Charles Wertenbaker

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Charles Christian Wertenbaker
Born(1901-02-11)11 February 1901
Lexington, Virginia, US
Died8 January 1955(1955-01-08) (aged 53)
Paris
Occupation(s)journalist and writer
Years active1931–1954
EmployerTime
Spouse(s)Nancy Hale 1935-1941, Lael Tucker Wertenbaker
ChildrenWilliam b.1938, Christian Wertenbaker, Timberlake Wertenbaker
ParentWilliam C. "Bill" Wertenbaker

Charles Christian Wertenbaker.[1] (11 February 1901 – 8 January 1955) was an American journalist for Time, and author.

Career[edit]

Wertenbaker was born in 1901, the son of American football coach Bill Wertenbaker.

Wertenbaker worked for Time publications (Fortune, Life, and Time) from 1931 to 1948.[1] In 1940, William Saroyan lists him among "associate editors" at Time in the play, Love's Old Sweet Song.[2]

By 1942, Wertenbaker was the magazine's foreign editor. Whittaker Chambers, who served as foreign editor later in World War II, described him and other colleagues in his 1952 memoir:

I had scarcely edited it so long when most of Time's European correspondents joined in a round-robin protesting my editorial views and demanding my removal . They were seconded by a clap of thunder out of Asia, from the Time bureau in Chungking. Let me list the signers of the round-robin, or those among Time's foreign correspondents who supported it, and continued to feed out news written from the viewpoint that the Soviet Union is a benevolent democracy of unaggressive intent, or that the Chinese Communists are "agrarian liberals," for I think that they are enlightening. Foremost among them were: John Hersey, John Scott (son of my old teacher of the law of social revolution, Scott Nearing), Charles C . Wertenbaker, the late Richard Lauterbach, Theodore White.[3]

Towards the end of the war, Wertenbaker reported from Paris, where he knew people like Ernest Hemingway and Irwin Shaw.[4] He was one of many journalist who hung out at the Bar in the Hotel Scribe, as painted by colleague Floyd MacMillan Davis in Paris in 1945.[5] Wertenbaker described the scene in an article for Life (magazine).[6]

After the war, he remained in France, where he continued as both journalist and author.[7][4]

Personal life[edit]

In 1942, Wertenbaker married Lael Tucker Wertenbaker, also a Time journalist,[4] whom an official of the German Nazi propaganda ministry called a dangerous woman.[8]

Later, she became an author. Her best known book is Death of a Man, an account of her husband's illness and death by euthanasia. In 1962, Garson Kanin adapted the book for a Broadway play called A Gift of Time.[7]

They had a son, Dr. Christian Wertenbaker,[8] and a daughter, Timberlake Wertenbaker, a playwright.[4]

In 1955 Lael Tucker Wertenbaker and her son Christian were interviewed by Orson Welles on the Basque Country. Living in Ciboure, Basque, at that time, Lael gives a lively insight to that small town on the northern side of the Pyrenees and basque people and culture. Christian gives some short answers.[9] In 1955, Orson Welles became involved in a BBC series of documentaries, titled "Around the World with Orson Welles".

Death[edit]

Wertenbaker died of colon cancer in 1955. After his death in Paris, his wife moved to New York and New Hampshire in 1966, settling in Keene, New Hampshire in 1985.[4]

Writing[edit]

Wertenbaker began publishing books in college.

Books[edit]

  • Boojum! (1928)
  • Peter the Drunk (1930)
  • Before They Were Men (1931)
  • To My Father (1936)
  • A New Doctrine for the Americas (1941)
  • Invasion (1945)
  • Write Sorrow on the Earth (1947)
  • The Death of Kings (1954)

Articles[edit]

"Precision in the North" (April 19, 1943)[10]
"Paris is Free: Merci! Merci! Merci!" (September 4, 1944)[11]
"Germany's Chance on the Western Front" (January 15, 1945)[12]
"This Invasion Was Different" (April 2, 1945)[13]
"No. 21" (July 21, 1947)[14]
"The Pursuit of the Wild Pigeon" (November 11, 1950)[15]
"Department of Amplification" (October 20, 1951)[16]
"The World on His Back" (December 26, 1953)[17]
"The Testing of M. Thulier" (June 5, 1954)[18]

Footnotes[edit]

  1. ^ a b "Theater: Death on Demand". New York: Random House. 2 March 1962. Archived from the original on July 24, 2008. Retrieved 9 November 2012.
  2. ^ Saroyan, William (1940). Love's Old Sweet Song: A Play in Three Acts. Samuel French. p. 72. Retrieved 15 July 2017.
  3. ^ Chambers, Whittaker (1952). Witness. New York: Random House. p. 498. LCCN 52005149. 52-5149.
  4. ^ a b c d e Nemy, Enid (29 March 1997). "Lael Wertenbaker, 87, Author Who Wrote of Husband's Death". New York Times. Retrieved 9 November 2012.
  5. ^ ""Bar in the Hotel Scribe" (Paris) by Floyd Davis". Flickr. c. 1944. Retrieved 9 November 2012.
  6. ^ Wertenbaker, Charles (16 July 1945). "Paris 1945". Life (Vol. 19, No. 3). pp. 46–55.
  7. ^ a b "Books: Hemispheric". New York: Random House. 24 March 1941. Archived from the original on June 22, 2010. Retrieved 9 November 2012.
  8. ^ a b NEMY, ENID (29 March 1997). "Lael Wertenbaker, 87, Author Who Wrote of Husband's Death". The New York Times. The New York Times Company. Retrieved 27 June 2014.
  9. ^ Around the World with Orson Welles - Orson Welles on the Basque Country with Lael Tucker Wertenbaker
  10. ^ Wertenbaker, Charles (19 April 1943). "Precision in the North". Time. Archived from the original on December 14, 2008. Retrieved 9 November 2012.
  11. ^ Wertenbaker, Charles (4 September 1944). "Paris is Free: Merci! Merci! Merci!". Time. Archived from the original on December 15, 2008. Retrieved 9 November 2012.
  12. ^ Wertenbaker, Charles (15 January 1945). "Germany's Chance on the Western Front". Time. Archived from the original on July 6, 2010. Retrieved 9 November 2012.
  13. ^ Wertenbaker, Charles (2 April 1945). "This Invasion Was Different". Time. Archived from the original on December 21, 2011. Retrieved 9 November 2012.
  14. ^ Wertenbaker, Charles (21 July 1947). "No. 21". Time. Archived from the original on July 15, 2009. Retrieved 9 November 2012.
  15. ^ Wertenbaker, Charles (11 November 1950). "The Pursuit of the Wild Pigeon". New Yorker. Retrieved 9 November 2012.
  16. ^ Wertenbaker, Charles (20 October 1951). "Department of Amplification". New Yorker. Retrieved 9 November 2012.
  17. ^ Wertenbaker, Charles (26 December 1953). "The World on His Back". New Yorker. Retrieved 9 November 2012.
  18. ^ Wertenbaker, Charles (5 June 1954). "The Testing of M. Thulier". New Yorker. Retrieved 9 November 2012.
  19. ^ Wertenbaker, Charles (December 1955). "Journey with Young Guitars". New Yorker. Retrieved 9 November 2012.
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