Dowdell, William J.

   (1898–1953).

   Amateur writer in Cleveland. Dowdell edited several amateur journals, including Dowdell’s Bearcat, which printed several works by HPL, including the essay “The Dignity of Journalism” (July 1915) and the poems “To Samuel Loveman, Esquire…” (December 1915) and “An American to Mother England” (November 1916). HPL criticized Dowdell’s Cleveland Sun (coedited with Anthony F.Moitoret and Edwin D.Harkins) for its excessive imitation of cheap newspaper standards, especially its inclusion of “The Best Sport Page in Amateurdom” (see “Department of Public Criticism,” United Amateur, September 1916). In 1919 Dowdell led a campaign criticizing HPL’s purportedly high-handed centralization of authority in the UAPA (see “For Official Editor—Anne Tillery Renshaw,” Conservative, July 1919); in 1922 HPL lost his battle, being ousted as Official Editor of the UAPA. At this time Dowdell was himself President of the NAPA, but resigned late in the year (HPL later remarked that Dowdell “ran off with a chorus girl”: HPL to Lillian D.Clark, July 27, 1925; ms., JHL); the NAPA’s Executive Judges appointed HPL interim President for 1922–23. No more is heard of Dowdell either in amateur circles or in professional journalism.