Edward Tomlinson is best known for a half century (1923-1972) of reporting on Latin American affairs. In addition to contributing to a number of magazines and newspapers, Tomlinson broadcasted over NBC radio, published four books, and lectured throughout the United States.
Edward Tomlinson was born on September 27, 1892 in Stockton, Georgia, to John H. and Seapher Touchton Tomlinson. His attendance at Normal College and Business Institute, Douglas, Georgia (circa 1910-1912), was followed by lecture tours, mostly in the South, as a member of the Chautauqua movement. During World War I Tomlinson was assigned to lecture British and American troops on American war aims. After the war he studied at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland (1918-1919). While there, his writings included a thesis entitled “The Future of United States Trade with Latin America” and a series of articles on Ireland for the London Spectator (1919).
When he returned to the United States in 1921, Tomlinson resumed his career as a lecturer until January 1923, when he made his first trip to South America, visiting Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay. This was the first of many visits (often more than once a year) to the region. The first articles concerning his experiences appeared in Collier's, Current History, and Travel magazines. It was not long before Tomlinson's growing expertise in Latin American matters was recognized. He became a correspondent for Collier's in 1926 and later the “Other Americas” (a phrase that he coined) editor, 1942-1947. From 1932 to 1936 he wrote Sunday features for the “March of Events” section of the Hearst newspapers and contributed to Cosmopolitan and other Hearst publications. Tomlinson also reported regularly for the New York Herald-Tribune syndicate, 1936-1943, and was a correspondent for the Scripps-Howard newspapers, 1950s. He became a roving editor in Latin America for Reader's Digest in 1961, and contributed to other periodicals, for example American Legion, Diplomat, and Rotarian magazines, on an irregular basis. He also found time to publish four books on Latin America: New Road to Riches (1939), The Other Americans (1943), Battle for the Hemisphere (1947), and Look Southward, Uncle (1959). The Other Americans has been widely used as a textbook in high schools and junior colleges.
In addition to reporting and publishing books and articles, Tomlinson spent a number of years (beginning around 1930) broadcasting over NBC radio. He was the first to broadcast from a Pan American Conference (Montevideo, Uruguay, 1933). Moreover, he produced his own radio program (The Other Americas, 1934-1938) on Latin American music and culture, and a weekly news commentary on that region's affairs in the late 1930s and early 1940s. Tomlinson was inter-American advisor for NBC, 1940-1949. In 1960-1961 he was featured on NBC's news program, Three Star Extra.
Tomlinson developed an impressive reputation as a Latin American reporter, leading some to dub him the “dean of correspondents of inter-American affairs.” His activity was particularly impressive during the late 1930s and the early 1940s as he reported on Nazi subversion in Latin America and submarine warfare in the South Atlantic. In recognition of his articles on Nazi subversion and Latin America's part in the Allied war effort, he was presented with the Maria Moors Cabot Award in Journalism by Columbia University in 1943. He received a Navy Commendation in 1946 for his service as a correspondent with the Atlantic Fleet, 1943-1944. Tomlinson was the recipient of many other awards and honors: among them, the National Medal of Merit, Ecuador, 1941; the National Order of the Southern Cross, Brazil, 1945; the Order of Bernardo O'Higgins, Chile, 1948; and the George Gordon Ward Medal, Rollins College, Winter Park, Florida, 1965. He remained fairly active until 1972 but died on December 30, 1973, after a year of hospitalization, at a nursing home in Fairfax, Virginia.
