Curtis Bok
Encyclopedia
William Curtis Bok was a Pennsylvania jurist, philanthropist and writer. Heir to an enormous fortune, he was also a devout Quaker and an avid sailor.
, a suburb of Philadelphia, he was the son of Edward W. Bok
, editor-in-chief of the Ladies Home Journal, and Mary Louise Curtis
, the only child and heir of Cyrus H. K. Curtis, founder of the Curtis Publishing Company
. His father won the 1920 Pulitzer Prize
for biography. His mother founded the Curtis Institute of Music
.
He graduated from the Hill School in Pottstown, Pennsylvania
(1915), and attended Williams College
in Williamstown, Massachusetts
. He left college to join the U.S. Navy during World War I
, and returned to study law at the University of Virginia
, graduating in 1921.
His most famous opinion was on obscenity in literature — Commonwealth of Pennsylvania v. Gordon et al., Court of Quarter Sessions, Philadelphia, June 1948. In March 1948, the Philadelphia Vice Squad raided 54 booksellers, confiscating works by authors such as Erskine Caldwell
, James T. Farrell
, William Faulkner
, and Calder Willingham
. In an elegantly-written opinion, Bok found that the books were "obvious efforts to show life as it is," and that Pennsylvania could not censor them:
In 1958, he was elected a justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court
, serving until his death.
Association, but resigned after his Board forced the resignation of conductor Leopold Stokowski
. He was an officer of the Curtis Institute of Music
, and founded the Philadelphia Forum, a cultural boosterism group that sponsored lectures, concerts and art exhibits. He was a member of the Committee of Seventy
, a Philadelphia watchdog organization that promoted good government.
He directed his father's American Foundation
, which promoted world peace. A supporter of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's efforts to normalize relations between the United States and the Soviet Union
, Bok made a two-month tour of Russia in 1932, then stayed on for three additional months, working in a factory and as a chauffeur. He wrote an idealistic book about life in the Socialist Republic, which landed him on the July 17, 1933 cover of Time Magazine.
, and in Star Wormwood (1959), he used the most heinous crime imaginable to argue that it was still unjustified. Bok was an avid sailor, and twice sailed a 42-foot ketch
across the Atlantic Ocean. His final novel was a romance in which a sailor on a voyage reads a love letter each day.
Non-fiction:
Fiction:
in its final years. The younger brother settled in Camden, Maine
.
On May 25, 1924, he married Margaret Adams Plummer, and they had three children: Derek Curtis Bok, Benjamin Plummer Bok, and Margaret Welmoet Bok Roland Holst. The marriage ended in divorce.
On November 25, 1934, he married Nellie Lee Holt (1901-1984), the director of religious education at Stephens College for Women
in Columbia, Missouri
, who had studied with Mahatma Gandhi
. They had two daughters, Rachel Bok Kise Goldman and Enid Curtis Bok Schoettle Okum.
He and his second wife built a famous house in Gulph Mills, Pennsylvania
, with Art Deco
interiors by Wharton Esherick
(1935-37). Demolished in 1989, some of its interiors survive at the Philadelphia Museum of Art
and the Wolfsonian Museum
in Miami, Florida
.
awarded him an honorary degree in 1960.
Bok's legal colleague, Jerome J. Shestack
, wrote of him: "His deep and abiding sympathy for the human condition was the hallmark both of his courtroom and of his life."
His papers are housed at Princeton University
and the Historical Society of Pennsylvania
.
His son, Derek Curtis Bok, became a lawyer, dean of Harvard Law School
, and president of Harvard University
.
Biography
Born in Wyncote, PennsylvaniaWyncote, Pennsylvania
Wyncote is a census-designated place in Cheltenham Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 3,044 at the 2010 census...
, a suburb of Philadelphia, he was the son of Edward W. Bok
Edward W. Bok
Edward William Bok was a Dutch born American editor and Pulitzer Prize-winning author. He was editor of the Ladies Home Journal for thirty years...
, editor-in-chief of the Ladies Home Journal, and Mary Louise Curtis
Mary Louise Curtis Bok Zimbalist
Mary Louise Curtis Bok , was the founder of the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. She was the only child of the magazine and newspaper magnate, Cyrus Curtis and Louisa Knapp Curtis, the founder and editor of the Ladies Home Journal...
, the only child and heir of Cyrus H. K. Curtis, founder of the Curtis Publishing Company
Curtis Publishing Company
The Curtis Publishing Company, founded in 1891 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, became one of the largest and most influential publishers in the United States during the early 20th century. The company's publications included the Ladies' Home Journal and The Saturday Evening Post, The American Home,...
. His father won the 1920 Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
for biography. His mother founded the Curtis Institute of Music
Curtis Institute of Music
The Curtis Institute of Music is a conservatory in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, that offers courses of study leading to a performance Diploma, Bachelor of Music, Master of Music in Opera, and Professional Studies Certificate in Opera. According to statistics compiled by U.S...
.
He graduated from the Hill School in Pottstown, Pennsylvania
Pottstown, Pennsylvania
Pottstown is a borough in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, United States northwest of Philadelphia and southeast of Reading, on the Schuylkill River. Pottstown was laid out in 1752–53 and named Pottsgrove in honor of its founder, John Potts. The old name was abandoned at the time of the...
(1915), and attended Williams College
Williams College
Williams College is a private liberal arts college located in Williamstown, Massachusetts, United States. It was established in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams. Originally a men's college, Williams became co-educational in 1970. Fraternities were also phased out during this...
in Williamstown, Massachusetts
Williamstown, Massachusetts
Williamstown is a town in Berkshire County, in the northwest corner of Massachusetts. It shares a border with Vermont to the north and New York to the west. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 7,754 at the 2010 census...
. He left college to join the U.S. Navy during World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, and returned to study law at the University of Virginia
University of Virginia
The University of Virginia is a public research university located in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States, founded by Thomas Jefferson...
, graduating in 1921.
Legal Career
He worked on several public service projects before forming a law partnership with Robert Dechert and Owen B. Rhodes in 1930. He served as an assistant district attorney in Philadelphia, 1929-32, and unsuccessfully ran for district attorney in 1935. Appointed an Orphans Court judge the following year, he became president judge of the Court of Common Pleas in 1937.His most famous opinion was on obscenity in literature — Commonwealth of Pennsylvania v. Gordon et al., Court of Quarter Sessions, Philadelphia, June 1948. In March 1948, the Philadelphia Vice Squad raided 54 booksellers, confiscating works by authors such as Erskine Caldwell
Erskine Caldwell
Erskine Preston Caldwell was an American author. His writings about poverty, racism and social problems in his native South like the novels Tobacco Road and God's Little Acre won him critical acclaim, but they also made him controversial among fellow Southerners of the time who felt he was...
, James T. Farrell
James T. Farrell
James Thomas Farrell was an American novelist. One of his most famous works was the Studs Lonigan trilogy, which was made into a film in 1960 and into a television miniseries in 1979...
, William Faulkner
William Faulkner
William Cuthbert Faulkner was an American writer from Oxford, Mississippi. Faulkner worked in a variety of media; he wrote novels, short stories, a play, poetry, essays and screenplays during his career...
, and Calder Willingham
Calder Willingham
Calder Baynard Willingham, Jr. was an American novelist and screenwriter. He cowrote several notable screenplays, including Paths of Glory and One-Eyed Jacks ....
. In an elegantly-written opinion, Bok found that the books were "obvious efforts to show life as it is," and that Pennsylvania could not censor them:
“It will be asked whether one would care to have one’s young daughter read these books. I suppose that by the time she is old enough to wish to read them she will have learned the biologic facts of life and the words that go with them. There is something seriously wrong at home if those facts have not been met and faced and sorted by then; it is not children so much as parents that should receive our concern about this. I should prefer that my own three daughters meet the facts of life and the literature of the world in my library than behind a neighbor’s barn, for I can face the adversary there directly. If the young ladies are appalled by what they read, they can close the book at the bottom of page one; if they read further, they will learn what is in the world and in its people, and no parents who have been discerning with their children need fear the outcome. Nor can they hold it back, for life is a series of little battles and minor issues, and the burden of choice is on us all, every day, young and old.”
In 1958, he was elected a justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania is the court of last resort for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It meets in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.-History:...
, serving until his death.
Philanthropy
He served as president of the Philadelphia OrchestraPhiladelphia Orchestra
The Philadelphia Orchestra is a symphony orchestra based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the United States. One of the "Big Five" American orchestras, it was founded in 1900...
Association, but resigned after his Board forced the resignation of conductor Leopold Stokowski
Leopold Stokowski
Leopold Anthony Stokowski was a British-born, naturalised American orchestral conductor, well known for his free-hand performing style that spurned the traditional baton and for obtaining a characteristically sumptuous sound from many of the great orchestras he conducted.In America, Stokowski...
. He was an officer of the Curtis Institute of Music
Curtis Institute of Music
The Curtis Institute of Music is a conservatory in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, that offers courses of study leading to a performance Diploma, Bachelor of Music, Master of Music in Opera, and Professional Studies Certificate in Opera. According to statistics compiled by U.S...
, and founded the Philadelphia Forum, a cultural boosterism group that sponsored lectures, concerts and art exhibits. He was a member of the Committee of Seventy
Committee of Seventy
The Committee of Seventy is a good government group in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, founded in 1904. It is a nonpartisan organization perhaps best known for monitoring elections in the city and its suburbs. Zack Stalberg is President and Chief Executive Officer and Daniel K...
, a Philadelphia watchdog organization that promoted good government.
He directed his father's American Foundation
American Peace Award
The American Peace Award is awarded to American Citizens working to further the cause of world peace.- The 1924 American Peace Award :The American Peace Award was created in 1923 by Edward W. Bok, who believed that the United States Government was not taking initiative to promote peace in the world...
, which promoted world peace. A supporter of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's efforts to normalize relations between the United States and the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
, Bok made a two-month tour of Russia in 1932, then stayed on for three additional months, working in a factory and as a chauffeur. He wrote an idealistic book about life in the Socialist Republic, which landed him on the July 17, 1933 cover of Time Magazine.
Writings
He wrote many legal opinions and made contributions to law journals. His first three novels were courtroom dramas. He was a strong opponent of capital punishmentCapital punishment
Capital punishment, the death penalty, or execution is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offence. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital originates from the Latin capitalis, literally...
, and in Star Wormwood (1959), he used the most heinous crime imaginable to argue that it was still unjustified. Bok was an avid sailor, and twice sailed a 42-foot ketch
Ketch
A ketch is a sailing craft with two masts: a main mast, and a shorter mizzen mast abaft of the main mast, but forward of the rudder post. Both masts are rigged mainly fore-and-aft. From one to three jibs may be carried forward of the main mast when going to windward...
across the Atlantic Ocean. His final novel was a romance in which a sailor on a voyage reads a love letter each day.
Non-fiction:
- The United States and the Soviet Union (New York: The American Foundation, 1933)
- American Medicine Expert Testimony Out of Court (New York: The American Foundation, 1937)
- Commonwealth v. Gordon et al, the Opinion of Judge Bok, March 18, 1949 (San Francisco: The Grabhorn Press, 1949)
- Freedom of the Press (Philadelphia: 1950)
- Civil Liberties under Attack (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1951).
- Religion in Law (Philadelphia: 1953)
Fiction:
- Backbone of the Herring (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1941)
- I Too, Nicodemus (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1946)
- Star Wormwood (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1959)
- Maria: A Tale of the Northeast Coast (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1962).
Family
He had one sibling, Cary W. Bok (1905-1970), who unsuccessfully tried to run the Curtis Publishing CompanyCurtis Publishing Company
The Curtis Publishing Company, founded in 1891 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, became one of the largest and most influential publishers in the United States during the early 20th century. The company's publications included the Ladies' Home Journal and The Saturday Evening Post, The American Home,...
in its final years. The younger brother settled in Camden, Maine
Camden, Maine
Camden is a town in Knox County, Maine, United States. The population was 5,254 at the 2000 census. The population of the town more than triples during the summer months, due to tourists and summer residents. Camden is a famous summer colony in the Mid-Coast region of Maine...
.
On May 25, 1924, he married Margaret Adams Plummer, and they had three children: Derek Curtis Bok, Benjamin Plummer Bok, and Margaret Welmoet Bok Roland Holst. The marriage ended in divorce.
On November 25, 1934, he married Nellie Lee Holt (1901-1984), the director of religious education at Stephens College for Women
Stephens College
Stephens College is a women's college located in Columbia, Missouri. It is the second oldest female educational establishment that is still a women's college in the United States. It was founded on August 24, 1833 as the Columbia Female Academy. In 1856, David H. Hickman turned it into a college,...
in Columbia, Missouri
Columbia, Missouri
Columbia is the fifth-largest city in Missouri, and the largest city in Mid-Missouri. With a population of 108,500 as of the 2010 Census, it is the principal municipality of the Columbia Metropolitan Area, a region of 164,283 residents. The city serves as the county seat of Boone County and as the...
, who had studied with Mahatma Gandhi
Mahatma Gandhi
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi , pronounced . 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948) was the pre-eminent political and ideological leader of India during the Indian independence movement...
. They had two daughters, Rachel Bok Kise Goldman and Enid Curtis Bok Schoettle Okum.
He and his second wife built a famous house in Gulph Mills, Pennsylvania
Gulph Mills, Pennsylvania
Gulph Mills is an unincorporated community in Upper Merion Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. It is served by the Upper Merion Area School District....
, with Art Deco
Art Deco
Art deco , or deco, is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. The style influenced all areas of design, including architecture and interior design, industrial design, fashion and...
interiors by Wharton Esherick
Wharton Esherick
Wharton Esherick was a sculptor who worked primarily in wood. He reveled in applying the principles of sculpture to common utilitarian objects. Consequently he is best known for his sculptural furniture and furnishings...
(1935-37). Demolished in 1989, some of its interiors survive at the Philadelphia Museum of Art
Philadelphia Museum of Art
The Philadelphia Museum of Art is among the largest art museums in the United States. It is located at the west end of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia's Fairmount Park. The Museum was established in 1876 in conjunction with the Centennial Exposition of the same year...
and the Wolfsonian Museum
Wolfsonian-FIU
The Wolfsonian–Florida International University or The Wolfsonian-FIU, located in the heart of the Art Deco District, is a museum, library and research center that uses its collection to illustrate the persuasive power of art and design. For over one decade, The Wolfsonian has been a division...
in Miami, Florida
Miami, Florida
Miami is a city located on the Atlantic coast in southeastern Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, the most populous county in Florida and the eighth-most populous county in the United States with a population of 2,500,625...
.
Legacy
Swarthmore CollegeSwarthmore College
Swarthmore College is a private, independent, liberal arts college in the United States with an enrollment of about 1,500 students. The college is located in the borough of Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, 11 miles southwest of Philadelphia....
awarded him an honorary degree in 1960.
Bok's legal colleague, Jerome J. Shestack
Jerome J. Shestack
Jerome Joseph "Jerry" Shestack , was a Philadelphia lawyer and human rights advocate active in Democratic Party politics who served as president of the American Bar Association from 1997 to 1998...
, wrote of him: "His deep and abiding sympathy for the human condition was the hallmark both of his courtroom and of his life."
His papers are housed at Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
and the Historical Society of Pennsylvania
Historical Society of Pennsylvania
The Historical Society of Pennsylvania is a historical society founded in 1824 and based in Philadelphia. The Society's building, designed by Addison Hutton and listed on Philadelphia's Register of Historical Places, houses some 600,000 printed items and over 19 million manuscript and graphic items...
.
His son, Derek Curtis Bok, became a lawyer, dean of Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University. Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, it is the oldest continually-operating law school in the United States and is home to the largest academic law library in the world. The school is routinely ranked by the U.S...
, and president of Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
.
See also
- The President and the Boy from The Americanization of Edward Bok at WikiSourceWikisourceWikisource is an online digital library of free content textual sources on a wiki, operated by the Wikimedia Foundation. Its aims are to host all forms of free text, in many languages, and translations. Originally conceived as an archive to store useful or important historical texts, it has...
.
External links
- Curtis Bok papers at Princeton University
- The William Curtis Bok and Nellie Lee Holt Bok papers, which include materials on Curtis Bok's career as an attorney, judge, and author are available for research use at the Historical Society of PennsylvaniaHistorical Society of PennsylvaniaThe Historical Society of Pennsylvania is a historical society founded in 1824 and based in Philadelphia. The Society's building, designed by Addison Hutton and listed on Philadelphia's Register of Historical Places, houses some 600,000 printed items and over 19 million manuscript and graphic items...
.