Eleanor Bisbee
{{short description|American writer}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Eleanor Bisbee
| image = EleanorBisbee1914.png
| alt = Eleanor Bisbee, a young white woman, from a 1914 publication
| caption = Eleanor Bisbee, from a 1914 newspaper
| birth_name =
| birth_date = July 22, 1893
| birth_place = Beverly, New Jersey, U.S.
| death_date = {{death-date and age|April 18, 1956|July 22, 1893}}
| death_place = San Francisco, California, U.S.
| other_names =
| occupation = Writer, editor, Universalist minister, philosopher, college professor
| years_active =
| known_for =
| notable_works = The New Turks: Pioneers of the Republic, 1920-1950 (1951)
| spouse(s) =
| relatives =
}}
Eleanor Bisbee (July 22, 1893 – April 18, 1956) was an American journalist, Universalist minister, philosopher, and college professor, best known for her works on Turkish history, politics, and culture.
Early life and education
Bisbee was born in Beverly, New Jersey (one source says she was born in Ocean City, New Jersey),{{Cite news |date=1956-04-20 |title=Hoover Library to receive Dr. Bisbee's Turkey writings |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-peninsula-times-tribune-hoover-libra/167043844/ |access-date=2025-03-02 |work=The Peninsula Times Tribune |pages=11 |via=Newspapers.com}} the daughter of Frederick A. Bisbee and Martha Gally Bisbee. Her father was a Universalist minister and editor of The Universalist Leader.[https://books.google.com/books?id=-Jitde4-IgcC&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=Eleanor%20Bisbee&pg=RA20-PA6#v=onepage&q=Eleanor%20Bisbee&f=false "The Early Life of Frederick A. Bisbee"] and "Services at Philadelphia" The Universalist Leader 26(48)(December 1, 1923): 6-12. She graduated from Jackson College (part of Tufts University) in 1915, and a Bachelor of Sacred Theology degree in 1917; she and her brother John were the only Theology School graduates at Tufts that year.{{Cite news |date=1917-06-19 |title=Tufts College Awards 277 Degrees; Brother and Sister Get the Only Theology Honors |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-boston-globe-tufts-college-awards-27/167044308/ |access-date=2025-03-02 |work=The Boston Globe |pages=9 |via=Newspapers.com}} She earned a Ph.D. in philosophy at the University of Cincinnati, with a dissertation titled "Instrumentalism in Plato's philosophy: A functional theory of ideas and of God" (1929).
In college Bisbee was president of the Christian Guild,{{Cite news |date=1914-05-28 |title=Arlington Girl Chosen |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-boston-globe-arlington-girl-chosen/167045476/ |access-date=2025-03-02 |work=The Boston Globe |pages=4 |via=Newspapers.com}} a tennis champion and a member of the Alpha Omicron Pi sorority.{{Cite news |date=1914-10-03 |title=Their Names First to be Inscribed on Jackson College Tennis Trophy |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-boston-globe-their-names-first-to-be/167040463/ |access-date=2025-03-02 |work=The Boston Globe |pages=5 |via=Newspapers.com}}
Career
Between college and graduate school, Bisbee was a Universalist minister{{Cite news |date=1916-06-11 |title=Woman Preacher from Boston |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/chattanooga-daily-times-woman-preacher-f/167045229/ |access-date=2025-03-02 |work=Chattanooga Daily Times |pages=20 |via=Newspapers.com}} working in Minnesota and Ohio,{{Cite news |date=1920-11-13 |title=Parson-Editor to Live in Miami (continued) |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-miami-herald-parson-editor-to-live-i/167042537/ |access-date=2025-03-02 |work=The Miami Herald |pages=16 |via=Newspapers.com}} and a journalist and newspaper editor in Miami, Florida.{{Cite book |last=Cohen |first=Isidor |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ivGFwmi5IfMC&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=Eleanor%20Bisbee&pg=PA154#v=onepage&q=Eleanor%20Bisbee&f=false |title=Historical Sketches and Sidelights of Miami, Florida |date=1925 |publisher=Priv. Print. |pages=154 |language=en}} After completing her doctoral studies, she was a professor of philosophy and civilization at the University of Cincinnati from 1930 to 1931, and a professor of philosophy at Robert College in Istanbul from 1936 until 1942.{{Cite news |date=1952-01-21 |title=Dr. Eleanor Bisbee to give talk at Menlo Park BPWC |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-peninsula-times-tribune-dr-eleanor/167044565/ |access-date=2025-03-02 |work=The Peninsula Times Tribune |pages=7 |via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite news |last=Weiss |first=Anne |date=1943-02-03 |title=Turkey's Position in World Crisis Will Be Analyzed At Club Session |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-pittsburgh-press-turkeys-position-i/167044800/ |access-date=2025-03-02 |work=The Pittsburgh Press |pages=21 |via=Newspapers.com}}
On her return to the United States, Bisbee concentrated on writing about Turkey, especially her book The New Turks: Pioneers of the Republic, 1920-1950 (1951). Her book was described as a "lively and sympathetic book to explain the Turkish people and to describe their recent achievements."{{Cite news |last=Fitzsimons |first=M. A. |date=1951-07-01 |title=Books: New Freedom Moves Turkey into 20th Century |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/times-herald-books-new-freedom-moves-t/167045768/ |access-date=2025-03-02 |work=Times Herald |pages=32 |via=Newspapers.com}}
Bisbee was a columnist at the San Jose Mercury in her later years, and worked at the Hoover Institution Library, organizing the Turkish section. She spoke about the Middle East before community and campus audiences.
Publications
- "The A B C and X Y Z of Tennis" (1921){{Cite news |last=Bisbee |first=Eleanor |date=1921-12-31 |title=The A B C and X Y Z of Tennis |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-miami-news-the-a-b-c-and-x-y-z-of-te/167046265/ |access-date=2025-03-02 |work=The Miami News |pages=6 |via=Newspapers.com}}
- "The Parmenides in the Light of the Propositional Function" (1933){{Cite journal |last=Bisbee |first=Eleanor |date=1933 |title=The Parmenides in the Light of the Propositional Function |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2180009?origin=crossref |journal=The Philosophical Review |volume=42 |issue=6 |pages=612–617 |doi=10.2307/2180009 |issn=0031-8108}}
- "Confusion about exclusive and exceptive propositions" (1937)Bisbee, Eleanor. "Confusion about exclusive and exceptive propositions" The philosophical review vol. 46 (1937), pp. 85–88.
- "Objectivity in the social sciences" (1937){{Cite journal |last=Bisbee |first=Eleanor |date=July 1937 |title=Objectivity in the Social Sciences |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0031824800028683/type/journal_article |journal=Philosophy of Science |language=en |volume=4 |issue=3 |pages=371–382 |doi=10.1086/286468 |issn=0031-8248}}
- The People of Turkey (1946)Bisbee, Eleanor. The people of Turkey. East and West Association, 1946.
- "Test of Democracy in Turkey" (1950){{Cite journal |last=Bisbee |first=Eleanor |date=1950 |title=Test of Democracy in Turkey |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4322164 |journal=Middle East Journal |volume=4 |issue=2 |pages=170–182 |issn=0026-3141}}
- The New Turks: Pioneers of the Republic, 1920-1950 (1951, republished 2016){{Cite book |last=Bisbee |first=Eleanor |url=https://books.google.com/books/about/The_New_Turks.html?id=oVArEAAAQBAJ |title=The New Turks: Pioneers of the Republic, 192-195 |date=2016-11-11 |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |isbn=978-1-5128-1450-7 |language=en}}
Personal life
Bisbee died in 1956, in San Francisco, at the age of 62.{{Cite news |date=1956-04-20 |title=Dr. Eleanor Bisbee, Educator, Author Dies |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/corpus-christi-caller-times-dr-eleanor/167045005/ |access-date=2025-03-02 |work=Corpus Christi Caller-Times |pages=28 |via=Newspapers.com}} There is a collection of her papers in the Hoover Institution Library and Archives.{{Cite web |title=Bisbee (Eleanor) papers |url=https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt8b69r9mt/dsc/ |access-date=2025-03-02 |website=Online Archive of California}}
References
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Category:Academics from New Jersey
Category:Journalists from New Jersey
Category:People from Beverly, New Jersey
Category:Philosophers from New Jersey
Category:Tufts University alumni
Category:University of Cincinnati alumni
Category:University of Cincinnati faculty
Category:Writers from Burlington County, New Jersey
Category:American women writers