Joseph Cookman
Encyclopedia
Joseph ‘Joe’ Cookman was an American
journalist
, writer
, critic
and a founder of The Newspaper Guild.
where he convinced the City Editor of the New York Telegram later known as the New York World-Telegram
to give him a job as a reporter. He also worked briefly at The New York Sun. Cookman was offered a job as the drama critic for the Bronx Home News. The BHN was eventually absored by the New York Evening Post in 1925, shortly after conservative
Cyrus H. K. Curtis
—publisher of the Ladies Home Journal—purchased the New-York Evening Post in 1924. There, Cookman was a reporter and staff correspondent. He eventually became the papers Chief Editorial
Writer and drama critic and worked at the Post until his death in 1944.
In 1933, Cookman, along with Heywood Broun
and several others, founded The Newspaper Guild with Cookman elected as its original Second Vice President
.
Cookman's work was listed in a book called "The Mammoth Book of Journalism: 101 Masterpieces from the Finest Writers and Reporters". Other notables included: Mark Twain
, Charles Dickens
, Winston Churchill
, Ernest Hemingway
, Jack London
, John Steinbeck
, George Orwell
, Tom Wolfe
, Norman Mailer
, Hunter S. Thompson
and Gore Vidal
among others.
He was considered the best reporter at the paper by the senior executives such as Owner/Publisher J. David Stern, and editors Walter Lister Sr. and Harry Saylor. As such, he was typically tapped to cover the largest stories of the time. .
Additionally, Cookman was also present, witnessed and reported on the 1937 execution of second degree murder convict
Eva Coo
at Sing Sing Prison.
During his investigation of gangster Dutch Schultz
, he was mugged and severely beaten. While never proven, it was widely suspected that Dutch ordered the beating as a warning to Cookman and other reporters to cease their investigations of his crime
and racketeering organization.
England
, a suburb of Leeds
, Joseph was the oldest of three children born to John and Ada (née Pattison)Cookman.
In 1907 John, the son of a Methodist Minister and a Ne'er do well
, was sent to Canada with his young wife Ada and two of his three young kids (the youngest child Hannah, was too sick to make the journey at the time) and became a Remittance Man. Shortly after they arrived, John died of appendicitus.
With no money nor means to support herself, Ada put her son Joe in an orphanage at the age of 8. Subsequently, his mother got a job keeping house for a Walter Bowen and moved to his farm on Bowen-Eldridge Rd in Fillmore, New York
. Joe was retrieved from the orphanage and went to live with his mother and sister Grace in N.Y. Ada and Walter eventually would marry.. In 1915, Joe's sister Hannah now healthy, sailed from England aboard the , is processed through Ellis Island
and joined the family in Fillmore.
Joseph graduated from a one room school house in rural Fillmore as Fillmore Central High School was yet to be constructed. He went on to study at Houghton College before joining the Army, going through Officer training school, and serving in World War I
as a Lieutenant
in the infantry
.
After the war, a friends father who owned a steel mill offered Joe a job paying $75 per week. However, Joe did not want to be a steel salesman but a writer instead and moved to New York City
settling on the upper west side. He shared an apartment with his sister Grace who had become a nurse.
. Ushers at the wedding were newspaper men Lindsay Perrott, Ted Dibbell (NY Post), Joy Lilly and John Collins. Mary's brother was also an usher. As newlyweds, they first lived at 750 Riverside Drive in Manhattan. They later moved to the Lower East Side
around 14th street, with Joe working at the New York Post
and Mary working as an advertising assistant at a department store.
Through his work at the Sun and the Post, Joe and Mary became very close friends with Bruce Gould and Beatrice Blackmar Gould. When Bruce and Beatrix moved from the New York Post to the Ladies Home Journal in 1935, they brought Mary Cookman there the next year as an editorial assistant. She eventually was named executive editor and worked with the Goulds at LHJ for nearly 30 years before retiring in 1963. She was known professionally as Mary Bass
for most of her career.
Joe and Mary socialized with much of the New York city literary crowd and counted Bruce Gould and Beatrice Blackmar Gould, Martha Ostenso
, Ruth McKenney
, Ted Dibbell, Lindsey Perrott, Bernard Grebanier
, Hayward Broun among their numerous friends. This crowd used to frequent Harlem
night clubs the Cotton Club
and The Nest during Prohibition
.
Joe and Mary Cookman moved to the Emery Roth
designed building at 570 Park Avenue
in May 1941 . While they never had any children, Joseph influenced many. His younger sister, Hannah Cookman Findlay was an English, writing and drama teacher, at Fillmore Central School until her untimely death in 1965.
Joe and Mary were married for 18 years
. Upon his death, The Post received a significant outpouring of mail from readers, friends and admirers of Cookman and his years of contributions to the paper. The Post paid its own tribute then additionally selected and published a memorial by Cookmans good friend and drama historian Bernard Grebanier
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
, writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
, critic
Critic
A critic is anyone who expresses a value judgement. Informally, criticism is a common aspect of all human expression and need not necessarily imply skilled or accurate expressions of judgement. Critical judgements, good or bad, may be positive , negative , or balanced...
and a founder of The Newspaper Guild.
Career
His professional career began in 1922 in New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
where he convinced the City Editor of the New York Telegram later known as the New York World-Telegram
New York World-Telegram
The New York World-Telegram, later known as the New York World-Telegram and Sun, was a New York City newspaper from 1931 to 1966.-History:...
to give him a job as a reporter. He also worked briefly at The New York Sun. Cookman was offered a job as the drama critic for the Bronx Home News. The BHN was eventually absored by the New York Evening Post in 1925, shortly after conservative
Conservatism
Conservatism is a political and social philosophy that promotes the maintenance of traditional institutions and supports, at the most, minimal and gradual change in society. Some conservatives seek to preserve things as they are, emphasizing stability and continuity, while others oppose modernism...
Cyrus H. K. Curtis
Cyrus Hermann Kotzschmar Curtis
Cyrus Hermann Kotzschmar Curtis was an American publisher of magazines and newspapers, including the Ladies' Home Journal and the Saturday Evening Post.-Biography:...
—publisher of the Ladies Home Journal—purchased the New-York Evening Post in 1924. There, Cookman was a reporter and staff correspondent. He eventually became the papers Chief Editorial
Editorial
An opinion piece is an article, published in a newspaper or magazine, that mainly reflects the author's opinion about the subject. Opinion pieces are featured in many periodicals.-Editorials:...
Writer and drama critic and worked at the Post until his death in 1944.
In 1933, Cookman, along with Heywood Broun
Heywood Broun
Heywood Campbell Broun, Jr. was an American journalist. He worked as a sportswriter, newspaper columnist, and editor in New York City. He founded the American Newspaper Guild, now known as The Newspaper Guild. Born in Brooklyn, New York, he is best remembered for his writing on social issues and...
and several others, founded The Newspaper Guild with Cookman elected as its original Second Vice President
Vice president
A vice president is an officer in government or business who is below a president in rank. The name comes from the Latin vice meaning 'in place of'. In some countries, the vice president is called the deputy president...
.
Cookman's work was listed in a book called "The Mammoth Book of Journalism: 101 Masterpieces from the Finest Writers and Reporters". Other notables included: Mark Twain
Mark Twain
Samuel Langhorne Clemens , better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist...
, Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...
, Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
, Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Miller Hemingway was an American author and journalist. His economic and understated style had a strong influence on 20th-century fiction, while his life of adventure and his public image influenced later generations. Hemingway produced most of his work between the mid-1920s and the...
, Jack London
Jack London
John Griffith "Jack" London was an American author, journalist, and social activist. He was a pioneer in the then-burgeoning world of commercial magazine fiction and was one of the first fiction writers to obtain worldwide celebrity and a large fortune from his fiction alone...
, John Steinbeck
John Steinbeck
John Ernst Steinbeck, Jr. was an American writer. He is widely known for the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden and the novella Of Mice and Men...
, George Orwell
George Orwell
Eric Arthur Blair , better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English author and journalist...
, Tom Wolfe
Tom Wolfe
Thomas Kennerly "Tom" Wolfe, Jr. is a best-selling American author and journalist. He is one of the founders of the New Journalism movement of the 1960s and 1970s.-Early life and education:...
, Norman Mailer
Norman Mailer
Norman Kingsley Mailer was an American novelist, journalist, essayist, poet, playwright, screenwriter, and film director.Along with Truman Capote, Joan Didion, Hunter S...
, Hunter S. Thompson
Hunter S. Thompson
Hunter Stockton Thompson was an American journalist and author who wrote The Rum Diary , Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 .He is credited as the creator of Gonzo journalism, a style of reporting where reporters involve themselves in the action to...
and Gore Vidal
Gore Vidal
Gore Vidal is an American author, playwright, essayist, screenwriter, and political activist. His third novel, The City and the Pillar , outraged mainstream critics as one of the first major American novels to feature unambiguous homosexuality...
among others.
He was considered the best reporter at the paper by the senior executives such as Owner/Publisher J. David Stern, and editors Walter Lister Sr. and Harry Saylor. As such, he was typically tapped to cover the largest stories of the time. .
Largest Stories
Throughout his career, Cookman covered some of the most important stories around the country including:- The funeral of Huey LongHuey LongHuey Pierce Long, Jr. , nicknamed The Kingfish, served as the 40th Governor of Louisiana from 1928–1932 and as a U.S. Senator from 1932 to 1935. A Democrat, he was noted for his radical populist policies. Though a backer of Franklin D...
- The inquest into Long's assassination
- Dutch SchultzDutch SchultzDutch Schultz was a New York City-area Jewish American gangster of the 1920s and 1930s who made his fortune in organized crime-related activities such as bootlegging alcohol and the numbers racket...
's invasion of the HarlemHarlemHarlem is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, which since the 1920s has been a major African-American residential, cultural and business center. Originally a Dutch village, formally organized in 1658, it is named after the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands...
numbers racket - The 1932 Lindbergh kidnappingLindbergh kidnappingThe kidnapping of Charles Augustus Lindbergh, Jr., was the abduction of the son of aviator Charles Lindbergh and Anne Morrow Lindbergh. The toddler, 18 months old at the time, was abducted from his family home in East Amwell, New Jersey, near the town of Hopewell, New Jersey, on the evening of...
of Charles Lindberghs infant son - The Rev. Charles CoughlinCharles CoughlinFather Charles Edward Coughlin was a controversial Roman Catholic priest at Royal Oak, Michigan's National Shrine of the Little Flower church. He was one of the first political leaders to use radio to reach a mass audience, as more than thirty million tuned to his weekly broadcasts during the...
rallies - The 1934 burning of the SS Morro CastleSS Morro CastleThe SS Morro Castle was a luxury cruise ship of the 1930s that was built for the Ward Line for runs between New York City and Havana, Cuba...
. - The 1936 murderMurderMurder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
investigation of novelist Nancy Titterton, the wife of Lewis Titterton, the then President of NBCNBCThe National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago... - The Judiciary Reorganization Bill of 1937Judiciary Reorganization Bill of 1937The Judicial Procedures Reform Bill of 1937, frequently called the court-packing plan, was a legislative initiative proposed by U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt to add more justices to the U.S. Supreme Court. Roosevelt's purpose was to obtain favorable rulings regarding New Deal legislation that...
, aka Roosevelt packing of the Supreme CourtSupreme courtA supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of many legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, instance court, judgment court, high court, or apex court...
. - The Ford Motor CompanyFord Motor CompanyFord Motor Company is an American multinational automaker based in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. The automaker was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. In addition to the Ford and Lincoln brands, Ford also owns a small stake in Mazda in Japan and Aston Martin in the UK...
strike of 1941
Additionally, Cookman was also present, witnessed and reported on the 1937 execution of second degree murder convict
Convict
A convict is "a person found guilty of a crime and sentenced by a court" or "a person serving a sentence in prison", sometimes referred to in slang as simply a "con". Convicts are often called prisoners or inmates. Persons convicted and sentenced to non-custodial sentences often are not termed...
Eva Coo
Eva Coo
Eva Coo was an American-Canadian murderer who was executed by electric chair at Sing Sing Prison.Born Eva Curry in Haliburton, Ontario, Canada, she moved to Toronto while a teenager...
at Sing Sing Prison.
During his investigation of gangster Dutch Schultz
Dutch Schultz
Dutch Schultz was a New York City-area Jewish American gangster of the 1920s and 1930s who made his fortune in organized crime-related activities such as bootlegging alcohol and the numbers racket...
, he was mugged and severely beaten. While never proven, it was widely suspected that Dutch ordered the beating as a warning to Cookman and other reporters to cease their investigations of his crime
Crime
Crime is the breach of rules or laws for which some governing authority can ultimately prescribe a conviction...
and racketeering organization.
Early life
Born in 1899, in BatleyBatley
Batley is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees, in West Yorkshire, England. It lies southeast of Bradford, southwest of Leeds and north of Dewsbury, near the M62 motorway. It has a population of 49,448 . Other nearby towns include Morley to the northeast, Ossett to the southeast...
England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, a suburb of Leeds
Leeds
Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...
, Joseph was the oldest of three children born to John and Ada (née Pattison)Cookman.
In 1907 John, the son of a Methodist Minister and a Ne'er do well
Ne'er do well
A ne'er-do-well is a rogue or vagabond without means of support; a good-for-nothing.Ne'er-do-well can also refer to:* The Ne'er-do-weel, a February 1878 play by W. S. Gilbert, revived the next month, after major revisions, as The Vagabond...
, was sent to Canada with his young wife Ada and two of his three young kids (the youngest child Hannah, was too sick to make the journey at the time) and became a Remittance Man. Shortly after they arrived, John died of appendicitus.
With no money nor means to support herself, Ada put her son Joe in an orphanage at the age of 8. Subsequently, his mother got a job keeping house for a Walter Bowen and moved to his farm on Bowen-Eldridge Rd in Fillmore, New York
Fillmore, New York
Fillmore is a hamlet in Allegany County, New York, United States. It is named after President Millard Fillmore.The former Village of Fillmore dissolved its incorporation and became a community in the Town of Hume in the northwest quadrant of the county.Fillmore is home to the Hungarian Scout Camp...
. Joe was retrieved from the orphanage and went to live with his mother and sister Grace in N.Y. Ada and Walter eventually would marry.. In 1915, Joe's sister Hannah now healthy, sailed from England aboard the , is processed through Ellis Island
Ellis Island
Ellis Island in New York Harbor was the gateway for millions of immigrants to the United States. It was the nation's busiest immigrant inspection station from 1892 until 1954. The island was greatly expanded with landfill between 1892 and 1934. Before that, the much smaller original island was the...
and joined the family in Fillmore.
Joseph graduated from a one room school house in rural Fillmore as Fillmore Central High School was yet to be constructed. He went on to study at Houghton College before joining the Army, going through Officer training school, and serving in World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
as a Lieutenant
Lieutenant
A lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer in many nations' armed forces. Typically, the rank of lieutenant in naval usage, while still a junior officer rank, is senior to the army rank...
in the infantry
Infantry
Infantrymen are soldiers who are specifically trained for the role of fighting on foot to engage the enemy face to face and have historically borne the brunt of the casualties of combat in wars. As the oldest branch of combat arms, they are the backbone of armies...
.
After the war, a friends father who owned a steel mill offered Joe a job paying $75 per week. However, Joe did not want to be a steel salesman but a writer instead and moved to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
settling on the upper west side. He shared an apartment with his sister Grace who had become a nurse.
Married Life
On November 26, 1928, Joe Cookman married Mary Carter Carson, daughter of James Carson a former Chairman of the Colonial Trust Company. They had an episcopal wedding and a reception at the Englewood Golf ClubEnglewood Golf Club
Englewood Golf Club was a golf course located in Englewood, New Jersey and Leonia, New Jersey, just outside New York City, which hosted the U.S. Open in 1909.A map of the front nine is available, http://i53.tinypic.com/29stah.jpg...
. Ushers at the wedding were newspaper men Lindsay Perrott, Ted Dibbell (NY Post), Joy Lilly and John Collins. Mary's brother was also an usher. As newlyweds, they first lived at 750 Riverside Drive in Manhattan. They later moved to the Lower East Side
Lower East Side
The Lower East Side, LES, is a neighborhood in the southeastern part of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is roughly bounded by Allen Street, East Houston Street, Essex Street, Canal Street, Eldridge Street, East Broadway, and Grand Street....
around 14th street, with Joe working at the New York Post
New York Post
The New York Post is the 13th-oldest newspaper published in the United States and is generally acknowledged as the oldest to have been published continuously as a daily, although – as is the case with most other papers – its publication has been periodically interrupted by labor actions...
and Mary working as an advertising assistant at a department store.
Through his work at the Sun and the Post, Joe and Mary became very close friends with Bruce Gould and Beatrice Blackmar Gould. When Bruce and Beatrix moved from the New York Post to the Ladies Home Journal in 1935, they brought Mary Cookman there the next year as an editorial assistant. She eventually was named executive editor and worked with the Goulds at LHJ for nearly 30 years before retiring in 1963. She was known professionally as Mary Bass
Mary Bass
Mary Cookman Bass was an American journalist, author, and executive editor of the Ladies' Home Journal from 1936 to 1963.-Childhood and Early Years:...
for most of her career.
Joe and Mary socialized with much of the New York city literary crowd and counted Bruce Gould and Beatrice Blackmar Gould, Martha Ostenso
Martha Ostenso
Martha Ostenso was a Canadian novelist and screenwriter.-Background:Ostenso was born in Haukeland , in Hordaland County, Norway. Her parents were Sigurd and Olina Ostenso. She emigrated with her family to the United States in 1902...
, Ruth McKenney
Ruth McKenney
Ruth McKenney was an American author and journalist, best remembered for My Sister Eileen, a memoir of her experiences growing up in Ohio and moving to Greenwich Village with her sister Eileen McKenney. This was later adapted as the musical Wonderful Town by Leonard Bernstein.-Early life:McKenney...
, Ted Dibbell, Lindsey Perrott, Bernard Grebanier
Bernard Grebanier
Bernard Grebanier was an American drama historian, critic, writer and poet, most notable for his studies of the works of William Shakespeare.Grebanier was a professor of English at Brooklyn College from 1926 until 1964...
, Hayward Broun among their numerous friends. This crowd used to frequent Harlem
Harlem
Harlem is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, which since the 1920s has been a major African-American residential, cultural and business center. Originally a Dutch village, formally organized in 1658, it is named after the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands...
night clubs the Cotton Club
Cotton Club
The Cotton Club was a famous night club in Harlem, New York City that operated during Prohibition that included jazz music. While the club featured many of the greatest African American entertainers of the era, such as Fletcher Henderson, Duke Ellington, Adelaide Hall, Count Basie, Bessie Smith,...
and The Nest during Prohibition
Prohibition
Prohibition of alcohol, often referred to simply as prohibition, is the practice of prohibiting the manufacture, transportation, import, export, sale, and consumption of alcohol and alcoholic beverages. The term can also apply to the periods in the histories of the countries during which the...
.
Joe and Mary Cookman moved to the Emery Roth
Emery Roth
Emery Roth was an American architect who designed many of the definitive New York City hotels and apartment buildings of the 1920s and 30s, incorporating Beaux-Arts and Art Deco details...
designed building at 570 Park Avenue
Park Avenue (Manhattan)
Park Avenue is a wide boulevard that carries north and southbound traffic in New York City borough of Manhattan. Through most of its length, it runs parallel to Madison Avenue to the west and Lexington Avenue to the east....
in May 1941 . While they never had any children, Joseph influenced many. His younger sister, Hannah Cookman Findlay was an English, writing and drama teacher, at Fillmore Central School until her untimely death in 1965.
Joe and Mary were married for 18 years
Death
Joseph Cookman died August 12, 1944 of tuberculosisTuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
. Upon his death, The Post received a significant outpouring of mail from readers, friends and admirers of Cookman and his years of contributions to the paper. The Post paid its own tribute then additionally selected and published a memorial by Cookmans good friend and drama historian Bernard Grebanier
Bernard Grebanier
Bernard Grebanier was an American drama historian, critic, writer and poet, most notable for his studies of the works of William Shakespeare.Grebanier was a professor of English at Brooklyn College from 1926 until 1964...
.
External links
- New York Post Online—official site
- New York Post Circulation & Readership