Herbert Asbury

Herbert Asbury was a top newspaperman and author of books chronicling sin, crime, and religious hypocrisy. Many of his books dealt with the darker, seamier side of American life over a time span from the late 18th century to the early 20th century. THE GANGS OF NEW YORK, GEM OF THE PRAIRIE and the BARBARY COAST portrayed cities controlled by gangsters during most of the 1800's and early 1900's.

THE GANGS OF NEW YORK book was used as the basis for the movie, GANGS OF NEW YORK, starring Daniel Day-Lewis and Leonardo DiCaprio and directed by Martin Scorsese. GANGS was filmed in Rome and premiered on December 20, 2002.

Herbert was born in Farmington, Missouri, on September 1, 1889. He was educated in the public schools of Farmington and attended Carleton College. His ancestral background was very religious and included several generations of devout Methodist Preachers. Herbert's childhood was dominated by religion and he was fed heavy doses of it constantly. At the age of fourteen, he left the church and devoted himself to pleasures considered sinful by the pious folk of Farmington. He learned to smoke cigarettes (with the help of his older brother Emmett), play cards, swear, openly ogle girls and drink whenever he could find a willing bartender. Herbert's siblings, Mary, Emmett, and Fred eventually became disenchanted with the Southern Methodist Church.

His background greatly influenced both his philosophy of life and his career of reporter and author. The creation of his first two books UP FROM METHODISM and THE METHODIST SAINT arose from his confrontations with his religious ancestry. Herbert first became famous when he sold an article called HATRACK in 1926 to the late H. L. Mencken's American Mercury magazine. It was the story of a Farmington prostitute who took her Protestant customers to the Roman Catholic cemetery and vice versa. Hatrack (standing with her arms outstretched she resembled a hatrack) wanted to lead a better life and tried going to the local Methodist church to receive religion. However, no one tried to convert her and they ignored her because she was beyond redemption. Hatrack was a "Scarlet Woman" and since there was no forgiveness, she stayed in her profession as the town Harlot.^* The Watch and Ward Society of Boston had the Mercury magazine banned from sale in Boston because of the HATRACK article. H. L. Mencken challenged this action, went to Boston, and sold a copy of the magazine on the commons. He was arrested, causing sales of the Mercury magazine to boom and creating celebrities of both Herbert and Mencken.

Herbert worked as a reporter for various newspapers until 1928, among the most memorable were the Atlanta Georgian, the New York Sun, the New York Herald, and the New York Tribune. From 1928 on he devoted himself to the writing of books, magazine articles and scenarios for motion pictures. He also wrote several Broadway plays but they were not successful. Most of his books were written in a documentary style dealing mainly with sin and crime. Herbert wrote several fiction novels such as THE DEVIL OF PEI-LING and THE TICK OF THE CLOCK.

When World War I broke out, Herbert enlisted as a private in the U.S. Army. He was rapidly promoted to Sergeant and then to Second Lieutenant of Infantry. He served in France and was wounded and gassed. The damage to his lungs caused Herbert health problems throughout his life. He was honorably discharged from the service on January, 1919.

Herbert was married twice and neither marriage produced any children. Herbert had two residences: a house in Canada Lake, New York and an apartment in New York City. On February 24, 1963, at age 73, Herbert died from his chronic lung problems.

The drawing of Herbert is original and is owned by Frances Carle. The background information came from family archives.
^*The Hatrack story is from Herbert Asbury's UP FROM METHODISM, 1926.