{{Short description|British journalist and wit}} {{Use dmy dates|date=February 2020}} {{EngvarB|date=February 2020}} {{Infobox person | name = Douglas Woodruff | image = <!-- filename only, no "File:" or "Image:" prefix, and no enclosing brackets --> | alt = <!-- descriptive text for use by speech synthesis (text-to-speech) software --> | caption = | birth_name = <!-- only use if different from name --> | birth_date = 1897 | birth_place = | death_date = 1978 | death_place = | nationality = | other_names = | occupation = * Editor of Tablet magazine *Chairman of Burns & Oates | years_active = | known_for = | notable_works = }}
'''John Douglas Woodruff''' (1897–1978) was the editor of the ''Tablet'' and later chairman of the Catholic publishers Burns & Oates.
==Biography== Douglas Woodruff was educated at Downside School and New College, Oxford.<ref name="Carpenter">{{cite book|last1=Carpenter|first1=Humphrey|title=The Brideshead Generation: Evelyn Waugh and His Friends|year=1990|publisher=Faber & Faber. Kindle Edition|page=496|isbn=9780571144143|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fDGJQAAACAAJ|accessdate=19 January 2018}}</ref> At Oxford, he was a member of the Union's debating team; his lifelong friend Christopher Hollis was in the team as well, and they successfully toured the world.<ref name="Corrin">{{cite book|last1=Corrin|first1=Jay P.|title=Catholic Intellectuals and the Challenge of Democracy|date=2010|publisher=University of Notre Dame Press|page=358|isbn=9780268159283|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wlkFDgAAQBAJ&pg=PT358|accessdate=19 January 2018}}</ref> Oxford don Maurice Bowra suspected that at college Woodruff already “a Roman Catholic of the proselytizing kind, who therefore represented an immediate threat to his own flock".<ref>{{cite book|last1=Mitchell|first1=Leslie|title=Maurice Bowra: A Life|date=2010|publisher=OUP Oxford|page=59|isbn=9780199589333|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=le13TfmvBgYC&pg=PA59|accessdate=19 January 2018}}</ref> Woodruff was a close and influential friend of Evelyn Waugh.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Pearce|first1=Joseph|title=Literary Converts: Spiritual Inspiration in an Age of Unbelief|date=2006|publisher=Ignatius Press|page=154|isbn=9781586171599|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mkRD-NLNyJYC&pg=PA154|accessdate=19 January 2018}}</ref>
From 1936 to 1967 he was the editor of the ''Tablet'', making the periodical the leading voice of English Catholicism, and from 1948 to 1962 he was the chairman of the Catholic publishers Burns & Oates.<ref name="Carpenter" /> He was an expert and essayist on Hilaire Belloc.<ref name="Corrin" /> Woodruff first met Belloc in Oxford in the autumn of 1920, having been introduced to him because he had been a friend and contemporary of Louis Belloc at Downside School.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Pearce|first1=Joseph|title=Old Thunder: A Life of Hilaire Belloc|publisher=TAN Books|page=240|isbn=9781618907318|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kzwqCgAAQBAJ&pg=PT240|accessdate=19 January 2018}}</ref>
Woodruff was part of the Catholic right-wing, and, according to Martin Redfern, one of his employees at the ''Tablet'', he wanted a clear separation between politics and religion.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Corrin|first1=Jay P.|title=Catholic Progressives in England after Vatican II|date=2013|publisher=University of Notre Dame Press|page=418|isbn=9780268077006|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9oMFDgAAQBAJ&pg=PT418|accessdate=19 January 2018}}</ref> In ''Pope Paul's New Mass'', Michael Davies introduced him as "probably England's most erudite layman".<ref>{{cite book|last1=Daly|first1=John S.|title=Michael Davies – An Evaluation|date=2015|page=37|isbn=9782917813515|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=shkiCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA37|accessdate=19 January 2018}}</ref>
==Personal life== In 1933 he married Marie Immaculeé Antoinette Lyon-Dalberg-Acton (1905–1994). She was the eldest child of Richard Lyon-Dalberg-Acton, 2nd Baron Acton and Dorothy Lyon.<ref name="Corrin" />
==Works== *''Plato's American Republic'', 1926, K. Paul, Trench, Trubner<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=OZw9AAAAIAAJ Plato's American Republic]</ref> *''The Merry Jests of the Widow Edyth'', 1929<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=4_jwtgAACAAJ The Merry Jests of the Widow Edyth]</ref> *''Expansion and Emigration'' in ''Early Victorian England: 1830–1865'' ed. G. M. Young, 1934, Oxford University Press<ref>{{cite book|last1=Wagner|first1=Tamara S|title=Victorian Narratives of Failed Emigration: Settlers, Returnees, and Nineteenth-Century Literature in English|date=2016|publisher=Routledge|page=33|isbn=9781317002178|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ugE9DAAAQBAJ&pg=PA33|accessdate=19 January 2018}}</ref> *''Charlemagne'', 1935, D. Appleton-Century Company<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=TIU-AAAAYAAJ Charlemagne]</ref> *''The first stage – from London to Paris'' in ''Grand tour; a journey in the tracks of the age of aristocracy, conducted by Mona Wilson, Douglas Woodruff, Edmund Blunden and others...'', ed. Richard Stanton Lambert, 1937, E. P. Dutton & co.<ref>{{cite book|title=Catalog of Copyright Entries. Part 1. [A] Group 1. Books. New Series|date=1938|page=73|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-HpaAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA73|accessdate=19 January 2018}}</ref> *''The story of the British colonial empire'', 1939, H. M. Stationery off<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=hHLJAAAAMAAJ The story of the British colonial empire]</ref> *''For Hilaire Belloc: Essays in Honor of His 71st birthday'', editor, 1942<ref name="Corrin" /> *''Still Talking at Random'', 1948, Hollis & Carter<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=P2tAAAAAIAAJ Still Talking at Random]</ref> *''Essays on Church and Stateted'', 1952, Hollis & Carter<ref>{{cite book|last1=Novak|first1=Michael|title=The Open Church|date=2017|publisher=Routledge|page=143|isbn=9781351478144|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gh8xDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT143|accessdate=19 January 2018}}</ref> *''Walrus talk'', 1954, Hollis & Carter<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=n2JDAQAAIAAJ Walrus talk]</ref> *''The Tichborne Claimant: A Victorian Mystery'', 1957, Hollis & Carter<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=pJTaAAAAMAAJ The Tichborne Claimant: A Victorian Mystery]</ref> *''The Twentieth Century Encyclopedia of Catholicism'', 1961, Hawthorn Books<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=ciwyngAACAAJ The Twentieth Century Encyclopedia of Catholicism]</ref> *''Church and State'', 1961, Hawthorn Books<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=cpxqAQAACAAJ Church and State, Volume 89]</ref> *''The Life and Times of Alfred the Great'', 1993, Weidenfeld and Nicolson<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=NAVtHAAACAAJ The Life and Times of Alfred the Great]</ref>
==Legacy== Douglas Woodruff Papers are preserved at the Georgetown University.<ref name="Corrin" />
==References== {{Reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Woodruff, Douglas}} Category:1897 births Category:1978 deaths Category:English writers Category:English Roman Catholics Category:People educated at Downside School