William Henry Chamberlin was one of the most respected foreign correspondents of his day, especially esteemed by both colleagues and critics for his thoroughness and scholarly approach. His writing on conditions in the Soviet Union, Japan, China, the Allied countries of Europe during and immediately after World War II, and Canada, are based upon the firsthand observation and research of a man who lived for years in the areas about which he wrote and who experienced many of the events and conditions he described.

Chamberlin was born 17 February 1897 in Brooklyn, New York, the only child of Ernest and May E. McClintock Chamberlin. His father was a newspaperman of modest means. From childhood, Chamberlin kept a diary which reflected his tastes, ideas, and interests. In his autobiography, The Confessions of an Individualist (1940), Chamberlin describes the family as never knowing "downright want" but being unable to afford "many superfluities." His...