Broun, Heywood Campbell

Broun, Heywood Campbell

(bro͞on), 1888–1939, American newspaper columnist and critic, b. Brooklyn, N.Y. He worked on the New York Tribune (1912–21) and the New York World (1921–28), where his syndicated column, "It Seems to Me," began. In 1928 he transferred it to the Scripps-Howard newspapers, including the New York World-Telegram, where it appeared until he moved it to the New York Post just before his death. In his column Broun constantly championed the underdog, criticized social injustice, and backed emerging labor unions. A founder of the American Newspaper Guild, he was its first president from 1933 until his death. In 1930, Broun ran unsuccessfully for congress as a Socialist. His books include The A. E. F. (1918); The Boy Grew Older (1922) and Gandle Follows His Nose (1926), novels; and a biography of Anthony Comstock (with Margaret Leech, 1927). It Seems to Me (1935) and Collected Edition (ed. by H. H. Broun, 1941) give the best of his column.