Curtis D. MacDougall

Curtis Daniel MacDougall was born on February 11, 1903, in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. He obtained a BA in English from Ripon College in 1923 and a Master's degree in journalism from Northwestern University in 1926). In 1933, he received his PhD in sociology from the University of Wisconsin.

MacDougall joined the Northwestern faculty in 1935.{{cn|date=July 2021}}

MacDougall worked for the St. Louis Star-Times and United Press. He also edited the Evanston Daily News and the Chicago Sun.

In 1936, MacDougall published an editorial that criticized the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He published a reply from FBI director J. Edgar Hoover. The FBI proceeded to surveil MacDougal for 35 years.

From 1939 to 1942, MacDougall worked for the Federal Writers' Project and edited writers included Saul Bellow and Studs Terkel.

In 1942, MacDougall began teaching at Northwestern University for thirty years through 1971. His works appear below.

In 1944, MacDougall ran for the Illinois 10th District in the US Congress, was arrested for illegally distributing political literature, and lost the election. In 1948, he ran for US Senate (presumably on the ticket of the Progressive Party, given his 1965 history of the Wallace campaign, Gideon's Army), and lost. In 1970, he ran in the 13th District primary for US Congress on the Democratic ticket and lost.

MacDougal married Genevieve; they had five children, of whom three survived him.

Students of Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University called him "Doctor Mac."

MacDougal was working on the ninth edition of Interpreting Reporting when he died.

Curtis Daniel MacDougall died age 82 on November 10, 1985, following surgery.

• 1965: Honorary Litt.D. from Columbia College

The Newberry independent research library in Chicago houses the Curtis MacDougall Papers.{{cite web

| title = MacDougall, Curtis Daniel, 1903-1985 : Curtis MacDougall Papers, 1922-1989

| publisher = The Newberry

| url = https://mms.newberry.org/detail.asp?recordid=661

| date =

| access-date = 15 July 2021

| archive-date = 15 July 2021

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210715171950/https://mms.newberry.org/detail.asp?recordid=661

| url-status = dead

}}

Eastern Illinois University offers a Curtis D. MacDougall Scholarship.

{{cite web

| title = Curtis D. MacDougall Scholarship

| publisher = Eastern Illinois University

| url = https://eiu.academicworks.com/donors/curtis-d-macdougall-scholarship

| date =

| access-date = 15 July 2021}} Roosevelt University offers a "Curtis D. MacDougall Tuition Scholarship."

{{cite web

| title = Curtis D. MacDougall Tuition Scholarship

| publisher = Eastern Illinois University

| url = https://www.eduinreview.com/scholarships/curtis-d.-macdougall-tuition-scholarship-172286

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210715181643/https://www.eduinreview.com/scholarships/curtis-d.-macdougall-tuition-scholarship-172286

| url-status = usurped

| archive-date = July 15, 2021

| date =

| access-date = 15 July 2021}}

File:Curtis_D._MacDougall.png

MacDougall was the author of the influential book Interpretative Reporting (1938), which has been widely cited. William David Sloan has commented that "his many books, articles, and speeches helped set the tone and added to the debate surrounding journalism education for a half century."

He authored two skeptical works Hoaxes (1958) and Superstition and the Press (1983), the latter which his family considered his chief work. His book on hoaxes has been described as a classic on the subject. MacDougall defined a hoax as "a deliberately concocted untruth made to masquerade as truth."

{{cite book

| last = Brunvand

| first = Jan Harold

| date = 2012

| title = Encyclopedia of Urban Legends, Updated and Expanded Edition

| publisher = ABC-CLIO

| page = 97

| isbn = 978-1-59884-720-8}}

;Books

The Library of Congress catalog contains the following:

• College course in reporting for beginners (1932)

{{cite book

| first = Curtis D.

| last = MacDougall

| authorlink = Curtis D. MacDougall

| title = College course in reporting for beginners

| url =

| publisher = Macmillan

| pages =

| date = 1932}}

• Teachers' manual of exercises, suggestions and bibliographical notations to be used in connection with Interpretative reporting (1938)

{{cite book

| first = Curtis D.

| last = MacDougall

| authorlink = Curtis D. MacDougall

| title = Teachers' manual of exercises, suggestions and bibliographical notations to be used in connection with Interpretative reporting

| url =

| publisher = Macmillan

| pages =

| date = 1938}}

• Interpretative reporting (1968)

{{cite book

| first = Curtis D.

| last = MacDougall

| authorlink = Curtis D. MacDougall

| title = Interpretative reporting

| url =

| publisher = Macmillan

| pages =

| date = 1968}}

• Interpretative reporting (1972)

{{cite book

| first = Curtis D.

| last = MacDougall

| authorlink = Curtis D. MacDougall

| title = Interpretative reporting

| url =

| publisher = Macmillan

| pages =

| date = 1972}}

• Interpretative reporting (1977)

{{cite book

| first = Curtis D.

| last = MacDougall

| authorlink = Curtis D. MacDougall

| title = Interpretative reporting

| url =

| publisher = Macmillan

| pages =

| date = 1977}}

• Interpretative reporting (1982)

{{cite book

| first = Curtis D.

| last = MacDougall

| authorlink = Curtis D. MacDougall

| title = Interpretative reporting

| url =

| publisher = Macmillan

| pages =

| date = 1982}}

• Interpretative reporting (1987)

{{cite book

| first = Curtis D.

| last = MacDougall

| authorlink = Curtis D. MacDougall

| title = Interpretative reporting

| url =

| publisher = Macmillan

| pages =

| date = 1987}}

• Hoaxes (1940)

{{cite book

| first = Curtis D.

| last = MacDougall

| authorlink = Curtis D. MacDougall

| title = Hoaxes

| url =

| publisher = Macmillan

| pages =

| date = 1940}}

• Hoaxes (1958)

{{cite book

| first = Curtis D.

| last = MacDougall

| authorlink = Curtis D. MacDougall

| title = Hoaxes

| url =

| publisher = Dover

| pages =

| date = 1958}}

• Newsroom problems and policies (1941)

{{cite book

| first = Curtis D.

| last = MacDougall

| authorlink = Curtis D. MacDougall

| title = Newsroom problems and policies

| url =

| publisher = Macmillan

| pages =

| date = 1941}}

• Newsroom problems and policies (1963)

{{cite book

| first = Curtis D.

| last = MacDougall

| authorlink = Curtis D. MacDougall

| title = Newsroom problems and policies

| url =

| publisher = Dover

| pages =

| date = 1963}}

• Covering the courts (1946)

{{cite book

| first = Curtis D.

| last = MacDougall

| authorlink = Curtis D. MacDougall

| title = Covering the courts

| url =

| publisher = Prentice-Hall

| pages =

| date = 1946}}

• Understanding public opinion (1952)

{{cite book

| first = Curtis D.

| last = MacDougall

| authorlink = Curtis D. MacDougall

| title = Understanding public opinion; a guide for newspapermen and newspaper readers

| url =

| publisher = Macmillan

| pages =

| date = 1952}}

• Understanding public opinion (1966)

{{cite book

| first = Curtis D.

| last = MacDougall

| authorlink = Curtis D. MacDougall

| title = Understanding public opinion; a guide for newspapermen and newspaper readers

| url =

| publisher = W. C. Brown

| pages =

| date = 1952}}

• Greater dead than alive (1963)

{{cite book

| first = Curtis D.

| last = MacDougall

| authorlink = Curtis D. MacDougall

| title = Understanding public opinion; a guide for newspapermen and newspaper readers

| url =

| publisher = Public Affairs Press

| pages =

| date = 1963}}

• Press and its problems (1964)

{{cite book

| first = Curtis D.

| last = MacDougall

| authorlink = Curtis D. MacDougall

| title = Press and its problems

| url =

| publisher = W. C. Brown Co.

| pages =

| date = 1964}}

• Gideon's Army (3 volumes) (1965)

{{cite book

| first = Curtis D.

| last = MacDougall

| authorlink = Curtis D. MacDougall

| title = Gideon's Army

| url = https://archive.org/details/gideonsarmy0000macd

| url-access = registration

| publisher = Marzani & Munsell

| pages =

| date = 1965

| lccn = 65018683}}

• Principles of editorial writing (1973)

{{cite book

| first = Curtis D.

| last = MacDougall

| authorlink = Curtis D. MacDougall

| title = Principles of editorial writing

| url =

| publisher = W. C. Brown Co.

| pages =

| date = 1973}}

• Superstition and the press (1983)

{{cite book

| first = Curtis D.

| last = MacDougall

| authorlink = Curtis D. MacDougall

| title = Superstition and the press

| url =

| publisher = Prometheus

| pages =

| date = 1983}}

;Books edited

• Reporters report reporters (1968)

{{cite book

| editor = Curtis D. MacDougall

| title = Reporters report reporters

| url =

| publisher = Iowa State University Press

| pages =

| date = 1968}}

;Articles, Pamphlets, Speeches, Letters

• "Newspaper Hoaxes," Times-Index (1935)

{{cite journal

| first = Curtis D.

| last = MacDougall

| authorlink = Curtis D. MacDougall

| title = Newspaper Hoaxes

| url = https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/107769903501200206

| journal = Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly

| pages = 166–177

| date = 1 June 1935| volume = 12

| issue = 2

| doi = 10.1177/107769903501200206

| s2cid = 220591998

| url-access = subscription

}}

• Letter to W.E.B. DuBois (28 September 1948)

{{cite web

| first = Curtis D.

| last = MacDougall

| authorlink = Curtis D. MacDougall

| title = Letter from Curtis D. MacDougall to W. E. B. Du Bois

| url = https://www.digitalcommonwealth.org/search/commonwealth-oai:z603r976s

| publisher = Digital Commonwealth

| date = 28 September 1948}}

• "Schools of Journalism Are Being Ruined" (1972)

{{cite book

| first = Curtis D.

| last = MacDougall

| authorlink = Curtis D. MacDougall

| title = Schools of Journalism Are Being Ruined

| url = https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED088043.pdf

| publisher = Pi Delta Epsilon

| pages =

| date = 9 March 1972}}

{{Reflist}}

• [http://findingaids.library.northwestern.edu/catalog/inu-ead-nua-archon-619] Biography, Northwestern University library
• [https://archives.newberry.org/repositories/2/resources/455 Curtis MacDougall Papers] at [https://www.newberry.org the Newberry Library]

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Category:1903 births

Category:1985 deaths

Category:American male journalists

Category:American skeptics

Category:Journalists from Wisconsin

Category:20th-century American non-fiction writers

Category:20th-century American male writers

Category:20th-century American journalists