Charlton Ogburn | |
|---|---|
| Born | Charlton Ogburn (1911-03-15)15 March 1911 Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. |
| Died | 19 October 1998(1998-10-19) (aged 87) Beaufort, South Carolina, U.S. |
| Occupation(s) | Soldier, writer |
| Years active | 1932–1998 |
| Notable work | The Marauders The Winter Beach The Mysterious William Shakespeare |
Charlton Ogburn Jr. (15 March 1911 – 19 October 1998) was an American writer, most notably of memoirs and non-fiction works. Before he established himself as a writer he served in the US army, and then as a State Department official, specialising in South-East Asian affairs.
In his later years he was best known as an advocate of theOxfordian theory of Shakespeare authorship, leading the revival of public interest in the theory in the 1980s. He wrote over a dozen books and numerous magazine articles.
Ogburn was the son of lawyerCharlton Greenwood Ogburn and writer Dorothy Ogburn née Stevens. His uncle was the sociologistWilliam Fielding Ogburn. He was raised inSavannah andNew York City, graduated fromHarvard University in 1932 and wrote and worked in publishing.[1]
DuringWorld War II he joinedmilitary intelligence, serving in theChina Burma India Theater, most notably as communications officer forMerrill's Marauders. He left with the rank ofcaptain. He returned to the US to begin a career with theState Department. From 1946 to 1949, he worked at the Division of South-East Asian Affairs. He went on to work at the Department of State. He held several posts, including Political Advisor to the United States Delegation to the United Nations Security Council's Committee of Good Offices for the Indonesian Dispute.[1]
Ogburn was among the first State Department officials to explicitly oppose the growing U.S. involvement in theFirst Indochina War, which would later evolve into theVietnam War. In 1950 he wrote a memo in which he predicted thatHo Chi Minh would not "wilt" under the impact of U.S. aid to the colonial French forces, and that any military victory would simply send Ho's troops "underground until a more propitious occasion presented itself".[2] Ogburn also unsuccessfully opposed the U.S. policy of supporting the Vietnamese monarchy ofBảo Đại.
After the success of his story "Merrill's Marauders", aHarper's Magazine cover story in 1957,Harper & Bros. offered an advance for a book and he left the government to write on a full-time basis in 1957.[1]
Failing health in later years led to Ogburn's death in 1998.[3] His papers are kept in archives at Emory University in Atlanta.[1]
Ogburn was married twice. With his first wife, he had one son, Charlton Ogburn, III). The couple divorced, after which Charlton III's name was changed by his mother to William Fielding Ogburn. He was later known as Will Aldis. Ogburn, Jr. then married Vera M. Weidman in 1951, with whom he had two daughters, Nyssa and Holly Ogburn.[1]
For most of Ogburn's life, his best-known work wasThe Marauders (1959), a first person account of theBurma Campaign inWorld War II. It was later filmed asMerrill's Marauders (1962).
Versions of the followingquotation are frequently misattributed toPetronius.[4][5][6]
We trained hard ... but it seemed that every time we were beginning to form up into teams we would be reorganized. I was to learn later in life that we tend to meet any new situation by reorganizing; and a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress while producing confusion, inefficiency, and demoralization.
In fact it is from the magazine article "Merrill's Marauders" (Harper's Magazine, 1957) that earned Ogburn his book contract.[4] In full, it reads thus:
We trained hard, but it seemed that every time we were beginning to form up into teams we would be reorganized. Presumably the plans for our employment were being changed. I was to learn later in life that, perhaps because we are so good at organizing, we tend as a nation to meet any new situation by reorganizing; and a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress while producing confusion, inefficiency and demoralization.
Ogburn won theJohn Burroughs Medal in 1967 forThe Winter Beach. His account of travels along the largely deserted northeastern shore is considered a classic of nature-writing.Stewart Udall wrote, "InThe Winter Beach, literary courage, eloquence, and wisdom have, I think, brought about a triumph."[7]Roger Tory Peterson said, "Ogburn has written a most extraordinary book... he is a very sensitive, reflective writer in the Thoreauvian tradition".[7] In 1976, his book,The Adventure of Birds was published with drawings by Matthew Kalmenoff.
Ogburn also wrote fiction. He began his literary career with "The White Falcon", a story published by Houghton Mifflin in 1955. His short novelThe Bridge was a work ofyoung adult fiction with illustrations byEvaline Ness. It told the story of an elderly man and his teenage granddaughter battling to preserve their way of life, threatened by greedy relatives and a dangerous storm.[8] Another book for young adults wasBig Caesar, illustrated byJoe Krush, a story about a boy's interest in an old truck. In 1965 he publishedThe Gold of the River Sea, a novel based on his early experiences traveling in Brazil.[9]
Today Ogburn is best known for several books and articles on theShakespeare authorship question, continuing the passion of his parents, who had written several books on the topic includingThis Star of England: "William Shakes-speare" Man of the Renaissance (Coward-McCann, 1952). Ogburn junior's last and most well-known book,The Mysterious William Shakespeare: The Myth and the Reality (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1984), led directly to an appearance onWilliam F. Buckley'sFiring Line, followed by a 1987Frontline documentary on the authorship question narrated by Al Austin, and mock trials in the U.S. and Britain.[10]
More than a thousand people attended themoot court case sponsored byAmerican University in 1987. ThreeUS Supreme Court justices —John Paul Stevens,Harry Blackmun andWilliam J. Brennan—heard arguments in favor of the orthodox view of Shakespearean authorship and theOxfordian theory that attributes the works toEdward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford (1550–1604). Although the justices held in favor of the traditional account of authorship, Justice Stevens later wrote an article supporting Ogburn's position, "The Shakespeare Canon of Statutory Construction",University of Pennsylvania Law Review (1991).
Ogburn's book reinvigorated theOxfordian theory;[10] inspired a succession of articles inThe New Yorker (1988),Atlantic Monthly (1991), andHarper's Magazine (1999) and provoked a nationally broadcast three-hour teleconference on the topicUncovering Shakespeare: An Update with moderatorWilliam F. Buckley, Jr.
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