Letter from John Francis Byrne to Carr Van Anda, Oct 27 1916

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Letter from John Francis Byrne to Carr Van Anda, Oct 27 1916

1 7 Columbia Place,
Maspeth, N.Y., 10ber.27, 1916. Mr. VanAnda,
Mg.Ed.N.Y.Times. My dear Mr.VanAnda: Mrs.Sheehy Skeffington has asked me to write you to remind you of an
oversight on the part of the New York Times in regard to the matter of
payment for a couple of articles written by her late husband, Sheehy
Skeffington, for the Times. Here are the facts: In Septmber of last year I introduced Mr.Skeffington to Mr.Garet
Garrett in the Times office. As a result of that interview, two articles,
written by Skeffington were accepted and published by the Times,- the
first appearing in the issue of Oct.5, 1915, and the second a couple of
weeks subsequently. Notwithstanding that Mr. Skeffington made a claim for
payment for these articles early in November, no payment ever was forth-
coming. I send you a copy of a reply to Mr.Skeffington's letter claim-
ing payment for these articles: "Mr. F. Sheehy Skeffington,
138 12th Street,
Long Island City, N.Y, Dear Mr.Skeffington: Mr.Garrett sailed Thursday for Germany where
he expects to remain for the next two months. As he left no direc-
tions regarding your letters, and as I do not know what the arrange-
ments in regard to these two articles were, I shall have to let the
matter rest till his return. Regretting that there should be such a delay, I am
Yours very truly, (signed) H.J.Bishop,
Secretary to Mr.Garrett." I am well aware that payment for articles in the form in which Mr.
Skeffington's contributions appeared is not always expected or given, but,
in this case there could, or should, have been no misunderstanding the
terms on which Skeffington - a professional journalist - submitted these
articles, because I,myself,was paid for two articles of mine which appeared
in the issues of Oct.4, and Oct.10. The first of these articles was signed
J. S. Rendy, which was a telephonic misapprehension for J. F. Renby, the name
under which my second article appeared. I am sure I have only to bring this subject to your attention to have it
adjusted. Faithfully yours,

Letter from from John Francis Byrne (1880–1960) to Carr Van Anda (1863-1945)regarding articles that Hanna's deceased husband, Francis, wrote for the New York Times. John writes to Carr to inform him that the New York Times committed an oversight when they failed to pay Francis for these articles despite Francis' claim for payment. John includes the response that Francis received from H.J. Bishop after he filed for payment, in which H.J. Bishop tells him he doesn't know how to help him. John closes his letter by providing more detail regarding the circumstances of payment. Carr Van Anda was the immensely successful managing editor of the New York Times in the early 20th century. John Francis Byrne was a journalist and university friend of James Joyce who wrote under the pen name J.F. Renby. Though Byrne emigrated to America in 1910, he spent most of 1916 in Ireland observing and reporting on the political climate. Hanna Sheehy Skeffington, suffragette, nationalist, language teacher, was the founder of the Irish Women’s Franchise League and a founding member of the Irish Women Workers’ Union. She was the widow of Francis Sheehy-Skeffington who was summarily executed on 26 April 1916. She was active during the Rising, bringing food to the Volunteers in the G.P.O. and the College of Surgeons. Four days passed before she found out what had happened to her husband, Francis (1878-1916), and it wasn't until almost two weeks later that the full details of his execution emerged.

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How to cite

Letters 1916, published by the Austrian Centre for Digital Humanities, Vienna, 2026 (https://letters1916static.github.io/letters1916-static/item__3725.html)