From the battle of Santiago to the Argonne to Pearl Harbor, publisher Frank Knox combined a career of letters with active political and military service. Knox always considered himself a Republican, but he was free enough from party loyalty that his positions could shift with the changes of a crisis-laden half-century.

William Franklin Knox was born in Boston on New Year's Day 1874, the eldest of five surviving children of William Edwin and Sarah Barnard Knox. His parents were Presbyterians, the father from Scottish roots and the mother from English. Both had been born in Canada and had come to the United States during childhood. Sarah was thrifty and religious, while William Knox was a merchant whose small businesses tended to flounder as customers buying on credit failed to pay. Frank Knox's later political posture reflected these domestic differences: he campaigned as a progressive but called the New Deal...