Poultney Bigelow

Who was Poultney Bigelow?

Poultney Bigelow was an American journalist and author.

He was born in New York City, the fourth of eight children of John Bigelow, co-owner of the New York Evening Post, and his wife Jane Tunis Poultney.

In 1861, at the beginning of the Civil War, when Bigelow was six years old, his father was appointed United States consul in Paris, and subsequently Minister to France, and Poultney was sent to a Potsdam preparatory school. While there he became a friend of Prince Wilhelm and his younger brother, Prince Henry, playing "Cowboys and Indians" with them in the schoolyard. His friendship and correspondence with the Kaiser continued throughout their lives, though their relations became somewhat more reserved just before World War II as a result of some of the opinions expressed in Bigelow's articles. For a time, Bigelow was an admirer of both Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini—an admiration which ended when they demonstrated their violent natures.

Bigelow entered Yale College in 1873. For reasons of health, he took a two-year leave from studies, sailing for the Orient, which left him shipwrecked off the coast of Japan. He returned to Yale and graduated in 1879. He obtained a law degree from Columbia Law School and practiced briefly.