Eleanor Bisbee

Eleanor Bisbee (July 22, 1893 – April 18, 1956) was an American journalist, Universalist minister, philosopher, and college professor, best known for her works on Turkish history, politics, and culture.

Eleanor Bisbee
Eleanor Bisbee, from a 1914 newspaper
Born	July 22, 1893 Beverly, New Jersey, U.S.
Died	April 18, 1956 (1956-04-19) (aged 62) San Francisco, California, U.S.
Occupation(s)	Writer, editor, Universalist minister, philosopher, college professor
Notable work	The New Turks: Pioneers of the Republic, 1920-1950 (1951)

Early life and education

Bisbee was born in Beverly, New Jersey^[1] (one source says she was born in Ocean City, New Jersey),^[2] the daughter of Frederick A. Bisbee and Martha Gally Bisbee. Her father was a Universalist minister and editor of The Universalist Leader.^[3] She graduated from Jackson College (part of Tufts University) in 1915, and a Bachelor of Sacred Theology degree in 1917; she and her brother John were the only Theology School graduates at Tufts that year.^[4] She earned a Ph.D. in philosophy at the University of Cincinnati, with a dissertation titled "Instrumentalism in Plato's philosophy: A functional theory of ideas and of God" (1929).

In college Bisbee was president of the Christian Guild,^[5] a tennis champion and a member of the Alpha Omicron Pi sorority.^[6]

Career

Between college and graduate school, Bisbee was a Universalist minister^[7] working in Minnesota and Ohio,^[8] and a journalist and newspaper editor in Miami, Florida.^[9] After completing her doctoral studies, she was a professor of philosophy and civilization at the University of Cincinnati from 1930 to 1931,^[1] and a professor of philosophy at Robert College in Istanbul from 1936 until 1942.^[10][11]

On her return to the United States, Bisbee concentrated on writing about Turkey, especially her book The New Turks: Pioneers of the Republic, 1920-1950 (1951).^[12] Her book was described as a "lively and sympathetic book to explain the Turkish people and to describe their recent achievements."^[13]

Bisbee was a columnist at the San Jose Mercury in her later years, and worked at the Hoover Institution Library, organizing the Turkish section.^[2] She spoke about the Middle East before community and campus audiences.^[10][11]

Publications

• "The A B C and X Y Z of Tennis" (1921)^[14]
• "The Parmenides in the Light of the Propositional Function" (1933)^[15]
• "Confusion about exclusive and exceptive propositions" (1937)^[16]
• "Objectivity in the social sciences" (1937)^[17]
• The People of Turkey (1946)^[18]
• "Test of Democracy in Turkey" (1950)^[19]
• The New Turks: Pioneers of the Republic, 1920-1950 (1951, republished 2016)^[12]

Personal life

Bisbee died in 1956, in San Francisco, at the age of 62.^[20] There is a collection of her papers in the Hoover Institution Library and Archives.^[1]