I have framed their stories by two chapters, descriptions of the city in 1900 and in 1950. They were Philadelphians: often uncelebrated at home, and yet at home in Philadelphia. The collector was a radical proponent of a fundamental theory of art. The diplomatist was the most brilliant of the ambassadors of the Republic during the 1930s. The lady writer, now forgotten, during her lifetime was the dean of American essayists. The magazine mogul was the most famous embodiment of the American success story in his lifetime. The political boss was perhaps the most monumental politician of his time. I have chosen to write about some of them in this book, about Philadelphians who lived and flourished mainly during the first half of this century: a political boss, a magazine mogul, a lady writer, an impetuous diplomatist, a Philadelphia lawyer, a patrician prophet of decline, an art collector, and others. The more authentic their character, the more eccentric they were, in the original sense of that adjective, outside the central stream of American life, while they were rooted in Philadelphia. Their conventions were complex, and their convictions often paradoxical. This was true, too, of certain people who were authentic Philadelphians. The more one found out about it, the more interesting it became. PHILADELPHIA Patricians & Philistines 1900–1950Īny foreign visitors in the late nineteenth century, as well as this writer in the twentieth, found Philadelphia to be an unexpected city.1 This place, in America, was not an exaggerated representation of itself, like New York or Chicago, or like others that would actually become caricatures of themselves. Owen Wister as a young man Photo courtesy of the American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming, LaramieĪlbert C. George Wharton Pepper in 1927 at age sixty
George Wharton Pepper Or The Patrician as PhariseeĪlbert Coombs Barnes Or The Methodist as Aestheteīoies Penrose, standing beside a Fourth of July floatĪgnes Repplier at the start of her career in 1886Īmbassador William C. William Christian Bullitt Or The Rebel Philadelphian F158.5.L9 2015 974.8’11-dc23 2015009867īoies Penrose Or The Conservative as GargantuaĪgnes Repplier Or The Writer in Solitude Philadelphia (Pa.)-Social life and customs.
Includes bibliographical references and index. pages cm Originally published: Toronto : McGraw-Hill Ryerson Limited., 1980.
Library of Congress Catalog Number: 2015009867 ISBN: 978-1-4128-5597-6 Printed in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Lukacs, John, 1924 Philadelphia : patricians and philistines, 1900-1950 / by John Lukacs. All inquiries should be addressed to Transaction Publishers, 10 Corporate Place South, Suite 102, Piscataway, New Jersey 08854. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Originally published by Farrar, Straus, Giroux, New York, NY. BOOKS BY JOHN LUKACS The Great Powers and Eastern Europe Tocqueville: The European Revolution and Correspondence with Gobineau (ED.) A History of the Cold War Decline and Rise of Europe A New History of the Cold War Historical Consciousness The Passing of the Modern Age The Last European War, 1939-1941 1945: Year Zeroįirst paperback publication © 2015.