Editing Philip Johnson (section)

== Early life and career ==
[[File:Philip Johnson3.jpg|thumb|left|180px|Johnson, by [[Carl Van Vechten]] January 18, 1933]]
Johnson was born in [[Cleveland]], Ohio, on July 8, 1906, the son of a lawyer, Homer Hosea Johnson (1862–1960), and the former Louisa Osborn Pope (1869–1957), a niece of [[Alfred Atmore Pope]] and a first cousin of [[Theodate Pope Riddle]]. He had an older sister, Jeannette, and a younger sister, Theodate. He was descended from the Jansen family of [[New Amsterdam]]. His ancestors include the [[Huguenots|Huguenot]] [[Jacques Cortelyou]], who laid out the first town plan of New Amsterdam for [[Peter Stuyvesant]]. He grew up in [[New London, Ohio]].<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Forms Under Light |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1977/05/23/forms-under-light |access-date=April 7, 2024 |magazine=The New Yorker |date=May 15, 1977}}</ref> He had a [[Stuttering|stutter]] and was diagnosed with [[cyclothymia]].<ref name=":3">{{cite book |last1=Maddow |first1=Rachel |title=Prequel: an American fight against fascism |date=2023 |publisher=Crown |location=New York |isbn=978-0-593-44451-1 |pages=2–56 |edition=First}}</ref> He attended the [[Hackley School]] in [[Tarrytown, New York]], then studied as an undergraduate at [[Harvard University]] where he focused on learning Greek, [[philology]], history and [[philosophy]], particularly the work of the Pre-Socratic philosophers.

Upon completing his studies in 1930,<ref name=":3" /> he made a series of trips to Europe, particularly Germany, where his family had a summer house. He visited the landmarks of classical and Gothic architecture, and joined [[Henry-Russell Hitchcock]], a prominent architectural historian, who was introducing Americans to the work of [[Le Corbusier]], [[Walter Gropius]], and other modernists. In 1928, he met German architect [[Ludwig Mies van der Rohe]], who was at the time designing the [[Barcelona Pavilion|German Pavilion]] for the [[1929 Barcelona International Exposition]]. The meeting formed the basis for a lifelong relationship of both collaboration and competition.<ref name=NYT-obit>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/27/arts/design/philip-johnson-architectures-restless-intellect-dies-at-98.html |title=Obituary: Philip Johnson, Architecture's Restless Intellect, dies at 98 |first=Paul |last=Goldberger |date=January 27, 2005 |newspaper=The New York Times |access-date=May 15, 2018}}</ref><ref name="Guardian obituary" />

Johnson had a substantial fortune, largely due to his father's successful investment in [[Alcoa]], the Aluminum Company of America.<ref name="Mashiach">{{Cite news |last=Mashiach |first=Itay |date=June 14, 2024 |title=The Nazi who built Israel a nuclear reactor |url=https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-06-14/ty-article-magazine/.highlight/the-nazi-who-built-israel-a-nuclear-reactor/00000190-1454-df06-adb8-74d63c4b0000}}</ref> With this fortune, in 1930 he financed the new architecture department of the [[Museum of Modern Art]] in New York, and in 1932 he was named its curator. As curator he arranged for American visits by Gropius and Le Corbusier, and negotiated the first American commission for Mies van der Rohe. In 1932, working with Hitchcock and [[Alfred H. Barr, Jr.]], he organized the first exhibition on Modern architecture at the Museum of Modern Art.<ref name=":1">{{cite web|url=https://www.newyorker.com/culture/dept-of-design/philip-johnson-the-man-who-made-architecture-amoral|title=Philip Johnson, the Man Who Made Architecture Amoral|first=Nikil|last=Saval|date=December 12, 2018|access-date=December 12, 2018|website=Newyorker.com}}</ref> The show and their simultaneously published book ''[[International Style (architecture)|International Style: Modern Architecture Since 1922]]'', published in 1932, played a seminal role in introducing [[modern architecture]] to the American public.{{sfn|Watkin|1986|page=573}}

When the rise of the Nazis in Germany forced the modernists [[Marcel Breuer]] and [[Mies van der Rohe]] to leave Germany, Johnson helped arrange for them to come to work in the United States.{{Sfn|Taschen|2016|page=314}} He created a small organization called the Gray Shirts, styled after the Nazi Brownshirts.<ref name=":3" />

{{quote box |text=The amount of power he yearned for was inversely proportional to the amount he actually attained. In politics, he proved to be a trifler, the dilettante he earlier feared himself to be, a model of futility who sought to find a messiah or to pursue messianic ends but whose most lasting following turned out to be the agents of the FBI—who themselves finally grew bored with him. In short, he was never much of a political threat to anyone, still less an effective doer of either political good or political evil. |author=Franz Schulze |source=''Philip Johnson: Life and Work'' (1994), p.144<ref name=Schulze-94 /> |align=right |width=25em}}

=== Politics and journalism ===
In December 1934, Johnson abruptly left the Museum of Modern Art and began pursuing a career in journalism and politics. He first became a supporter of [[Huey Long]], the populist governor of Louisiana. He tried and failed to recruit Long to join the National Party, which he founded.<ref name=":3" /> Johnson unsuccessfully ran for representative of New London in the Ohio state legislature.<ref name=":3" /> After Long was assassinated in 1935, Johnson became a correspondent for ''[[Social Justice (periodical)|Social Justice]]'', the newspaper of the radical-populist and anti-Semitic Father [[Charles Coughlin]]. Johnson traveled to Germany and Poland as a correspondent, where he wrote admiringly about the Nazis.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /><ref name="Varnelis" /><ref name=":2" />

In ''Social Justice'', Johnson expressed, as ''[[The New York Times]]'' later reported, "more than passing admiration for Hitler".<ref name=NYT-obit /> In the summer of 1932 Johnson attended one of the [[Nuremberg Rallies]] in Germany and saw Hitler for the first time. Years later he would describe the event to his biographer, Franz Schulze: "You simply could not fail to be caught up in the excitement of it, by the marching songs, by the crescendo and climax of the whole thing, as Hitler came on at last to harangue the crowd". He told of being thrilled at the sight of "all those blond boys in black leather" marching past the Führer.<ref name=Schulze-94>{{cite book |last=Schulze |first=Franz |title=Philip Johnson: Life and Work |location=Chicago |publisher=University of Chicago Press |date=1996 |isbn=978-0-226-74058-4 |url=http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/P/bo3640523.html |access-date=May 15, 2018}}</ref>{{rp|89–90}} Sponsored by the German government, he traveled on a press tour which covered the invasion of Poland in 1939. Schulze dismissed these early political activities as inconsequential, concluding they merited "little more substantial attention than they have gained" and his politics "were driven as much by an unconquerable esthetic impulse as by fascist philosophy or playboy adventurism".<ref name=Schulze-94 />{{rp|144;146}}<ref>His involvement with fascism and the Nazi party was documented in Marc Wortman's 2016 book ''1941: Fighting the Shadow War''. It was excerpted by ''[[Vanity Fair (magazine)|Vanity Fair]]'' magazine.</ref><ref name=":0">{{cite magazine|url=https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2016/04/philip-johnson-nazi-architect-marc-wortman|title=Famed Architect Philip Johnson's Hidden Nazi Past|first=Marc|last=Wortman|magazine=Vanity Fair|access-date=December 12, 2018}}</ref>

=== Architecture school and Army service ===
In 1941, at the age of 35, Johnson abandoned politics and journalism and enrolled in the [[Harvard Graduate School of Design]], where he studied with [[Marcel Breuer]] and [[Walter Gropius]], who had recently fled from Nazi Germany.<ref name=NYT-obit /> In 1941, Johnson designed and built his first building, a house at 9 Ash Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The house, strongly influenced by Mies van der Rohe, has a wall around the lot which merges with the structure.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2017/3/2/johnson-mystery-house/ |title=If Only We Could See It: Philip Johnson's Mystery House |author1=Cahill, Frank M. |author2=Harrington, Cleo M. |date=March 2, 2017 |newspaper=The Harvard Crimson |access-date=May 17, 2018}}</ref> It was used by Johnson to host social events and was eventually submitted as his graduate thesis; he sold the house after the war, and it was purchased by Harvard in 2010<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.curbed.com/2015/8/20/9928560/21-first-drafts-philip-johnsons |title=21 First Drafts: Philip Johnson's 9 Ash Street House |author=Sisson, Patrick |date=August 20, 2015 |work=Curbed |access-date=May 17, 2018}}</ref> and restored by 2016.<ref>{{cite report |url=https://home.planningoffice.harvard.edu/files/hppm/files/harvard_university_town_gown_report_2016_web_012317.pdf |page=15 |title=Harvard University Town Gown Report |date=2016 |publisher=Harvard Planning Office |access-date=May 17, 2018}}</ref>

In 1942, while still a student of the architecture school, Johnson tried to enlist with [[Naval Intelligence]], and then for a federal job, but was rejected both times. In 1943, after his graduation from Harvard, he was drafted to the Army and was sent to [[Fort Ritchie|Fort Ritchie, Maryland]], to interrogate German [[prisoners of war]].<ref name="Wortman 2016">{{Cite book |last=Wortman |first=Marc |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/922911666 |title=1941: Fighting the Shadow War: A Divided America in a World at War |publisher=Atlantic Monthly Press |year=2016 |isbn=978-0-8021-2511-8 |edition=First |location=New York |oclc=922911666}}</ref> He was investigated by the FBI for his involvement with the German government, Coughlin and [[Lawrence Dennis]], an American fascist economist, and was cleared for continued military service.<ref name=ids>{{cite web |title=PHILIP JOHNSON |publisher=IDS Center |url=http://ids-center.com/?page_id=679 |access-date=January 29, 2015 |archive-date=July 9, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140709032903/http://www.ids-center.com/?page_id=679 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="Wortman 2016" /> After the [[Great Sedition Trial|trial of Dennis and his collaborators]], Johnson was relieved of his interrogation duties and transferred to [[Fort Belvoir|Fort Belvoir, Virginia]],<ref>{{cite news|title=At Camp Humphreys, Va|newspaper=The Sunday Star, Washington, DC, pg 68|date=June 23, 1918|id=Newspapers.com}} https://www.newspapers.com/image/332637670</ref> where he spent the rest of his military service doing routine duties.<ref name="Wortman 2016" />