Richard Washburn Child

Background

Child, Richard Washburn was born on August 5, 1881 in Worcester, Massachusetts, United States. Son of Horace Walter and Susan Sawyer (Messinger) Child.

Education

Born in Worcester, Massachusetts, Child went to Harvard University and Law School where he graduated in 1906 to become a business lawyer

Career

Child founded the Progressive Republican League in Massachusetts, a forerunner of the Progressive Party, and during World War I, he worked first as a correspondent in Europe and Russia, then for the United States. Treasury, writing propaganda. In 1916 he published a book, calling for United States. investment in Russia. After the war he became editor of Collier"s Weekly (1919).

In 1920 he wrote campaign material for Presidential candidate Warren G. Harding, who rewarded him with the ambassadorship in Italy (from May 1921 to February 1924), where among other diplomatic activities he encouraged Benito Mussolini to start his March on Rome, as he records in his memoir A Diplomat looks at Europe (1925).

He also promoted United States. investment in Italy under Mussolini, especially from the J. P. Morgan bank. After his return to the United States of America, he became editor for The Saturday Evening Post and served on the National Crime Commission in 1925.

In 1928 he became a paid propaganda writer for Benito Mussolini, whose notes he ghostwrote and serialized as My Autobiography in The Saturday Evening Post, and whose politics he praised in numerous articles for the Hearst press Child also wrote a number of crime stories and promotional tracts throughout his career.

Achievements

• Richard Washburn Child has been listed as a notable author, diplomat by Marquis Who's Who.

Politics

Together with Thomas West. Lamont he rates as one of the most influential American promoters of Italian fascism until his death in 1935.

Connections

Married Maude Parker, August 1916. Married second, Eva Sanderson, September 1927. Children: Anne, Constance.

Father:

Horace Walter Child

Mother:

Susan Sawyer (Messinger) Child

Spouse:

Maude Parker

Spouse:

Eva Sanderson

child:

Anne Child

child:

Constance Child