O'Brien, Robert L. (1965-1955) JSTOR: Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Third Series, Vol. 71 (Oct., Page 1 of 2 STOR Show full citation This is the first page of the item you requested. Robert Lincoln O'Brien HENRY L. SHATTUCK OBERT LINCOLN O'BRIEN was born in Abington, Massachu- R setts, September 14, 1865, son of Patrick O'Brien, a native of Cork, Ireland, and Lydia H. (Dunham) O'Brien. When he was fourteen years of age his father died and he left school to work in his brother's heel-manufacturing business. He kept the books, ran the steam engine, and drove the delivery wagon. For a short time in 1882 he studied for a teaching career at the Bridgewater State Nor- mal School, now a state Teachers College. From there he went to Pinkerton Academy in Derry, New Hampshire, as a teacher. In his spare time he prepared for college by studying Greek, Latin, and other subjects. After a year at Dartmouth, he transferred to the Lawrence Scientific School at Harvard, and in his senior year to Har- vard College, graduating cum laude with the class of 1891. Immediately after graduating he was employed as a reporter on the Boston Evening Transcript. During the presidential campaign of 1892 he became stenographer and personal secretary to Grover Cleveland, and when Mr. Cleveland took office in March of the fol- lowing year he moved to the White House as executive clerk. In a paper read to the Society at its February meeting in 1951 he gave an entertaining account of his experiences. Upon the termination of this Ca assignment he returned to the Transcript sits Washington correspond- ent, serving in that capacity from 1895 to 1906. I well remember his very informative dispatches under the byline of "Lincoln." In 1906 he returned to Boston to take charge of the editorial page of the Transcript. He resigned from this position in 1910 to become Editor of the Boston Herald and President of its publishing corporation. My impression is that as the years went by he became more and more out of sympathy with some policies of the principal stockholders, to which he was expected to conform editorially. At any rate, he resigned at the end of 1928. I remember one occasion in the middle 1920's when I came to him to seek his support for a bill to make it easier for cities and towns to establish municipal lighting plants. At that time the private utilities were riding high and were pretty arrogant. He said to me, "You Robert Lincoln O'Brien, by Henry L. Shattuck © 1953 Massachusetts Historical Society. Want the full article? Login to access JSTOR, or check our access options. You may have access for free through an institution. 2/14/2010 http://www.jstor.org/pss/25080504 CLIO: Brief View Page 1 of 2 CLIO library Web COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES onli LibraryWeb Request It Borrow Direct New Headings Titles Search Saved Bookbag Place My Library Search all Help Search History Searches Requests Account CU Catalogs Login Database: Columbia University Libraries Search Request: Author = O'Brien robert lincoln Search Results: Displaying 1 of 1 entries Previous Next Brief View Full View MARC View Reminiscences of Robert Lincoln O'Brien : Author: O'Brien. Robert Lincoln, 1865-1955. Title: Reminiscences of Robert Lincoln O'Brien : oral history, 1951. Physical Description: Transcript: 177 leaves. Restrictions: Access: Open. Copyright by The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York, 1972. Permission required to cite, quote, and reproduce. Contact repository for information. LC Subjects: O'Brien, Robert Lincoln. 1865-1955. Publishers and publishing--Interviews. Journalism. Tariff--Law and legislation-United States. Newspaper publishing. Sacco-Vanzetti Trial, Dedham, Mass., 1921. Material Type: Archival/Manuscript Material Location (guide): Oral History, 801 Butler (Non-Circulating) Call Number: NXCP88-A771 Status: No information available Previous Print/Save/Email Select Download Format Short Citation Display for Print/Save Save Search Strategy Enter full email address: Email Save Records To Bookbag Search Headings Titles History SavedSearches BookBag PlaceRequests MyAccount SearchAllCU Hel http://clio.cul.columbia.edu/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?Search%5FArg=O%27Brien%20robe... 12/28/2005 I.A.B. Supp-5 Oberndorf O'Brien Oberndorf was the first to set up formal instruc- Association, July 1954; Philip R. Lehrman, Psycho tion in psychoanalysis in America-in New analytic Quarterly, July 1954; and Dudley D. York in the 1920's. The New York group was Schoenfeld, International Fournal of Psycho-Analysis, successful in the early 1930's in reorganizing the May-June 1955. See also John C. Burnham, Psycho- American Psychoanalytic Association into a analysis and American Medicine, 1894-1918: Medicine, highly restrictive organization concerned with Science, and Culture (1967).] JOHN C. BURNHAM training and with establishing standards for psychoanalysis. The members successfully defied their colleagues throughout the world by O'BRIEN, ROBERT LINCOLN (Sept. I4, refusing to countenance lay analysts, even after 1865-Nov. 23, 1955), journalist, editor, and many European practitioners had sought refuge tariff expert, was born in Abington, Mass., the in the United States. Oberndorf was a leader in son of Patrick O'Brien, an immigrant from all these causes, serving as president of the Ireland, and Lydia Howard Dunham. His early American Psychoanalytic Association in 1924 life was hard, for the family was large and his and again in 1936, when he inaugurated a new father, a cobbler, died when O'Brien was federal structure that had been recommended by fourteen, forcing him to leave the Abington a committee under his chairmanship. The re- public schools in order to work in his brother organization marked a new phase of the psycho- William's heel-manufacturing business. analytic movement in the United States, one in O'Brien worked at a variety of tasks but which analysts were extremely rigorously trained showed little enthusiasm for the business. It and aggressively advocated a strictly Freudian apparently did not prove difficult for his mother viewpoint. (In his later years, however, to persuade him to enter Bridgewater State Oberndorf was himself less orthodox.) Normal School in 1882, although he disliked In 1948 Oberndorf published Which Way the prospect of teaching. O'Brien's doubts were Out, a collection of short stories based on his realized when he discovered that his first job, case material, and in 1953 the highly autobio- in Natick, Mass., paid only $10 for a thirty- graphical A History of Psychoanalysis in three-hour week. He used his next position, at America, which documented his view that Pinkerton Academy in Derry, N.H., to prepare psychoanalysis would become increasingly more for college, learning Greek and Latin. Although influential in American life. He also published he passed the preliminary examinations for more than IOO scientific papers that reflected Harvard, he enrolled at Dartmouth for a year. his continuing interest in general psychiatric He then transferred to Harvard, where he spent problems as well/ as technical psychoanalysis. two years in the Lawrence Scientific School He made particularly important contributions and his senior year in Harvard College, gradu- concerning feelings of depersonalization, and ating with a B.A. in 1891. toward the end of his career he was influen- Immediately following his graduation cum tial in inducing psychoanalysts to consider laude, O'Brien began work as a reporter for unfavorable as well as favorable results of the Boston Evening Transcript. In June 1892, therapy in their evaluation of both method and the newly nominated Democratic presidential theory. Although highly cultured and erudite, candidate, Grover Cleveland, was seeking a he mistrusted theorizing and emphasized clinical personal stenographer. At the suggestion of effectiveness. From 1914 to 1920 he held a John B. Smith of the Boston Herald, Cleveland clinical appointment at Cornell, and from 1936 appointed O'Brien to the position. After Cleve- to 1949 he was clinical professor at Columbia. land's election, O'Brien officially became the A lifelong bachelor, Oberndorf entertained executive clerk of the White House, while un- his many friends with his conversation, stories, officially he was almost a son to Cleveland. Even and sharp wit. (He is said to be the wag who after their official relationship ended in 1895, noted that "the big trouble with self-analysis is they felt affection and respect for each other. the countertransference.") He died in New In fact, for years O'Brien intended to write an York City. intimate biography of Cleveland, although there is no evidence that he ever began the project. [Alexander Grinstein, The Index of Psychoanalytic Writings, III (1958), lists Oberndorf's published On Feb. 19, 1895, O'Brien married Emily works. Oberndorf's History of Psychoanalysis in Ayers Young of Lisbon, N.H., a graduate of America (1953) contains much autobiographical Boston University and its medical school; they material; he also wrote An Autobiographical Sketch had three children. She died in 1945, and in (1958). There are obituaries by Paul Goolker, 1950 he married Helen Victoria Brown, a American Journal of Psychiatry, Oct. 1954; Lawrence teacher. Later in 1895 O'Brien became Washing- S. Kubie, Fournal of the American Psychoanalytic ton correspondent for the Transcript, quickly 518 O'Brien Odum establishing a reputation for analysis and expert on tariff policy. No free trader, he argued knowledge of the capital beat. He was recognized persuasively throughout the 1930's that a fair as a political oracle and for years remained in and equitable rate schedule was needed in order great demand as an after-dinner speaker. He to balance the legitimate requirements of combined a sparkling wit, with an amazing industry, labor, and consumers at home against knowledge of political history. the demands of international economic relations. O'Brien became a Republican in 1896. He Such views fit well with Secretary of State could not, then or later, tolerate "radical" men Cordell Hull's thinking on tariffs, so O'Brien be- or causes like William Jennings Bryan or free came a valued, if largely unknown, part of the silver. He expressed his conventional views on New Deal. He strongly endorsed Hull's numerous occasions in editorials for Youth's reciprocal tariff program, using his credentials Companion and in articles printed in Century, as a good Republican businessman to convince Atlantic, Munsey's, and Outlook. For Ladies' other Republicans to accept that program. He Home Journal he ran a column called "What the was reappointed by President Roosevelt in 1936 President Thinks" during Theodore Roosevelt's to another six-year term but retired on July I, presidency. 1937. He died in Washington, D.C. O'Brien returned to Boston in 1906 as editor Clifford K. Shipton, a longtime friend and of the Transcript. He served in that post until associate in the American Antiquarian Society, 1910, when he became editor of the newly re- described O'Brien best: "Mr. O'Brien gave an organized Boston Herald and president of the impression of greatness which goes beyond the Boston Publishing Company. Under his direc- record of his career. He was no crusader. tion the negotiations that produced the con- Although a lifelong Unitarian, he was comfort- solidation of the Herald and the Traveler were ably orthodox on social and political questions. completed in 1912. O'Brien continued to serve Perhaps the answer is that he was a great as editor of the Herald and president of the newspaperman, correctly interpreting the public combined companies until his retirement from mind instead of trying to change it" (Proceedings active journalism in 1928. The Herald became of the American Antiquarian Society, April 1956). a major American newspaper, in large part because he insisted upon high-quality writing [There is no MS collection, diary, or journal; but and reporting. Others early recognized O'Brien's there are numerous writings in the Boston Transcript, commitment to the finest standards of journal- 1895-1906, and editorials, 1906-1910; editorials in ism, and for many years he served on the the Boston Herald, 1910-1928; editorials in Youth's advisory board of the Pulitzer School of Companion, 1896-1904; columns in Ladies' Home Journalism at Columbia University, the award Fournal, "What the President Thinks," 1901-1906; body for the Pulitzer prizes in journalism. and articles in Century, Atlantic, Munsey's, and Out- look, 1896-1906. All these are on political, economic, O'Brien wrote with skill and occasionally with and current subjects, and thus reveal little of O'Brien's brilliance. Of the thousands of news stories and personal life. articles that he wrote, perhaps the best known Important obituaries are in New York Times, Nov. was "Just a Word With Nancy Hanks," a 24, 1955 (with portrait); Boston Herald, Nov. 24, 1,000-word piece written in 1912. It was widely 1955; and Proceedings of the American Antiquarian distributed, and one year was given to every Society, April 1956. The Dyer Memorial Library in schoolchild in New York state (Boston Herald, Abington, Mass., is a valuable repository of personal Nov. 24, 1955). stories and anecdotes. (O'Brien was an original O'Brien traveled extensively, beginning in trustee of this library.) In 1951 O'Brien contributed a 177-page memoir to the Columbia University Oral 1903 with an around-the-world trip. He care- fully observed people and customs wherever he History Collection.] WILLIAM F. STEIRER, JR. went. Although he had not formally studied economics, he became knowledgeable in inter- national economic theory. He was, therefore, ODUM, HOWARD WASHINGTON (May prepared after his retirement to take on the 24, 1884-Nov. 3, 1954), sociologist, was born challenge of heading the United States Tariff near Bethlehem, Ga., the son of William Commission, a post that President Herbert Pleasants Odum and Marv Ann Thomas Odum. Hoover offered him in 1931. He grew up in modest circumstances on his O'Brien's appointment was intended as a family's small farm. His formal education was sinecure for a loyal and active Republican, but a product of hard work, borrowed money, and he was not satisfied with a sinecure. Assailed happy coincidence. At the age of thirteen the initially by Democrats and Progressives, he family moved to Oxford, Ga., where he attended (earned respect as a thoughtful and open-minded Emory Academy and College, graduating in 519