Barton, Bruce Fairchild

(1886-1967)

   Born in Tennessee, Bruce Barton graduated from Amherst College in 1907. After a series of jobs in newspaper and magazine journalism, he became assistant sales manager for the publisher Colliers in 1912 and then editor of Every Week in 1914, where he developed the skill of writing inspirational articles. He became a regular contributor of such work to the American Magazine, McCall’s, Collier’s, Good Housekeeping, and Reader’s Digest. Several volumes of his writings were published between 1917 and 1924.

   During World War I, Barton worked as publicity director for the United War Work Agencies. In 1919, he joined Roy S. Durstine and Alex F. Osborne to form an advertising agency that by 1928 was the fourth largest in the United States. In 1925, Barton published the best-selling The Man Nobody Knows, in which he portrayed Christ as “the world’s greatest salesman.” He also wrote a study of the Bible in a similar vein, The Book Nobody Knows (1926), and a portrait of St. Paul, He Upset the World (1932).

   A Republican, Barton supported and wrote speeches for Calvin Coolidge. In 1937, he was elected to fill an unexpired term in Congress as a representative for New York. He won a full term in 1938. He campaigned against the New Deal, and together with Joseph Martin and Hamilton Fish, was ridiculed by Franklin D. Roosevelt as one of “Martin, Barton & Fish” during the 1940 election campaign. He failed to win election to the Senate in 1940 and returned to his advertising company. Barton continued to advise Republican politicians, including Thomas E. Dewey and Dwight D. Eisenhower.