Edward L. Bernays (1891-1995), American consultant to business and government, labored to bring public relations to the status of a profession.

Edward L. Bernays was born in Vienna, Austria, on November 22, 1891. His maternal uncle was the famed psychologist Sigmund Freud. When the boy was a year old the family emigrated to New York City, where his father became a successful grain merchant. After education in the city's schools, Edward enrolled in the Agricultural College of Cornell University. The elder Bernays had hopes that his son would one day join him on the grain exchange, but by the time of Edward's graduation from Cornell in 1912 he had decided to pursue a career as a journalist.

Bernays became editor of the Medical Review of Reviews in New York City. In 1913 he learned that the actor Richard Bennet planned to produce "Damaged Goods," a play warning of the dangers of venereal...