Arthur Krock

American newspaper correspondent and columnist

Arthur Bernard Krock (November 16, 1886 – April 12, 1974) was a Pulitzer Prize winning American journalist. He became known as the "Dean of Washington newsmen" in a career that spanned the tenure of 11 United States presidents.

Arthur Krock was born in Glasgow, Kentucky, in 1887. He was the son of German Jewish bookkeeper Joseph Krock and Caroline Morris, who was half Jewish. After his mother became blind, Krock was raised by his grandparents, Emmanuel and Henrietta Morris, until he was six years old. When his mother regained her sight, he joined his parents in Chicago, graduating from high school there in 1904. Krock went on to Princeton University but dropped out in his first year for lack of money. He returned home, and in 1906 graduated with an associate degree from the Lewis Institute in Chicago.

Krock began his career in journalism with the Louisville Herald, then went to Washington as a correspondent for the Louisville Times and Louisville Courier Journal. In 1927, he joined The New York Times and soon became its Washington correspondent and bureau chief. His column, "In the Nation", was noted for its opinions on public policy. For example, amid the Hiss–Chambers and Coplon spy cases and the investigation of David E. Lilienthal's management of the U. S. Atomic Energy Commission, Krock observed: The persons whose names have entered the trials and investigations, fairly and unfairly, include none who was affiliated with the Republican party  The ideal solution from the standpoint of these strategists [President Truman's] would be: (1) the acquittal of Hiss  (2) a find by the Joint Congressional Committee on Atomic Energy that Lilienthal has been a good manager  (3) repudiation by public opinion of the more sensational testimony before the third Un American Committee; (4) at least one substantial trial victory for the Department of Justice. This is a large order. But the deep thinking Democratic politicos think there is a good chance for it. In the mid 1930s, Krock became a friend and staunch advocate of Joseph P. Kennedy and his ambitions. Historian David Nasaw wrote that the journalist seemed to be all but in the pocket of the powerful millionaire (whose first son would become U. S. president while two others would contend for the office. In a 2012 biography of Joe Kennedy, Nasaw wrote that the Krock Kennedy correspondence "reveals something quite disturbing, if not corrupt, about Krock's willingness to do Kennedy's bidding, to advise him or write a speech for him, then praise it in his column "</blockquote>

He was married twice, first to Marguerite Polleys, daughter of a Minneapolis railroad official, from 1911 to her death following a long illness in 1938. They had one son, Thomas, who, during the Spanish Civil War, was one of a handful of Americans who fought in the war on the side of Francisco Franco. In 1939, he wed Martha Granger Blair of Chicago, a divorced society columnist for the Washington Times Herald, who had two sons.