Henry Francis Regnery
Born(1912-01-05)January 5, 1912
Hinsdale, Illinois, U.S.
DiedJune 18, 1996(1996-06-18) (aged 84)
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Other namesHenry Francis Regnery, Sr.
Education
Alma materHarvard University
OccupationPublisher
Known for
SpouseEleanor Scattergood
Children4, including Alfred S. Regnery
Parent(s)William Henry Regnery
Francis Susan Thrasher
Relatives

Henry Francis Regnery (1912–1996) was a conservative American publisher who founded the newspaper Human Events (1944) and the Henry Regnery Company (1947) and published Russell Kirk's classic work The Conservative Mind (1953).[1][2][3][4]

Background

Regnery was born on January 5, 1912,[5] in Hinsdale, Illinois, the second-youngest of five children of Frances Susan Thrasher and William Henry Regnery, a wealthy Catholic textile manufacturer who had emigrated from Ensch, Germany.[1][3][4][6][7] He obtained a BS in Mathematics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1933, [8] and an MA from Harvard University, where he worked with Joseph Schumpeter.[1][2][3][4] He also studied at Armour Institute of Technology, and from 1934 to 1936 at the University of Bonn.[1][4][6]

Career

After graduation, Regnery worked for the New Deal's Resettlement Administration[2] (around the time that Ware Group member Lee Pressman left to go work for John L. Lewis at the Congress of Industrial Organizations).

Publishing

Regnery published Russell Kirk's book The Conservative Mind

In 1944, Regnery financed the creation of the conservative newspaper Human Events.[2]

In 1947, he founded the Henry Regnery Company, now Regnery Publishing.[2][3][4] "[I]t was a measure of the grip that liberal-minded editors had on American publishing at the time that Regnery, which was founded in 1947, was one of only two houses known to be sympathetic to conservative authors," according to Henry Regnery's 1996 obituary.[2]

In 1951, Regnery published God and Man at Yale, the first book written by William F. Buckley, Jr. At that time, Regnery had a close affiliation with the University of Chicago and published classics for the Great Books series at the University, but he lost the contract as a result of publishing Buckley's book.[2] In 1953, Regnery published Russell Kirk's The Conservative Mind, as well as books by Albert Jay Nock, James J. Kilpatrick, and James Burnham. He also published paperback editions of literary works by novelist Wyndham Lewis and poets T. S. Eliot and Ezra Pound.[2] In 1954, Regnery published McCarthy and His Enemies by William F. Buckley and L. Brent Bozell Jr. "Although Mr. Buckley [...] had criticized the senator for 'gross exaggerations,' Mr. McCarthy said he would not dispute the merits of the book with the authors," according to a news article in The New York Times. While criticizing McCarthy, the book was sympathetic to him (and in fact was harsher on McCarthy's critics than it was on the senator for making false allegations[9]), and McCarthy attended a reception for the authors.[10]

In the early 1950s, Regnery published two books by Robert Welch, who went on to found the John Birch Society in 1958. In May God Forgive Us, Welch criticized influential foreign-policy analysts and policymakers and accused many of working to further Communism as part of a conspiracy.[11] In 1954, Regnery published Welch's biography of John Birch, an American Baptist missionary in China who was killed by Chinese Communists after he became a U.S. intelligence officer in World War II.

Regnery sold Henry Regnery Company and started Regnery Publishing, which son Alfred inherited.[2]

Associations

In the latter 1930s, Regnery became a member of the America First Committee,[6] of which his father was a co-founder. Regnery was a member of the American Friends Service Committee, the American Conservatory of Music, and the Chicago Literary Club.[8] He was a trustee of Shimer College in the early 1960s[12] and president of the Philadelphia Society.[13]

Personal life and death

Regnery married Eleanor Scattergood; they had four children: Alfred S. Regnery (1942), Henry Francis Regnery Jr. (1945), Susan Regnery Schnitzler, and Margaret Regnery Caron.[2][14] Their son Henry Francis Regnery Jr. was killed with the crash of American Airlines Flight 191 in 1979.[15]

Regnery died age 84 on June 18, 1996, in Chicago of complications of brain surgery.[2]

His nephew, William Regnery II, became the founder of the white nationalist organizations Charles Martel Society and National Policy Institute.

Works

Works written by Regnery include:

Books
  • Memoirs of a Dissident Publisher (1985)[16]
  • The Cliff Dwellers: The History of a Chicago Cultural Institution (1990)[17]
  • Creative Chicago: From the Chap-Book to the University (1993)[18]
  • A Few Reasonable Words: Selected Writings (1996)[19]
Chapbooks, pamphlets

Legacy

Henry Regnery's papers are kept at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.[27]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Henry Regnery". www.nndb.com.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Thomas Jr., Robert Mcg. (June 23, 1996). "Henry Regnery, 84, Ground-Breaking Conservative Publisher". The New York Times. p. 33. Retrieved July 17, 2021.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Jeffrey O. Nelson, 'Henry Regnery: Missionary of Culture', in The Intercollegiate Review, Fall 1996, pp. 14–22
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 "First Principles Journal biography".
  5. ↑ "Regnery, Henry | Encyclopedia.com".
  6. 1 2 3 "Home – The Chicago Literary Club". www.chilit.org.
  7. ↑ "First Principles – Regnery, Henry". www.firstprinciplesjournal.com. Archived from the original on April 2, 2015.
  8. 1 2 "Henry Regnery". Member Biographies. Chicago Literary Club. March 1, 1999. Retrieved July 30, 2023.
  9. ↑ White, William S., "What the McCarthy Method Seeks to Establish", book review of McCarthy and His Enemies, The New York Times, April 4, 1954.
  10. ↑ Conklin, William R., "M'Carthy Seeking To Push Inquiries: Would Turn to Other Cases if Army Dispute Is Delayed by Hunt for Counsel" [apostrophe in title is correct], news article, The New York Times, March 31, 1954.
  11. ↑ Smith, Robert Aura, "One Man's Opinions", book review in The New York Times, November 16, 1952.
  12. ↑ "Board of Trustees". Shimer College Record. Vol. 52, no. 4. December 1960.
  13. ↑ "The Philadelphia Society". Archived from the original on February 23, 2010.
  14. ↑ "Intercollegiate Studies Institute biography".
  15. ↑ "HENRY REGNERY, AUTHOR AND PUBLISHER". Chicago Tribune. June 19, 1996.
  16. ↑ Regnery, Henry (1985). Memoirs of a Dissident Publisher. Regnery. p. 260. ISBN 978-0-89526-802-0. Retrieved July 17, 2021.
  17. ↑ Regnery, Henry (1990). The Cliff Dwellers: The History of a Chicago Cultural Institution. Chicago: Chicago Historical Bookworks. p. 12. ISBN 0-924772-08-5.
  18. ↑ Regnery, Henry (1993). Creative Chicago: From the Chap-book to the University. Chicago Historical Bookworks. p. 200. ISBN 978-0-924772-24-5. Retrieved July 17, 2021.
  19. ↑ Regnery, Henry (1996). A Few Reasonable Words: Selected Writings. Intercollegiate Studies Institute. p. 366. ISBN 978-1-882926-13-8. Retrieved July 17, 2021.
  20. ↑ Regnery, Henry (1934). Congruences and Residues. Massachusetts Institute of Technology – Department of Mathematics. p. 60. Retrieved July 17, 2021.
  21. ↑ Regnery, Henry (1969). Wyndham Lewis: A Man Against His Time. Chicago Literary Club. p. 33. Retrieved July 17, 2021.
  22. ↑ Regnery, Henry (1980). Russell Kirk: An Appraisal. Clarke Historical Library – Central Michigan University. p. 15. Retrieved July 17, 2021.
  23. ↑ Regnery, Henry (1981). William H. Regnery and His Family. Regnery. p. 75. Retrieved July 17, 2021.
  24. ↑ Regnery, Henry (1984). The Present State of Book Publishing. Regnery Gateway. p. 24. Retrieved July 17, 2021.
  25. ↑ Regnery, Henry (1985). A Prophet Without Honor in His Own Country: Francis F. Browne and The Dial. Chicago Literary Club. p. 14. Retrieved July 17, 2021.
  26. ↑ Regnery, Henry (1995). To Edit or Not to Edit. Chicago Literary Club. p. 13. Retrieved July 17, 2021.
  27. ↑ "Regnery (Henry) papers". www.oac.cdlib.org.
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