Henry Alsberg

Henry G. Alsberg
Alsberg testifying on behalf of the Federal Writers' Project before the House Committee on Un-American Activities, commonly known as HUAC. December 1938
Alsberg testifying before HUAC, December 1938
Born
Henry Garfield Alsberg

(1881-09-21)September 21, 1881
New York City, New York, U.S.
DiedNovember 1, 1970(1970-11-01) (aged 89)
EducationColumbia University (AB, LLB)
Harvard University
Known forFederal Writers' Project
RelativesCarl L. Alsberg (brother)

Henry Garfield Alsberg (September 21, 1881 – November 1, 1970) was an American journalist and writer who served as the founding director of the Federal Writers' Project.

A lawyer by training, he was a foreign correspondent during the Russian Revolution, secretary to the U.S. Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, and an influential volunteer for refugee aid efforts. Alsberg was a producer at the Provincetown Playhouse. He spent years traveling through war-torn Europe on behalf of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. After publishing several magazines for the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, he was appointed to head the Federal Writers' Project. Fired from the project in 1939 shortly after testifying before the House Un-American Activities Committee, he worked for a short time for the Office of War Information, before joining Hastings House Publishers as an editor.