Background
Joseph Chamberlain Furnas was born on November 24, 1905 in Indianapolis. He was the son of Isaiah George Furnas and Elizabeth (Chamberlain) Furnas.
Massachusetts Hall, Cambridge, MA 02138, United States
Joseph Furnas received a Bachelor of Arts from Harvard University in 1927.
Joseph Chamberlain Furnas was born on November 24, 1905 in Indianapolis. He was the son of Isaiah George Furnas and Elizabeth (Chamberlain) Furnas.
Joseph Furnas received a Bachelor of Arts from Harvard University in 1927.
Furnas began his writing career in 1927. He wrote for a variety of newspapers and magazines like the Saturday Evening Post and Look and wrote numerous books during his long career, some fiction and some historical. Among the titles are Voyage to Windward: The Life of Robert Louis Stevenson, The Road to Harper’s Ferry: Facts and Follies of the War on Slavery, and his 1989 autobiography My Life in Writing: Memoirs of a Maverick.
His best-known work, however, is probably a three-volume history of American life. At first, he was so daunted by the task proposed by an editor at Putnam’s that he passed, but came back to the assignment and began working. The resulting works are The Americans: A Social History of the United States, 1587-1914, Great Times: An Informal Social History of the United States, 1914-1929, and Stormy Weather, which covered the country from 1929 to 1945. The books were written in what Furnas called the "free association" rather than academic style, and covered such topics as the history of pink lemonade and why Americans spell some words different from the English.
During World War II Joseph also served as a war correspondent.
(Thorough history of the early South Seas with many photos.)
1948Joseph Furnas was a member of Phi Beta Kappa.