Background
Wendell Willkie was born on February 18, 1892, in Elwood, Indiana, the third son of Herman Francis Willkie and Henrietta Trisch. All four of his grandparents had emigrated from Germany, mainly to escape repressive political conditions.
(In One World Wendell Willkie gives a highly personal acco...)
In One World Wendell Willkie gives a highly personal account of his meetings with Stalin, Chiang Kai-shek, General Montgomery, General Chennault and other United Nations leaders.
https://www.amazon.com/One-World-Wendell-L-Willkie/dp/B000ZG3V8C?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B000ZG3V8C
(A collection of 14 speeches and writings by Wendell Willk...)
A collection of 14 speeches and writings by Wendell Willkie, as well as a biographical introduction by Stanley Walker.
https://www.amazon.com/This-Wendell-Willkie-Collection-Present-Day/dp/B0006D7CD4?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B0006D7CD4
(A campaign biography of the insurgent who captured the 19...)
A campaign biography of the insurgent who captured the 1940 Republican Presidential nomination.
https://www.amazon.com/Willkie-Selection-Writings-Present-Day-Issues/dp/B000OFBPQO?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B000OFBPQO
Wendell Willkie was born on February 18, 1892, in Elwood, Indiana, the third son of Herman Francis Willkie and Henrietta Trisch. All four of his grandparents had emigrated from Germany, mainly to escape repressive political conditions.
After attending Elwood public schools, Wendell Willkie entered Indiana University, from which he received the B. A. degree in 1913. To earn money for law school, he next taught history at the Coffeyville (Kans. ) high school but in November 1914 resigned (to the deep regret of the student body) to take a more remunerative job as a chemist in a Puerto Rican sugar factory.
He entered the Indiana University law school in 1915 and a year later received his LL. B.
After graduation he joined his parents' law firm; but on the outbreak of World War I in the spring of 1917, he volunteered for military duty and gained a commission as first lieutenant in the 325th Artillery. The regiment got to France but to Willkie's intense disappointment never engaged in combat.
After his discharge from the army early in 1919, Willkie joined the legal staff of the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company in Akron, Ohio.
He resigned at the end of 1920 to enter a private law firm in Akron and soon earned a reputation as a brilliant and aggressive courtroom lawyer.
In 1929 he moved to New York City to work in the legal department of Commonwealth and Southern Corporation; four years later the dynamic lawyer was president of the huge utilities holding company. After 1933 he gained national prominence as leader of the battle of privately owned utilities against competition from the federal government’s Tennessee Valley Authority.
Although Willkie had been a Democrat in the early 1930s, he turned Republican a few years later because of what he felt to be unwise government restraints on business enterprise. His effective criticism of Roosevelt’s New Deal administration made him a dark horse candidate for the Republican nomination in 1940. Spontaneously, hundreds of grass-roots “Willkie for President” clubs sprang up throughout the country. Despite a late start, limited organization, and opposition from a large segment of party leadership, he was nominated on the sixth ballot. Campaigning until he lost his voice from strenuous speaking, Willkie stressed the need to create more jobs through policies fostering business expansion and investment—at the same time preserving the best of the New Deal reforms. He also supported aid to the Allies as World War II engulfed Europe. The opposition capitalized on Willkie’s Wall Street background and the critical nature of the world situation, however, with the result that he carried only 10 states (82 electoral votes to Roosevelt’s 449); nevertheless, his popular vote of more than 22, 000, 000 was the largest ever received by a Republican to that time.
Willkie went on to stress the need for a “loyal opposition” in a two-party system; he visited England (1941) and the Middle East, the Soviet Union, and China (1942). In 1942 he became chairman of the board of 20th Century-Fox Film Corporation. His book, One World (1943), largely an outgrowth of his travels, made a strong plea for postwar cooperation and was influential in turning many Republicans away from isolationism.
Support of Roosevelt’s war policies brought considerable opposition to Willkie’s renomination in 1944, and after his defeat in the Wisconsin primary, he withdrew from the race.
Wendell Lewis Willkie died on October 8, 1944, in New York, of a heart attack.
(In One World Wendell Willkie gives a highly personal acco...)
(A collection of 14 speeches and writings by Wendell Willk...)
(A campaign biography of the insurgent who captured the 19...)
Wendell Lewis Willkie was a liberal Democrat in early life, but after 1939 he became a member of the Republican Party.
Quotations:
"Education is the mother of leadership. "
"I believe in America because we have great dreams, and because we have the opportunity to make those dreams come true. "
"The test of good manners is to be able to put up pleasantly with bad ones. "
"No man has a right in America to treat any other man "tolerantly" for tolerance is the assumption of superiority. Our liberties are equal rights of every citizen. "
On January 14, 1918, Wendell Lewis Willkie married Edith Wilk. They had one child, Philip Herman.