Joseph O. Losos and the James Henry Breasted Prize

The September issue of Perspectives re­ported that the American Historical As­sociation had received a gift of stock in the amount of $10,800 to endow a prize for the best book in any field of history before the year 1000. The donor, Per­spectives continued, has suggested that the prize be named to honor the memo­ry of a great American scholar in one of these fields.

It is not to disparage the donor to remark that, except for readers of the book review pages of the St. Louis Post­-Dispatch, his name very likely went unrecognized. To them, however, the name of Joseph O. Losos is a familiar one. For more than fifteen years, he has been reviewing books in all fields of history—ancient and modern, Europe­an, American, Asian, and African. For many of those years he was identified in the Post-Dispatch simply as a St. Louis stockbroker and more recently as a St. Louis banker.

He is, as those who know him can attest, much more than that. Civic af­fairs claim much of his time. He has long been an ardent supporter of the St. Louis Zoo and he is currently a member of the board of the Opera Theatre of St. Louis. His wife, Carolyn Losos, is simi­larly active. Among other things, she is a board member of the Repertory The­atre of St. Louis and serves on the financial advisory committee to the Mis­souri Board of Education; the Girl Scouts Council of St. Louis has been her special interest. Together with their children, Mr. and Mrs. Losos are also world travelers, with recent expeditions to Egypt, Botswana, Bhutan, Madagas­car, and Mauritius to their credit. A book on animal preservation, related to these travels, is in the works.

Forget all this, though, when it comes to reading history. To Joe Losos, “life consists of reading one thing after an­other.” Most of his historical reading, he says, is devoted to the myriad books the Post-Dispatch sends. Many of them do not warrant reviews, but, says Mr. Lo­sos, how can he know that without read­ing them?

There is more to his reading, though, than books for review. I asked him once how he managed to be so well informed on so many topics—that after he had surprised me by bringing up an obscure fact about an Indian war in the colonial period of American history. By reading reviews of others, he said, as well as journal articles. I wonder how many academic historians match his intake. In addition to the American Historical Re­view, he also reads the Journal of Modern History, the Journal of American History, the English Historical Review, and History Today, as well as the Economist—the best magazine ever published.” And he reads them cover to cover.

Mr. Losos has been a member of the American Historical Association since 1952, the year he graduated from Har­vard with a degree in history. In 1955 he earned a law degree at Harvard, but his practice of law has been entirely in the world of finance. On occasion, he has also taught, most recently at Wash­ington University, where for the past several autumns he has offered an eve­ning course on the financial history of the United States.

But reading is his real vocation. “It is remarkable,” a friend told him once, “that you found time to have four chil­dren.” To which he replied, “Not, I hope, like the British Empire, in a mo­ment of absent-mindedness.” Another story told by friends has him at a party, caught in a conversation about a book he hasn’t read, finding the book on a shelf, and slipping off by himself to read it so that he can join the conversation knowledgeably. Not true? Well, maybe a time or two, he admits.

His love for history and his respect for the American Historical Association will now lead to benefits for historians who write the books he loves to read. The AHA’s annual prize, to be known as the James Henry Breasted prize, will yield each recipient approximately $1000. For the profession, the benefit will be an appreciation of the fact that a lawyer, stockbroker, banker, and friend of history cared enough for history and the writers of books to make the prize possible.