Edgar Snow

Edgar Snow
Edgar Snow (left) with Zhou Enlai and his wife Deng Yingchao, circa 1938.
Born	(1905-07-17)July 17, 1905 Kansas City, Missouri, U.S.
Died	February 15, 1972(1972-02-15) (aged 66) Eysins, Switzerland
Nationality	American
Education	University of Missouri Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism
Occupation	Journalist Author
Known for	Journalist
Spouse(s)	Helen Foster Snow (1932–1949)

Edgar Parks Snow (17 July 1905 – 15 February 1972) was an American journalist known for his books and articles on Communism in China and the Chinese Communist revolution. He was the first western journalist to give a full account of the history of the Chinese Communist Party following the Long March, and was the first to interview many of its leaders, including Mao Zedong. He is best known for his book, Red Star Over China (1937), an account of the Chinese Communist movement from its foundation until the late 1930s.

Edgar was born in Kansas City, Missouri. Before settling in Missouri, his ancestors had moved to the state from North Carolina, Kentucky, and Kansas. He briefly studied journalism at the University of Missouri, and joined the Zeta Phi chapter of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity, but moved to New York City to pursue a career in advertising before graduating. He made a little money in the stock market shortly before the Wall Street Crash of 1929. In 1928 he used the money to travel around the world, intending to write about his travels. He made it to Shanghai that summer, and stayed in China for thirteen years.

He quickly found work with the China Weekly Review, edited by J.B. Powell, a graduate of the Missouri School of Journalism. He became friends with numerous prominent Chinese writers and intellectuals, including Soong Ching-ling. In his early years in China he supported Chiang Kai-shek, noting that Chiang had more Harvard graduates in his cabinet than there were in Franklin Roosevelt's. In 1932 he married Helen Foster, who was working in the American Consulate until she could begin her own career in journalism, writing under the pen-name "Nym Wales." Through much of the 1930s, while living in Shanghai, Snow traveled widely through China, often on assignment for the Chinese Railway Ministry. While working in Shanghai he toured famine districts in Northwest China, visited what would later become the Burma Road, reported on the undeclared war with Japan, and became a correspondent for the Saturday Evening Post.