the National Committee for the Preservation of Yosemite National Park in 1913, and in this capacity appealed directly to President Roosevelt to create a conference of governors to conserve state forests. This conference eventually became the White House conference on conservation.

Johnson was foremost a man of letters, as evidenced not only in his career with The Century and the publication of numerous volumes of poetry, but by his membership in the National Institute of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Letters (of which he was named permanent secretary); and in the founding of the Keats-Shelley Memorial Association with Lord Rennell Rodd and H. Nelson Gay, which raised funds to acquire and preserve the final home of John Keats in Rome.

In 1920, Johnson was appointed American Ambassador to Italy by President Woodrow Wilson. His connection to Italian politics had been an ongoing theme; as president of the Italian War Relief Fund of America, he raised $225,000 for humanitarian aid for that country; and he organized and oversaw the committee of the American Poets Ambulances in Italy, which presented 112 ambulances to the Italian army in 1917.

Upon his return to the United States in 1921, Johnson remained active in many of his former organizations, and his autobiography, RememberedYesterday s, was published in 1923.

Johnson married Katharine McMahon in 1876. The couple had two children, Owen McMahon Johnson, a successful author in his own right, and Agnes McMahon Johnson (Mrs. French H. Holden). He died in 1937.

Robert Underwood Johnson (1853-1937) was an editor who was associated with Century Magazine in New York City for forty years.

He was editor-in-chief from 1909 until his resignation in 1913. His other activities included working for passage of the International Copyright Act of 1891 as an official of the American Copyright League; helping in the creation of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Keats-Shelley Memorial in Rome, and the Hall of Fame at New York University; advocating the conservation of the American wilderness; and organizing U.S. aid to Italy in World War I. He was named Ambassador to Italy in 1920. His published works included memoirs and a collection of verse.