Henry Regnery
(1912-1996)

Henry Regnery was born in Hinsdale, Illinois, on January 5, 1912.
He graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technol-
ogy in 1933 with a B.S. in mathematics. He then spent two years at
the University of Bonn, Germany, and upon his return to this
country in 1935 spent two years studying economics at Harvard
University. Shortly thereafter, as a member of the American
Friends Service Committee, he helped start and subsequently ran
a knitting mill in western Pennsylvania to provide jobs for unem-
ployed coal miners.

In 1947 Mr. Regnery founded the Henry Regnery Company
book publishers. His company became an early voice for the con-
servative movement in this country, publishing, among other
works, William Buckley's God and Man at Yale and Russell Kirk’s
The Conservative Mind. He was also personally acquainted with
and published works by many midwestern modernist poets. An
author and writer himself, his own books include Creative Chicago:
From the Chap-Book to the University, a study of Chicago's cul-
tural community, and a history of the Cliff Dwellers entitled The
Cliff Dwellers: The History of a Chicago Cultural Institution. A lover
of music (he played the cello), Mr. Regnery enjoyed a long asso-
ciation with the American Conservatory of Music as a member and benefactor.

Mr. Regnery became a member of the Chicago Literary Club
in 1966 and served as an officer of the Club at various times in the
1970s, i98os, and 1990s. He presented twelve papers, three of
which were published by the Club—Wyndham Lewis: The Writer
Against His Time, A Prophet Without Honor in His Own Country:
Francis F. Browne and THE DIAL, and To Edit or Not to Edit, a
consideration of the revised edition of Theodore Dreiser's Jennie
Gerhardt.

Read before the Club: March 1, 1999