Background
David Lawrence was born near Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States to Harris Lawrence, an immigrant tailor, and Dora Lawrence. His family moved to Buffalo, New York, when Lawrence was an infant.
(Additional Contributor Is L. Noble Robinson.)
Additional Contributor Is L. Noble Robinson.
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(Additional Contributor Is L. Noble Robinson.)
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(Additional Contributor Is L. Noble Robinson.)
Additional Contributor Is L. Noble Robinson.
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(Additional Contributor Is L. Noble Robinson And Arthur H....)
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(Additional Contributor Is L. Noble Robinson.)
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(Includes The Index To Volume 27, July 1, 1949 To December...)
Includes The Index To Volume 27, July 1, 1949 To December 30, 1949. Additional Contributor Is L. Noble Robinson.
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David Lawrence was born near Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States to Harris Lawrence, an immigrant tailor, and Dora Lawrence. His family moved to Buffalo, New York, when Lawrence was an infant.
Lawrence attended high school and Princeton University. He received his B. A. from Princeton in 1910.
In 1903, while at his teens, Lawrence began what was to become a lifelong career in journalism by selling some photographs of local athletes to the Buffalo Express. In the college he was a campus correspondent for the Associated Press (AP) and several newspapers. As an undergraduate, in the spring of 1908 he traveled to nearby Lakewood, New Jersey, to report on the health of a gravely ill President Grover Cleveland. Before returning to Princeton he befriended Mrs. Cleveland, who promised to inform him of any changes in her husband's condition. On June 24, 1908, Mrs. Cleveland wired Lawrence news of the president's death that morning, and Lawrence immediately telephoned the AP. Later the Associated Press rewarded him for his scoop by hiring him for a night-shift position with its Washington, D. C. , bureau.
In Washington, he covered the White House, and after a stint in Mexico covering the Madero (1911) and Orozco (1912) revolutions, returned to Washington to report on the McNamara trial, which resulted from a labor disturbance in Los Angeles. In 1912, he was assigned to Wilson's first presidential campaign. Although he was to support every Republican president from Herbert Hoover on, the young Lawrence admired Wilson's policies and later called himself a conservative liberal.
At the start of World War I, Lawrence covered war news related to Washington for the AP. In 1915, he was the first journalist to uncover the resignation of Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan, an advocate of neutrality who had continued to argue against American involvement in the war despite the sinking of the passenger liner Lusitania by a German submarine.
Lawrence left the AP in 1916 to join the New York Evening Post as its Washington correspondent. He gained a measure of renown when, against the prevailing wisdom, he predicted a second-term Wilson victory over Charles Evans Hughes. His syndicated dispatches became the first to be carried nationally by wire and his daily column began appearing in large newspapers across the country. Realizing that he had to pay for eight hours of wire time daily even though his column required only half an hour to transmit, Lawrence's entrepreneurial bent led him in 1919 to create the Consolidated Press Association (CPA), of which he became president. His association filled the remaining wire time with news of sports, agriculture, the financial markets, and foreign affairs. The most popular information disseminated by CPA was its stock market quotations and closing prices. This enterprise lasted until 1933, but it faded after the crash of 1929 diminished the public's interest in the stock market and caused newspapers to cut back on financial news.
Meanwhile, Lawrence had started a second news service, Current News Features. In 1926 he launched The United States Daily, a newspaper reporting on governmental affairs and carrying full texts of official documents. This newspaper became something of a status symbol in Washington, although it was thought to have more subscribers than readers and was unable to develop sufficient advertising sponsorship. When the Daily folded in 1933, Lawrence divided its contents into two new companies: the Bureau of National Affairs, which continued to deliver daily and weekly reports in specialized fields; and the United States News, which carried news, analysis, and interpretation of national affairs. Originally a newspaper, the United States News was made into a magazine in 1940.
Lawrence also founded the internationally oriented World Report in 1946 and was its president. He edited United States News until he merged the two publications in U. S. News and World Report in 1947. From 1948 to 1959, he was president and editor of the consolidated U. S. News and World Report. Thereafter, until his death he was board chairman as well as editor of the magazine. During this period, his dispatch on national and world affairs was syndicated to more than three hundred daily newspapers in the United States.
An admirer of American industrialists, Lawrence opposed limiting their salaries during World War II and in December 1941 supported antistrike legislation. He warned against government growth and criticized President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the New Deal, and the Supreme Court. Despite his personal views, he was scrupulous in separating fact and opinion in his magazine. He hired highly competent staff to work on U. S. News and World Report, paid them well, and eventually made it possible for them to assume ownership of the company he had founded. He ended his career as a salaried worker employed by his former employees. When American University was in trouble in 1943, he directed a reorganization of its administration and bylaws and helped it to secure accreditation. He also worked to reform the county government in Fairfax, Virginia, where he owned a farm. Lawrence died at his home in Sarasota, Florida.
(Includes The Index To Volume 27, July 1, 1949 To December...)
(Additional Contributor Is L. Noble Robinson.)
(Additional Contributor Is L. Noble Robinson.)
(Additional Contributor Is L. Noble Robinson.)
(Additional Contributor Is L. Noble Robinson And Arthur H....)
(Additional Contributor Is L. Noble Robinson.)
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In 1918, Lawrence married Ellanor Campbell Hayes. She died in 1969. They had four children.