William Cowper Brann
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William Cowper Brann (January 4, 1855 – April 1, 1898) was an American journalist.
Born in Humboldt, Illinois, Brann was a highly opinionated, colorful writer, known for the articulate savagery of his writing style. At the time of his death, Brann edited the Iconoclast in Waco, Texas.
He was also noted for his progressive cultural views, writing against the socio-econocmic divide in America. He devoted many paragraphs to his hatred of the wealthy eastern social elites, such as the Vanderbilts, and deplored their marriages to titled Europeans, thereby diluting their already debased American stock with worthless foreign blood.
One of his targets was Baylor University, the prominent Baptist institution in Waco. Brann revealed that Baylor officials had been importing South American children recruited by missionaries and making house-servants out of them. He also stated that the male faculty members were having sexual relations with female students, and a father sending his daughter to Baylor was risking her rape. Brann was shot in the back by Tom Davis, a Baylor supporter. Brann wheeled, drew his pistol, and killed Davis. Brann was helped home by his friends, where he died soon after.
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See also
- Jerry Flemmons. Oh Dammit!: A Lexicon and Lecture from William Cowper Brann, the Iconoclast (Lubbock: Texas Tech University Press, 1998)[Note: Includes complete script of Flemmons' one-man stageplay of the same name]
- Charles Carver. Brann the Iconoclast (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1957).
- The Complete Works of Brann, the Iconoclast... (New York: The Brann Publishers, Inc., 1919).
- Frank Luther Mott. A history of American magazines, 1741-1930 (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press c1958-1968). Page 442+ [Note: This book is available online from the History E-Book Project]
External links
- ["William Cowper Brann" in the Handbook of Texas Online]
- ["The Iconoclast's Icon" by Dave Shiflett, October 1, 2004]
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