Word: simonizers
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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More than almost any other contemporary politician, Simon has left a paper trail of his philosophical career. For nearly 40 years, he has written weekly newspaper columns. Odd as it may seem in an as-told-to era, he has also written eleven books, banging them out on an ancient Royal typewriter that he inherited from his parents. Jeanne Simon, his wife, speculates that the books may be Simon's way of compensating for his lack of a college degree. "I think Paul in his writings is saying, 'I know what I'm doing,' " she explains. The range of book...
This can-do optimism is a trait that Simon inherited from his father Martin, who died of leukemia in 1969. Martin and Ruth Simon were Lutheran missionaries in China before Martin accepted a pastorate in Eugene a month prior to the birth of their oldest son Paul in 1928. In the early 1930s, the Simons began publishing religious pamphlets out of their home, as well as a monthly magazine called the Christian Parent. Ruth Simon recalls, "When we went into business, we didn't have a dime of our own." A monthly treat was a Sunday after-church lunch...
...ministry, an ambition that Arthur later fulfilled. But Paul's dreams were shaped by reading the autobiography of William Allen White, the publisher of the Emporia (Kans.) Gazette. "In grade school," Arthur says, "Paul began talking about owning a weekly newspaper and going into politics." To this day, Simon remains a devout Lutheran layman...
...quest of a more central location for their business, the Simons moved to Highland, Ill., some 35 miles from St. Louis, in 1946. Paul enrolled at Dana College, a Lutheran school in Blair, Neb. He was a little more than a year short of graduation when his parents discovered that the weekly paper in nearby Troy, Ill., was about to fold. With the help of a $3,600 loan guaranteed by the local Lions Club, Paul Simon, 19, was the publisher and owner of the Troy Tribune. "I wanted to be the Walter Lippmann of my generation," he explains...
With a circulation of about 1,000, the Tribune was a sleepy small-town weekly -- until its boy editor stumbled on punchboard gambling in Madison County. With the impetuousness of youth, Simon unearthed a daisy chain of gambling and prostitution operating under the protection of local officials. A typical issue of the Tribune would combine an angry front-page editorial decrying gambling with an earnest column by the editor ("Trojan Thoughts") singing the praises of church camps...