Southworth, John Van Duyn, 1904-1986

John Van Duyn Southworth (1904-1986) was an American author, editor and teacher. Born in Syracuse, New York on Jun 5, 1904, he graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy in 1922 and went on to receive a B.A. from Harvard University in 1926 and an M.A. from Columbia University in 1936. Southworth was editor of the Iroquois Publishing Company in Syracuse from 1926-1935 and 1945-1946; he became vice-president in 1946 and served as president from 1950-1960. During the intervening years he taught at various schools in New York City and in Greenwich, Connecticut; he also was Dean and head of the History Department of Hockway Junior College in Dallas, Texas, from 1943-1945.

Southworth wrote numerous books on American history, both alone and with his mother, Gertrude Southworth, or E. L. Thurston, including Old World History in Verse, Our Own United States, What About Communism, and a four-volume history of War at Sea . Besides books, he wrote educational motion picture and radio scripts and articles for the Encyclopedia Britannica .

Southworth and his wife, Martha Bernard Collins, had three children.

From the guide to the John Van Duyn Southworth Papers, 1963-1966, (Special Collections Research Center, Syracuse University Libraries)