Stephen Bonsal (March 29, 1865 – June 8, 1951) was an American journalist,
war correspondent, author, diplomat, and translator, who won the 1945
Pulitzer Prize for History.
Early life and education
Bonsal was born in
Baltimore, Maryland, in 1865. He was educated at
St. Paul's School in
Concord, New Hampshire. He continued his studies in
Heidelberg,
Bonn, and
Vienna. He married Henrietta Fairfax Morris in March 1900.[1] Bonsal traveled extensively. He claimed that he had visited all the countries of Europe, South America, and Asia with the exception of
Persia.[citation needed]
Journalist
Bonsal was later a special correspondent of the New York Herald (1885–1907), reporting the development of military conflicts including:[1]
He was a foreign correspondent for the New York Times in 1910–1911.
Diplomat
In 1891-1896, Bonsal served as secretary and chargé-d'affaire of the US diplomatic missions in Beijing, Seoul and Tokyo. He also served for a short time at the U.S. embassy in Madrid.[1]
Unfinished Business (1944), a diary describing his experiences during the Paris Peace Treaty negotiations and all the Allied infighting and waxing lyrical about the plight of the wounded veterans and their families, won him the 1945
Pulitzer Prize for History.[3]
"No one else has presented the plight of the plain people of Europe, in relation to the strained secrecy of the Conference, and few have written of their agony as does Colonel Bonsal in terms so hardheaded and so poignant," Time magazine reported on his death.
His second son,
Philip Bonsal, was a career diplomat. Another son,
Dudley Bonsal was a United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.