LIPPMANN, WALTER

LIPPMANN, WALTER (1889–1974), U.S. journalist, whose writing exerted influence on public policy. Born in New York, Lippmann was for several years an assistant to the philosopher George Santayana. In 1914 he began his journalistic career as founder and associate editor of New Republic, a journal of liberal opinion. He left at the outbreak of World War I to serve as an assistant to Newton D. Baker, secretary of war in the Wilson administration, and later helped prepare data for the Peace Conference at Versailles. Lippmann in 1921 joined the staff of the New York World, a crusading newspaper noted for its attacks on corruption, poverty, and injustice. He served as editor from 1929 until the paper ceased publication two years later. He then wrote a column on public affairs for the New York Herald-Tribune, which was syndicated to more than 250 papers in 25 countries and made him widely known and respected. He was awarded two Pulitzer Prizes, in 1958 and 1962. His political philosophy, as expressed in his newspaper writing and nearly 30 books, showed a gradual modification from socialism to liberalism to independent conservatism. His volumes include Preface to Politics (1913), Public Opinion (1922), The Phantom Public (1925), Preface to Morals (1929), Good Society (1937), Cold War (1947), Essays in the Public Philosophy (1955), and Drift and Mastery (1961). -BIBLIOGRAPHY: C. Rossiter and J. Lare (eds.), Essential Lippmann (1963); M. Childs and J. Reston (eds.), Walter Lippmannand his Times (1959); D.E. Weingast, Walter Lippmann (Eng., 1949). (Irving Rosenthal)