John Bartlow Martin: A Voice for the Underdog

by Ray E. Boomhower

During the 1940s and 1950s, one name, John Bartlow Martin, dominated the pages of the "big slicks," the Saturday Evening Post, LIFE, Harper s, Look, and Collier s. A former reporter for the Indianapolis Times, Martin was one of a handful of freelance writers able to survive solely on this writing. Over a career that spanned nearly fifty years, his peers lauded him as "the best living reporter," the "ablest crime reporter in America," and "one of America s premier seekers of fact." His deep and abiding concern for the working class, perhaps a result of his upbringing, set him apart from other reporters. Martin was a key speechwriter and adviser to the presidential campaigns of many prominent Democrats from 1950 into the 1970s, including those of Adlai Stevenson, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Robert F. Kennedy, Hubert Humphrey, and George McGovern. He served as U.S. ambassador to the Dominican Republic during the Kennedy administration and earned a small measure of fame when FCC Chairman Newton Minow introduced his description of television as "a vast wasteland" into the nation s vocabulary."

408 pages, Hardcover

Published March 18, 2015

About the author

From famed World War II correspondent Ernie Pyle to unlucky astronaut Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom, author and historian Ray E. Boomhower has produced books on a variety of notable figures in Indiana and American history.

Currently senior editor at the Indiana Historical Society Press, where he edits the quarterly popular history magazine Traces of Indiana and Midwestern History, Boomhower has also published books on the life of Civil War general and author Lew Wallace, reformer and peace activist May Wright Sewall, U.S. Navy ace Alex Vraciu, and journalist and diplomat John Bartlow Martin.

In 1998 he received the Hoosier Historian award from the Indiana Historical Society and in 2010 he was named winner of the Regional Author Award in the annual Eugene and Marilyn Glick Indiana Authors Awards. In 2009 his book Robert F. Kennedy and the 1968 Indiana Primary was selected as the winner in the historical nonfiction category of the annual Best Books of Indiana contest sponsored by the Indiana Center for the Book. His books have also been finalists in the annual Benjamin Franklin Awards from the Independent Book Publishers Association.

Reviews

[Katrina · Rating 5 out of 5]

I won this as a giveaway. This type is not my typical read. I am so glad I did. The things this man has seen and experienced are many of the things I sit and wonder about and would haved loved to be there.. With this book I was there in a sense.

[Frank Stein · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very solid biography of a gifted writer and an unlikely political advisor. John Bartlow Martin worked his way through the world of detective and noir magazines to become one of the best selling nonfiction magazine writers of the 1950s. His sparse, fact-filled pieces on Midwestern everyday life, detailing problems of coal miners in Centralia, Illinois, the heartache of prisoners, and the campaigns of Mayor Daley of Chicago, brought him to the attention of Democratic power-brokers. He became a major speech-writer in every Democratic presidential campaign from Illinois Governor Adlai Stevenson's in 1952 to George McGovern's in 1972. He was eventually appointed ambassador to the Dominican Republic after the fall of the Trujillo regime and helped place it on the road to democracy.

This book brings out the nuances and turns in Martin's life with real grace. It's a nice piece of detective work.

[Lauriek · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was impressed by this book. I read the pre published version. I'm impressed. I'm not much of a biography reader. Yet I found this very interesting. It is not boring facts, although it definitely provides them. It is interesting and real. I feel my knowledge of history and writing has been expanded. It has sparked an interest in history and inspired me to learn more.