Graham Greene: A Legacy of Moral Fiction and Global Insight

Henry Graham Greene, born on October 2, 1904, in Berkhamsted, England, remains one of the most influential English writers and journalists of the 20th century. Renowned for his masterful storytelling and incisive prose, Greene explored complex themes such as morality, faith, politics, and the human psyche, setting him apart in both literary and popular fiction.

Educated at Balliol College, Oxford, Greene initially pursued journalism, working for The Times and later The Spectator. His reporting assignments took him across war-torn and politically unstable regions, including Liberia, Mexico, Vietnam, and Haiti. These experiences profoundly shaped his worldview and infused his novels with global perspectives and political nuance. His time in Vietnam, for instance, inspired The Quiet American (1955), a prophetic critique of U.S. intervention that remains relevant in modern foreign policy discussions.

Greene’s literary output was prolific and diverse. Works like Brighton Rock (1938) and The End of the Affair (1951) examined sin, redemption, and emotional conflict through richly drawn characters. In The Power and the Glory (1940), Greene portrayed the spiritual struggle of a flawed "whisky priest" amid anti-Catholic persecution in Mexico—earning him both critical acclaim and the Hawthornden Prize. Greene categorized his fiction into “entertainments” and “serious novels,” though many works, including thrillers like Our Man in Havana (1958), straddled both.

In cinema, Greene made a lasting impact as the screenwriter of The Third Man (1949), a film noir classic directed by Carol Reed. The movie's haunting portrayal of postwar Vienna and moral ambiguity became emblematic of Greene’s narrative style.

A Catholic convert, Greene's faith was a recurring motif in his works—though he often questioned doctrine and authority. His complex relationship with religion mirrored his characters’ inner turmoil, giving his fiction a unique spiritual depth.

Graham Greene died on April 3, 1991, in Vevey, Switzerland. Today, his works are still studied for their literary brilliance and enduring relevance, and recent anniversaries and adaptations continue to draw attention to his legacy in the 21st century.
Graham Greene: A Legacy of Moral Fiction and Global Insight

Hersey John Richard 1914-1993

The prolific author Hersey John Richard was born on June 17th, 1914, in Tientsin, China. He spent his first ten years in China, and after graduating from Yale and Clare College, Cambridge, he became Sinclair Lewis’s secretary in 1937.

Later he started his career as a journalist. During World War II he wrote to The New York Times, and also to The New Yorker from China and Italy as a correspondent. Hersey covered the war in the South Pacific, the Mediterranean and Moscow.

He wrote 14 novels and many short stories, and he thematically wove into his fiction the events of World War II, particularly the Holocaust as well as social concerns like racial prejudice and inadequate education.

His works include A Bell for Adano (1944), which was awarded Pulitzer Prize, and The Wall (1960), which is about evens in the Warsaw ghetto from November 1939 to May 1943.

In 1946, Hiroshima, a book about the effects of the atomic bomb on the loves of six people, was widely acclaimed. Almost forty years later, Hersey returned to Japan to find out what the lives of those six people has been like.

Hersey wrote two maritime novels, Under the eye of the Storm (1967) examined the marriages and the loves of two married couples on a small sailing yacht during a magnificently portrayed hurricane on the coastal waters of Massachusetts and Rhode island.
Hersey John Richard 1914-1993

Clarence W. Barron (1855 - 1928)

Clarence W. Barron was one of the most influential figures in the history of Dow Jones & Company. Barron was born July 2, 1855, in Boston, and graduated from Boston’s Prescott Grammar English School and Graduate English High School in 1873.

He married Jessie M. Waldron in 1900 and adopted her daughters Jane and Martha.

Clarence Barron worked at a number of Boston newspaper, including the Boston Daily News and the Boston Evening Transcript. From 1878 to 1887, he was a reporter covering many beats but then began gravitating toward financial reporting.

In 1887, he founded the Boston News Bureau and in 1897 the Philadelphia News Bureau providing financial news to brokers.

In 1893 he wrote his first book, The Boston Stock Exchange.

In March 1903, after founder Charles Dow Jones died, Barron purchased Dow Jones & Company for $130,000. At that time the paper’s circulation had already reached 7000; by the end of 1920 it reached 18,750. In 1912, he assumed the title of president and set out to expand the circulation of the newspaper.

Dow Jones remained an influential and prosperous entity during the early years of the twenty-first century.

Barron is widely considered the father of American financial journalism.
Clarence W. Barron (1855 - 1928)

Raymond, Henry Jarvis (1820-1869)

Raymond, Henry Jarvis was born on January 24, 1820 near Lima, New York. He graduated from the Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, later to be known as Syracuse University and the University of Vermont.

Raymond is probably best remembered as the founder and editor of the New York Times. He founded the New York Times, with George Jones in 1851. He also known as American politician.

He began working for the press by contributing to the New Yorker, edited by Horace Greeley, and when Horace Greeley founded the New York Tribune, in 1841, he was made assistant editor of it.

From 1843 to 1851 he was in the editorial staff of the New York Courier and Enquirer.

Raymond was elected to the state assembly in 1849 and after his reelection to a second term, became speaker in 1851.

In 1851 he founded the New York Times which he edited until his death.

During the American Civil War Raymond again acted as war correspondent for his own paper. He was often at the front supervising the activities of his reports while contributing coverage of his own.

He was lieutenant-governor of New York from 1855 to 1857 and in 1864, Raymond was elected member of congress, Raymond ranks among the foremost newspaper editors of his time and notably elevated journalism.
 Raymond, Henry Jarvis (1820-1869)