Eldridge, James Anthony, 1920-1978.

Editor and critic.

From the description of Papers, 1941-1978. (Indiana University). WorldCat record id: 49521126

James Anthony Eldridge, 1920-1978, was a lecturer, editor, and critic. Born in Indianapolis, Indiana, he attended Cathedral High School and Butler University. His early career was that of a lecturer on literary subjects and as a WPA employee under State Administrator John Kaley Jennings. Following a year in the army at Camp McCoy in Wisconsin during World War II, he became active in the Democratic party and served as Executive secretary of the Young Democrats of Indiana. In 1946 he ran for State Representative from Marion County. From 1946 to 1953 he served in Chicago as Midwest Field Director of the American Association of the United Nations. From 1954 to 1959 Eldridge was a member of the editorial staff of the Indianapolis News . In 1956 and 1958 he worked actively in arranging the visit of Harold Macmillan to Spencer, Indiana, the girlhood home of his mother, Nellie (Belles) Macmillan. As a recipient of the John Winant Lecture Fellowship in 1958 Eldridge gave a series of lectures in Great Britain. In 1959-1960 he was employed as public relations director for Bobbs-Merrill Company in Indianapolis. In 1961 he became editor of The Carpenter, the official journal of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters of America (AFL-CIO) with offices in Washington, D.C. In 1964 Eldridge was selected as legislative assistant to Congressman William Singer Moorhead, Democrat of Pennsylvania. Active in preparation of legislation which led to the creation of the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities, he was invited to the White House for the formal signing of the bill on September 29, 1966, and received one of the pens used in the signing. In 1967 Eldridge was appointed Director of Institutional Development for Chicago State College. His marriage to Mary Anne Schlegel took place in 1969. In 1970 he was living in Chillicothe, Ohio, and two years later he debuted as columnist on the Opinion Page of the Chillicothe Gazette . A set of the columns from the newspaper for 1973-74 may be found in the Biographical material folder III (oversize). At his death in 1978 Eldridge had been public affairs director for Radio Station WMNI in Columbus, Ohio, for four years, hosting hour-long talk shows.

From the guide to the Eldridge mss., 1941-1978, (Lilly Library (Indiana University, Bloomington) https://www.indiana.edu/~liblilly)