Henry Beetle Hough

Hough was born and raised in the whaling city of New Bedford, Massachusetts.[2] His father, George A. Hough, was the managing editor of The New Bedford Standard who serialized Moby-Dick (1851) in the Standard in 1912, while his mother, Abby Louise Beetle Hough, was the daughter of a Martha's Vineyard whaling captain.[1][2] As a boy, he frequently vacationed in Martha's Vineyard.[3] After high school, he enrolled at Columbia University, where he received his B.Litt in journalism in 1918 and met his wife, Elizabeth Bowie Hough.[4]

As a student at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, Hough wrote a paper with Minna Lewinson, a fellow student, ''History of Service Rendered by the American Press,'' and received a Pulitzer Award in 1918 at the age of 22.[1] 1918 was the only year this award was given.[5]

As a wedding present, Hough received the Vineyard Gazette from his father in 1920 and ran the newspaper for 45 years with his wife.[4] He sold the paper to the former executive editor of The New York Times, James Reston, in 1968 but remained an editor and columnist until his death.[1]

His articles and editorials have focused on mundane life such as club meetings, high school athletic events, and church socials as well as preservation of traditional life on the island from commercialization by large corporations as McDonald's.[1][6][7] He was also a conservation activist and led the fight against the demolition of Edgartown Harbor Light in 1938.[8] He donated hundreds of acres of family land to a preserve to prevent development and founded the local land trust, Sheriff's Meadow Foundation, which oversees 2,900 acres of land on the island.[9]

Hough was also the author of 23 books and wrote reviews and articles for The New York Times Magazine, The Saturday Evening Post, and Esquire.[1][6] His simplistic reflections made him the most widely quoted country writer in the nation since William Allen White, while subscribers of the newspaper grew from 600 to 13,000 at his death.[6]

Hough married his second wife, Edith Sands Graham, in 1979. He passed away at 88 and was survived by Graham and his two nephews.[3] He was friends with many celebrities who summered on the island, including actress Katharine Cornell, writers William Styron and Thornton Wilder, artist Thomas Hart Benton, and activist Roger Nash Baldwin.[1][10]