Heywood Broun

Heywood Campbell Broun was an American newspaper columnist and critic, best known for his strong stance against social injustice, and his long-running column "It Seems to Me." Broun worked for the New York Tribune from 1912 to 1921, and the New York World from 1921 to 1928, where his "It Seems to Me" column began. In 1928 he transferred to the New York World-Telegram, where "It Seems to Me" appeared until he moved to the New York Post near the end of his life. Broun was a founder of the American Newspaper Guild, and its first president, from 1933 until his death. Broun regularly used his column to defend the underdog, point out social injustice, and back various labor unions. And in 1930 he ran unsuccessfully for congress on the Socialist ticket. Broun was also a member of the Algonquin Round Table, an informal literary group that met regularly at the Algonquin Hotel in New York City, from its inception in 1919 to its decline in 1929. In 1917 Broun married writer and feminist Ruth Hale, and their only child, Heywood Hale Broun, grew up to be a television personality and a writer in his own right. Broun died of pneumonia in 1939, aged 51.