Edward Henry Clement

Background

Edward Henry Clement was born in Chelsea, Massachusetts, United States. He was the son of Cyrus and Rebecca Fiske (Shortridge).

Education

Edward was graduated from Tufts College in 1864.

Career

Clement had such great faith in the development of the African-American under freedom that in 1865 he took up residence where he could observe that development at first hand, in Savannah. Journalism had fascinated him for many years, and the state of Georgia being at the moment under alien control, he was able to procure work with the Savannah Morning News. In 1867 when the ex-Confederates had to a degree come back into power, the editor regretfully sent the boy home, —the paper’s clientele, he explained, would not countenance a reporter from Boston. Despair over the South was soon alleviated by a succession of journalistic enterprises which took Clement in 1867 to New York with the Tribune, in 1869 to Newark with the Daily Advertiser, and in 1873 to Elizabeth with the Daily Journal.

In 1875, he returned to Boston as associate editor of the Transcript, and in that capacity, before becoming editor-in-chief in 1881, he acquired a lasting interest in dramatic and artistic criticism. His retirement in 1906 was not for the sake of inactivity. He followed sedulously the fortunes of various oppressed races; he took part in societies to prevent imperialism and vivisection, and to better the condition of Boston work horses; and, in addition to a play, The Princess Matilda, he wrote poetry and magazine articles on subjects ranging from the social ideals dominant on the planet Mars, to Boston journalism in the nineteenth century.

To the day of his death he contributed to the Transcript a column called the “Listener, ” and in his old age he devoted himself fervently to painting, —especially to portraiture. He was radical to the extent of opposing the trusts and many aspects of organized religion, but in matters that touched more intimately upon his affections, —the integrity of the family, for instance, and the supremacy of Tennyson as a poet—he was conservative enough to hate Samuel Butler with a perfect hatred. The Transcript spoke of him at the time of his death as mild but determined, fluent and expository rather than forceful, an idealist, a typical example of the “Boston upbringing. ”

Achievements

• Edward Henry Clement was remembered as an editor-in-chief of the newspaper the Transcript and for his nationally-known column the "Listener".

Works

More photos

• book

  • The Bull-Run Rout Scenes Attending the First Clash of Volunteers in the Civil War

Connections

Clement was married twice: in 1869, to Gertrude Pound of New York, who died in 1895; and in 1898 to Josephine Hill Russell of Boston.

Father:

Cyrus Clement

Mother:

Rebecca Fiske (Shortridge) Clement

Spouse:

Gertrude Pound

Spouse:

Josephine Hill Russell

References

• The Correspondence of W.E.B. Du Bois, Volume I: Selections, 1877―1934
• Genealogical and family history of the state of Connecticut; a record of the achievements of her people in the making of a commonwealth and the founding of a nation