Sam A. Lewisohn
{{short description|American lawyer}}
Samuel Adolph Lewisohn (March 21, 1884 – March 13, 1951) was an American lawyer, financier, philanthropist, art collector, and non-fiction author.James Karman, The Collected Letters of Robinson Jeffers, with Selected Letters of Una Jeffers: Volume Two, 1931–1939, Stanford University Press, 12 okt. 2011. He is also known as first president of the American Management Association.[https://archive.org/details/samalewisohn188400stam Sam A. Lewisohn, 1884-1951] Stamford, Conn. : The Overbrook Press. 1951.William Lazonick. American Corporate Economy: Critical Perspectives on Business and Management, Volume 2. Taylor & Francis, 2002. p. 316
Biography
= Youth, education and early career =
Lewisohn was born in New York City in 1884, the son of Adolph Lewisohn and Emma Cahn Lewisohn. After attending the Columbia Grammar & Preparatory School, he graduated from Princeton University in 1904 and from Columbia Law School in 1907. His father was of Jewish background.
After his graduation in 1907, Lewisohn started working for the New York law firm Simpson Thacher & Bartlett. In 1910 he joined his father's law firm Adolph Lewisohn & Sons, where he kept serving as lawyer. In World War I he served as District Superintendent at the Bureau of War Risk Insurance in 1918-19.
= Later career and honors =
Lewisohn's career as editor and nonfiction writer took off in 1907, when he had started as editor of the Columbia Law Review. He published some articles in the early 1920s, and published his first main work in 1926, entitled The New Leadership in Industry. This work was translated into French, German, and Japanese.
Lewisohn served in a number of positions in his later career. He was treasurer and Member of Executive Committee of the Citizens Union from 1918 to 1931. He was a member of the Economic Advisory Commission of President Warren G. Harding's Conference on Unemployment of 1921.Hoover, Herbert, 1874-1964. [https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000952487 Report of the President's Conference on unemployment. September 26 to October 13, 1921]. In 1923 he was one of the founders of the American Management Association, and served as its first president from 1924 to 1927. He was succeeded by Frank L. Sweetser.The Clothier and Furnisher, Volumes 107-108. 1925. p. 68Factory: The Magazine of Management, Volume 38. 1927. p. 40:
Lewisohn became a member of the New York Stock Exchange in 1927; Director of the Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States, where he served as director until his death; member of the New York State Commission of Correction in 1928, and many other positions in industry, government, and culture.
= Art collecting =
Lewisohn was a major art collector and trustee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.{{Cite news |last=Loucheim |first=Aline B. |date=March 25, 1951 |title=SAM LEWISOHN AND HIS LEGACY TO ART: As Man and as Collector He Gave Enthusiasm And Understanding Lover of Art Coining a Phrase Courageous Buys Private and Public Taste Last Visit |pages=85 |work=New York Times }} Upon his death, a number of important modern art works were donated to the Met, including works by Rousseau, Seurat, Gauguin, Renoir, Cezanne, Sterne, and Van Gogh.
= Family and death =
Lewisohn's father Adolph Lewisohn and his brothers, Julius and Leonard, were known as "copper kings" after making their fortune opening copper mines to meet demand for copper wire with the advent of electricity; Adolph Lewisohn was also a leader in prison reform.[https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/lehman-adele-lewisohn Jewish Women's Archive: "Adele Lewisohn Lehman 1882–1965" by Laurie Sokol] retrieved October 30, 2015 Lewisohn's sister Adele Lewisohn Lehman married Arthur Lehman (1873–1936), of the Lehman family.John N. Ingham, Biographical Dictionary of American Business Leaders, Volume 2. Greenwood Publishing Group, 1983. p. 793.
In 1918, Lewisohn married Margaret Valentine Seligman (1895–1954),Barbara L. Tischler, "[https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/lewisohn-margaret-seligman Margaret Seligman Lewisohn]." Jewish Women: A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia. Jewish Women's Archive, 1 March 2009. Accessed October 1, 2017. a daughter of Joseph Seligman and a "nationally known leader in education." Their third daughter was Elizabeth Eisenstein, a notable historian of the French Revolution and early 19th-century France.
Lewisohn died in 1951.{{Cite news |date=1951 |orig-date=March 15 |title=Obituary |pages=29 |work=New York Times}}
Selected publications
- Lewisohn, Sam Adolph, et al. Can Business Prevent Unemployment. Knopf, 1925.
- Lewisohn, Sam Adolph. The new leadership in industry. New York: EP Dutton, 1926.
- Scott Nearing, Sam Adolph Lewisohn, Malcolm Churchill Rorty, and Morris Hillquit. The Future of Capitalism and Socialism in America. New York: League for Industrial Democracy, 1927.
- Lewisohn, Sam Adolph. Personalities Past and Present. 1939.
- Lewisohn, Sam Adolph. Human leadership in industry: the challenge of tomorrow. New York and London, 1945.
- Lewisohn, Sam Adolph. Painters and personality: a collector's view of modern art. Harper, 1948.
;Articles, a selection:
- Lewisohn, Sam A. "The living wage and the national income." Political Science Quarterly 38.2 (1923): 219-226.
- Lewisohn, Sam A. "New aspects of unemployment insurance." Political Science Quarterly 50.1 (1935): 1-14.
- Lewisohn, Sam A. "Mexican Murals and Diego Rivera." Parnassus 7.7 (1935): 11-12.
- Lewisohn, Sam A. "Psychology in economics." Political Science Quarterly 53.2 (1938): 233-238.
References
{{Reflist|2}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lewisohn, Sam Adolph}}
Category:American art collectors
Category:20th-century American lawyers
Category:American non-fiction writers
Category:American philanthropists
Category:Princeton University alumni
Category:Columbia Law School alumni
Category:Simpson Thacher & Bartlett people
Category:Columbia Grammar & Preparatory School alumni