Silas Bent

Silas Bent IV (born May 9, 1882 in Millersburg, Kentucky – d. July 30, 1945 in Greenwich, Connecticut), son of Silas Bent III and Ann Elizabeth (Tyler) Bent[1] was an American was a journalist, author, and lecturer.

For other uses, see Silas Bent (disambiguation).
Silas Bent IV
BornMay 9, 1882
Millersburg, Kentucky, U.S.
DiedJuly 30, 1945(1945-07-30) (aged 63)
Louisville, Kentucky, U.S.
OccupationAuthor; Journalist
Spouse(s)Elizabeth Sims
Parent(s)Silas Bent (naval officer), Ann Elizabeth (Tyler) Bent

He spent nearly three decades as a journalist, including time as a freelance writer, and spent a year as an assistant professor at the University of Missouri School of Journalism. Bent authored several books and articles, many critiquing the practices of newspapers in their reporting. He was married to Elizabeth Sims.[2]

Career

He began newspaper work in 1900 in Louisville, Kentucky, on the Louisville Herald. After three years he moved to St. Louis and joined the staff of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch as reporter and assistant editor. He was appointed assistant professor of theory and practice of journalism at the University of Missouri School of Journalism in Columbia, Missouri when the school was opened in 1908, but resigned that position in February 1909 to return to the Post-Dispatch. Later, he did publicity work in Chicago and then spent 13 years in New York City. As a freelance writer he contributed articles to The New York Times,[3] Harper's Weekly[4]and The Atlantic,[5] among others.[2]

In one story, Journalism and Morality, published in The Atlantic, in 1926, Bent decried the yellow journalism, taking place in newspapers, and referred to the war between Joseph Pulitzer's New York World and William Randolph Hearst's New York Journal. Bent spoke to the lack of credibility in journalism and how "reader's got so they didn't believe what they read," writing "faking didn't pay".[5] Bent was writing about the frustration that many journalists faced as they felt at that time.[6][7]

Bent's most famous work is Ballyhoo (1927),[7] a critical survey of newspaper practices; he also wrote Strange Bedfellows (1928), a book on contemporary political leaders; a biography of Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., and Buchanan of the Press (Vanguard Press, 1932), a novel about a reporter's career set in St. Louis. He died in 1945 and is buried in Bowling Green, Kentucky.[2]

Selected works
  • Ballyhoo: The Voice of the Press, Boni and Liveright, 1927.[8]
  • Strange Bedfellows: a review of politics, personalities and the press, Liveright, 1928.[9]
  • Machine Made Man, Farrar and Rinehart, 1930.[10]
  • Buchanan of "The Press": a novel, Vanguard Press, 1932.[11]
  • Slaves by the Billion: The story of mechanical progress in the home, Longmans, Green and Company, 1938.[12]His
  • Newspaper Crusaders: A Neglected Story, Whitley House, McGraw Hill Book Company Inc., 1939.[13]


  1. "Captain Silas Bent | Lucas and Garrison 1875". Retrieved 2020-11-03.
  2. "Obituary for SILAS BENT". The Cincinnati Enquirer. 1945-07-31. p. 10. Retrieved 2020-11-04.
  3. TIMES, Special to THE NEW YORK (1945-07-31). "SILAS BENT, EDITOR, FREE LANCE WRITER; Former Member of The Times Staff Dies at 63--Author of Several Books (Published 1945)". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-11-04.
  4. Bonner, John; Curtis, George William; Alden, Henry Mills; Conant, Samuel Stillman; Foord, John; Schuyler, Montgomery; Davis, Richard Harding; Schurz, Carl; Bangs, John Kendrick (1915). Harper's Weekly. Harper's Magazine Company.
  5. Bent, Silas (1926-06-01). "Journalism and Morality". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2020-11-04.
  6. Dabbous, Yasmine (2010-01-01). ""Blessed be the critics of newspapers": journalistic criticism of journalism 1865-1930". LSU Doctoral Dissertations.
  7. Duhon, Madelyn Kay (2017). "Jounalist and Hoaxer: William Francis Mannix and the Long History of Faked News". Louisiana State University Digital Commons. Retrieved 3 November 2020.
  8. Bent, Silas (1927). Ballyhoo: The Voice of the Press. Boni and Liveright.
  9. Bent, Silas (1928). Strange bedfellows; a review of politics, personalities and the press. New York: H. Liveright. OCLC 585845.
  10. Bent, Silas (1930). Machine made man. New York: Farrar and Rinehart, Inc. OCLC 1497574.
  11. Bent, Silas (1932). Buchanan of "The press". New York: Vanguard Press. OCLC 966379.
  12. Bent, Silas (1938). Slaves by the billion; the story of mechanical progress in the home. New York, Toronto: Longmans, Green and Co. OCLC 1172977.
  13. Bent, Silas (1939). Newspaper Crusaders: A Neglected Story. Whittlesey House, McGraw-Hill Book Company, Incorporated.
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