Warren Allen Smith

Warren Allen Smith (October 27, 1921 – January 9, 2017) was an American writer, humanist and gay rights activist. A World War II veteran and an outspoken atheist, he dubbed himself as "the atheist in a foxhole".

Biography
From 1942 to 1946, Smith served in the U.S. Army. Originally a clerk working in the United States Army Armor School at Fort Knox, Smith landed at "Omaha" beach, Normandy in October of 1944. He then served as a high-ranking administrative clerk in France, and helped in the clerical responsibilities of withdrawing US soldiers after the war. Smith insisted that the religious affiliation inscription on his dogtag be Unitarian, and later 'None', instead of the usual P (for Protestant), C (Catholic) or H (Hebrew - Jewish).

In 1961, Smith started the Variety Recording Studio, a major independent company off Broadway, New York City, with his business partner and longtime companion Fernando Rodolfo de Jesus Vargas Zamora. Smith ran the company for almost thirty years (1961–90). In 1969, Smith participated in the Stonewall riots.

Smith was one of the signatories of the 1973 Humanist Manifesto II as well as the Humanist Manifesto III in 2003.

In 2015, Smith took control the website Philosopedia, intended to be a resource for philosophers as well as a comprehensive index of the world's most prominent atheists.

He died on January 9, 2017, at the age of 95.

Award

 * Leavey Award, by Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge 1985 - was awarded $7,500 by architect Charles Luckman as one of fifteen recipients of the annual Leavey Awards, received for a syllabus to teach Adam Smith clubs and classes in high schools.

Works

 * Who's Who in Hell: A Handbook and International Directory for Humanists, Freethinkers, Naturalists, Rationalists, and Non-Theists, (NY: Barricade Books, 2000) ISBN 978-1-56980-158-1. The work received a front-page review/interview in The New York Observer and a CNN interview by Jeanne Moos. When the books were all sold, Smith transferred the 1,237 printed pages as the first of the 4,850 philosopedia.org content pages.
 * Gossip from Across the Pond: Articles Published in the United Kingdom's Gay and Lesbian Humanist, 1996-2005, New York, N.Y.: chelCpress, 2005. ISBN 978-1-58396-916-8
 * 2005  Cruising the Deuce  - a serious study of the 1940s to 1980s subculture on New York City's 42nd Street;  foreword by Dr. Vern L. Bullough, fellow and former president, Society for the Scientific Study of Sex; copy was requested by the Kinsey Institute;  John Waters asked to use the book as a prop in a 2005 movie.
 * Celebrities in Hel l (NY: ChelCbooks, 2010). ISBN 978-1-56980-214-4 - a listing of contemporary non-revelationists including Woody Allen, Marlon Brando, Marlene Dietrich, Katharine Hepburn, Christopher Reeve, and Frank Zappa.
 * In the Heart of Showbiz, A Biographical Triography of Variety Recording Studio, Fernando Vargas, and Warren Allen Smith (NY:ChelCbooks, 2011) - an autobiography

Columns

 * 1994-1998 - "Humanist Potpourri". ''Free Inquiry; "Paul Cadmus: Artist-Humanist," August 1996
 * 1970s - "Manhattan Scene," in St. Thomas' Daily News and twenty other West Indian newspapers

<!-- Sources Commented out because there's no way all these sources have been used to create this stub. May be useful to future editors in expanding the article.
 * Who's Who in the World (1977 to date)
 * Who's Who in America
 * Dunham, Barrows. Giant in Chains (Boston: Little Brown & Co., 1953) Is critical of Smith's categorizations of different humanisms (pp. 27-31)
 * Ellis, Royston, "Who's Who," in Explore Sri Lanka, May 2003
 * Lamont, Corliss, "The Enduring Impact of George Santayana," NY: Basic Pamphlets, 1964 -  Quotes George Santayana's letter to Smith, "My Naturalism is fundamental and includes man, his mind, and all his works, products of the generative order of Nature. Christ in the Gospels is a legendary figure." (p. 12)
 * Lamont, Corliss. The Philosophy of Humanism (NY: Frederick Ungar, 1965). "In a carefully documented study, 'Authors and Humanism,' Warren Allen Smith, a Humanist teacher, quotes Sinclair Lewis as stating: 'Yes, I think that naturalistic Humanism – with dislike for verbalistic philosophy  – is my category.' " (p. 76)
 * Leading Men in the United States of America. Providence, R.I., Riverside, 1965
 * Lyons, Leonard. "The Lyons Den," New York Post, March 3, 1954. Refers to Smith's seeing an anachronistic Brooklyn telephone directory in the library of the stage set for T. S. Eliot's Confidential Clerk on Broadway
 * Lyons, Leonard, "The Lyons Den," New York Post, March 17, 1957 - Refers to Smith's noticing from his balcony seat that Tallulah Bankhead actually plays a good chess game during a scene of Eugenia on Broadway.
 * Mariani, Paul, William Carlos Williams (NY: McGraw Hill, 1981) - "Warren Allen Smith, book review editor for The Humanist, had written Williams that same week to ask him if he thought of himself as a humanist. And if he was, was he a theistic humanist or a secular humanist? No use dealing with the question in that way, Williams answered on the twenty-fifth. Atheism, he wrote, was 'laughable as a positive belief.' Death awaited every man, and that seemed to be the end of the matter. And while he knew that there was no use sounding 'positive' about that conclusion, as a doctor he did know that 'since all data in the case are withheld from me I find myself absolutely unconcerned.' All his life he had lived 'side by side with men who believe in the miracles of Christ,' and though they were his friends, he never thought of discussing his beliefs with them or they with him. . . . I was bred a Unitarian,' he underlined, 'but whether I transect the cone of my preferences nearer or farther from the light has become as I grow older indifferent to me. . . .Being forced back from any knowledge except the report of the senses,' he concluded, 'a humanistic naturalism is all that is left to me lit by the lightnings which play about the minds of saints and sinners.' Thus, having opted rationally for a pragmatic naturalism, he threw out the possibility that it was the Light after all which he wanted to celebrate.  If there were contradictions in what he said, he'd nevertheless said what he had to say; let someone else unscramble it."  (p. 723)
 * Mensa Register (London: Mensa) 1964-5 A first listing. He has remained a member.
 * Morain, Lloyd and Mary Morain. Humanism as the Next Step, An Introduction for Liberal Protestants, Catholics, and Jews. (Boston, Beacon Press, 1954) - Cites Smith as one of the "energetic humanists."
 * New Canaan Advertiser, "Fire Destroyed Only His Studio, 'Dead Man' Says" July 11, 1968 – Fire losses in excess of $100,000 to his two New York City business were sustained by the "deceased" Warren Allen Smith, chairman of the English department at New Canaan High School. Recently, an erroneous news report was broadcast by a Manhattan radio station that Mr. Smith, a resident of 94 Millport Avenue, had perished in a three-alarm fire at his New York recording studio, Later accounts of the fire omitted mention of Mr. Smith's "demise", but no correction was made. "Reports of my demise are highly exaggerated," said Mr. Smith after receiving calls to see whether he was in fact alive. . . .The fire began in the Arena Theatre in West 46th Street and raged for seven hours, forcing many in the nearby Hotel Edison to be routed from their rooms. Fire officials believe the fire was started by arsonists. Within a few days after the fire, Mr. Smith had re-formed the studios and had relocated at 130 West 42nd Street."
 * Santayana, George. Letters of George Santayana. Edited by Daniel Cory. (NY: Scribner's, 1955) - Includes the poet-philosopher's February 9, 1951 letter to Smith about naturalism.
 * Standard and Poor's Register of Corporations, Directors and Executive, U.S. and Canada, 1965. (NY: Standard & Poor's  Corp, 1965) - A first listing, including Smith's being Chairman and President of Variety Sound Corporation and Vice President with Fernando Vargas of Borodva, a Westinghouse laundry near Columbia University
 * Time, Vol. 85, #January 5, 29, 1965 - Quotes Smith on sex and education: "If Booth Tarkington were to write Seventeen today, he'd have to call it Twelve."
 * ''Who's Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges," 1945-1948 -  A first listing -->
 * ''Who's Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges," 1945-1948 -  A first listing -->