{{Short description|British-American journalist}} {{Infobox person | name = James Howard Bridge | image = File:James Howard Bridge.jpg | caption = Bridge, c. 1897-1899 | other_names = | birth_name = | birth_date = {{birth date|1856|05|08}} | birth_place = Manchester, Lancashire, England | death_date = {{death date and age|1939|05|28|1856|05|08}} | death_place = New York City, U.S. | occupation = Journalist | employer = | title = | signature = | footnotes = }}
'''James Howard Bridge''' (May 8, 1856 – May 28, 1939) was an English-American journalist. Throughout his career, Bridge was employed by Herbert Spencer, Andrew Carnegie, and Henry Clay Frick in various capacities.<ref name=":1">{{Cite news |title=James H. Bridge, Author and Editor; One-Time Secretary of Herbert Spencer Dies in Hospital Here at Age of 83; For Years With Carnegie; Was His Literary Assistant-- Served With the Frick Art Collection for 14 Years |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1939/05/29/93920594.html?login=email&auth=login-email&pageNumber=20 |access-date=2025-03-09 |work=The New York Times |language=en |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> Bridge also penned several books, with his best-known work being ''The History of the Carnegie Steel Company''.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=The history of the Carnegie steel company; an inside review of its humble origin and impressive growth, {{!}} Library of Congress |url=https://www.loc.gov/item/03016712/ |access-date=2025-03-09 |website=www.loc.gov}}</ref>
== Biography == Bridge was born in 1856 in Manchester, Lancashire, England.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Burke |first=William Jeremiah |title=American authors and books: 1640 to the present day |date=1976 |publisher=Crown Publishers |isbn=978-0-517-50139-9 |edition= |location=New York |page=76}}</ref> His parents worked in manufacturing plants.<ref name=":2">{{Cite news |last=Vernon |first=Muriel |date=September 30, 1931 |title=Our Famous Neighbors: James Howard Bridge |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/676170802/?fcfToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJmcmVlLXZpZXctaWQiOjY3NjE3MDgwMiwiaWF0IjoxNzQxNzQ2NTcyLCJleHAiOjE3NDE4MzI5NzJ9.rGFddyqdVjRAY5ZS0tL-0UghiVnJfxuS-Ow-PpMhB4A |access-date=March 11, 2025 |work=The Yonkers Statesman |pages=33}}</ref> Bridge was educated at the Grand Lycée in Marseille (a branch of the now-defunct Université de France), and the University of Bonn.<ref name=":4">{{Cite news |date=May 29, 1939 |title=JAMES HOWARD BRIDGE, AUTHOR, EDITOR, DIES |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/1050622827/?match=1&terms=%22james%20howard%20bridge%22 |access-date=March 12, 2025 |work=The Reporter Dispatch |pages=7}}</ref>
After working as a court reporter and newspaper apprentice across England, Bridge was appointed Herbert Spencer's personal secretary in London in 1879.<ref name=":2" />
Five years later, in 1884, Bridge left London for New York City. He did not have any prior connections in the U.S. However, through a recommendation letter from Spencer and the help of Edward L. Youmans, Bridge found work as literary assistant to Andrew Carnegie,<ref>{{Cite news |last=Vernon |first=Muriel |date=September 30, 1931 |title=Our Famous Neighbors: No. 86 — James H. Bridge |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/925045930/?match=1&terms=%22james%20howard%20bridge%22 |access-date=March 12, 2025 |work=The Standard-Star |pages=11}}</ref> a position he maintained for five years.<ref name=":3">{{Cite news |date=May 29, 1939 |title=J.H. Bridge, Writer and Editor, Ill 5 Weeks, Dies In New York |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/677320707/ |access-date=March 12, 2025 |work=The Herald Statesman |pages=2}}</ref> Bridge’s duties included contributing research and writing for Carnegie's 1886 ''Triumphant Democracy.''<ref>{{Cite news |date=1903-12-05 |title=History of the Carnegie Steel Company Review |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/detroit-free-press-history-of-the-carneg/177835721/ |access-date=2025-07-31 |work=Detroit Free Press |pages=13}}</ref>
Bridge served as owner and editor-in-chief of California-based literary magazine the Overland Monthly from 1897-1900.<ref>{{Cite news |date=August 7, 1897 |title=ITS NEW EDITOR. James Howard Bridge, or Harold Brydges, will take charge of the Overland. |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/92974760/?match=1&terms=%22james%20howard%20bridge%22 |access-date=March 12, 2025 |work=The San Francisco Call and Post |pages=15}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Page i - Title Page {{!}} {{!}} Making of America Journal Articles {{!}} University of Michigan Library Digital Collections |url=https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/moajrnl/ahj1472.2-35.205/1:1?rgn=full+text;view=image |access-date=2025-07-29 |website=quod.lib.umich.edu |language=en}}</ref> At the ''Overland,'' he published several of Jack London's first short stories.<ref name=":2" />
Once back in New York, Bridge wrote the 1903 book ''The History of the Carnegie Steel Company'', a highly critical profile of Carnegie, the American steel industry, and more broadly, capitalism.<ref>{{Cite news |title=BOOK ON CARNEGIE'S WORK; New Volume Tells the Inside History of Steel Making. Author of Extraordinary Work ex-Secretary of Mr. Carnegie -- Speculation in Financial Circles as to Its Purpose. |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1903/08/09/102016787.html?pageNumber=20 |access-date=2025-03-10 |work=The New York Times |language=en |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>
In 1914, Bridge was hired as private secretary to Henry Clay Frick.<ref name=":3" /> Bridge also called himself curator of the (then private) Frick Collection. Helen Clay Frick, heiress of the Frick fortune, later disputed this description. Bridge maintained this role until 1928, when he resigned. Bridge sued Helen Clay Frick in 1935 for libel and slander, accusing Frick of damaging his professional reputation with her claim he had never been curator of the Frick Collection, but he ultimately lost the suit.<ref>{{Cite news |date=February 9, 1935 |title=Bridge Loses to Miss Frick in Libel Suit |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/677022190/?match=1&terms=%22james%20howard%20bridge%22 |access-date=March 12, 2025 |work=The Herald Statesman |pages=3}}</ref>
Bridge was a longtime member of the Authors Club of New York, with stints as president and vice-president.<ref name=":2" /> Along with Rossiter Johnson and Clinton Scollard, Bridge co-edited the second book of the club's Liber Scriptorum, published 1921.<ref>{{Cite news |date=December 31, 1922 |title=129 Authors Make a Book |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/20612925/?match=1&terms=%E2%80%9Cjames%20howard%20bridge%E2%80%9D%20authors%20club |access-date=March 12, 2025 |work=The New York Times |pages=41}}</ref>
In 1939, Bridge died at the age of 83 in New York City after an illness of five weeks.<ref name=":3" /> Bridge was survived by his wife Clara Blake Shivers Bridge and his two daughters, Cornelia Bridge (Barnard)<ref name=":2" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=George Inness Painting Offered in Oct. 24 Auction |url=https://www.artfixdaily.com/calendar/details/8000-george-inness-painting-offered-in-oct-24-auction |access-date=2025-08-02 |website=ArtfixDaily |language=en}}</ref> and Margery Bridge (Champlin).<ref name=":4" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Adams Virkus |first=Frederick |title=The Compendium of American Genealogy, Vol. I |publisher=A.N. Marquis & Company |year=1925 |isbn=978-0-8063-1171-5 |edition= |pages=97}}</ref>
== Works == '''•''' ''[https://www.google.com/books/edition/A_Fortnight_in_Heaven/udc_AAAAYAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1 A Fortnight in Heaven: An Unconventional Romance]'', 1886 (published under pseudonym Harold Brydges)<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bridge |first=James Howard |url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/008658138 |title=A fortnight in heaven; an unconventional romance. |date=1886 |publisher=Henry Holt and Company |location=New York}}</ref>
'''•''' ''[https://www.google.com/books/edition/Uncle_Sam_at_Home/tNSPRoocCRIC?hl=en&gbpv=1 Uncle Sam at Home]'', 1888 (published under pseudonym Harold Brydges)
'''•''' ''[https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Trust_Its_Book/6oAFQnOvO6cC?hl=en&gbpv=1 The Trust—Its book; Being a Presentation of the Several Aspects of the Latest Forms of Industrial Evolution]'', 1902 (co-author; editor)
'''•''' ''[https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Inside_History_of_the_Carnegie_Steel/a_NCAAAAIAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1 The History of the Carnegie Steel Company: An Inside Review of Its Humble Origin and Impressive Growth]'', 1903
'''•''' ''Portraits and Personalities: Imaginary Conversations in the Frick Galleries'', 1929<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bridge |first=James Howard |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Xe6iAAAAMAAJ |title=Portraits and Personalities: Imaginary Conversations in the Frick Galleries |date=1929 |publisher=Aldine Book Company |language=en}}</ref>
'''•''' ''Millionaires and Grub Street: Comrades and Contacts in the Last Half Century'', 1931<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bridge |first=James Howard |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rt0YAAAAMAAJ |title=Millionaires and Grub Street |date=1931 |publisher=Brentano's |language=en}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== *{{ISFDB name|id=125164}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bridge, James Howard}} Category:1856 births Category:1939 deaths Category:19th-century English journalists Category:19th-century British male journalists Category:20th-century English journalists Category:19th-century American journalists Category:20th-century American journalists Category:Journalists from Manchester Category:University of Bonn alumni Category:20th-century English male journalists