Silas Bent

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Silas Bent (1882-1945), American journalist, author, and lecturer, began newspaper work in 1900 in Louisville, Kentucky, on the Louisville Herald. After three years he moved to St. Louis and joined the staff of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch as reporter and assistant editor. He was appointed assistant professor of theory and practice of journalism at the University of Missouri School of Journalism when the school was opened in 1908, but resigned that position in February 1909 to return to the Post-Dispatch. Later, he did publicity work in Chicago and then spent 13 years in New York City. As a freelance writer he contributed articles to The New York Times, Harpers and The Atlantic among others.

Bent's most famous work is Ballyhoo (1927), a critical survey of newspaper practices; he also wrote Strange Bedfellows (1929), a book on contemporary political leaders; a biography of Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., and Buchanan of the Press (Vanguard Press, 1932), a novel about a reporter's career set in St. Louis. He is buried in Bowling Green, Kentucky.

Silas Bent was a very interesting member of the Bent family. He moved very far west and became a naval lieutenant and seaman. He was on a voyage to Japan, and mapped the sea and its movements. He mapped the Japanese current and named it the “Black Tide”. After this, he went home and thought about the relationship between the currents of the sea and the climate of the surrounding area. He discovered that the currents and how they are moving effects, to some extent, the climate and weather of the area around it.

Quote on Ocean Currents “Throughout the world, ocean currents, those powerful rivers within the sea, not only influence the oceans they flow through. They also play a key role in shaping the climate of the continents that surround them. The weather in, say Butte, Montana depends partly on where and how the water swings and surges around the Pacific Rim.”