An American editor and author, Herbert David Croly (1869-1930) created the political philosophy known as "new nationalism" and was a founder of the magazine New Republic.

Herbert Croly was born on Jan. 23, 1869, into an immigrant but middle-class family. Croly's father was editor of the New York World and the New York Graphic, and his mother wrote under the nom de plume Jennie June. Both parents were civic reformers.

Croly studied a year at the College of the City of New York and off and on for 11 years at Harvard before quitting academia in 1899 without taking a degree. So softspoken that he seemed to whisper, he was inordinately shy among strangers; according to his biographer his shyness approached the pathological. Croly's written words were as laborious as his spoken ones.

In 1892 Croly married Louise Emory of Baltimore, a wealthy socialite. He was editor of the Architectural Record from 1900 to...