A voracious reader and a prolific wordsmith, John Chamberlain was a writer's writer. In a journalism career that spanned more than six decades, he wrote feature articles on business and labor for Fortune, reported financial stories for Barron's magazine and wrote essays for The Wall Street Journal.
For 25 years, until 1985, he wrote a syndicated column for King Features on political, economic and social issues.
In 1930, Mr. Chamberlain became the first daily literary critic for The New York Times. He would read a book during his morning train commute from Connecticut, review it in the office, and then pen his critique that afternoon &emdash; five times a week.
An intellectual, he began his career as one of the most eminent socialist and leftist thinkers of his time, but ultimately became known as a conservative ideologist when he shifted allegiances in the late 1930s.
Edwin A. Roberts Jr. served as Mr. Chamberlain's editor at the Journal in the '50s and wrote a tribute to him shortly after his death in 1995. "I had the good sense (actually, the awe) not to touch his copy, which was perfect, and from which I learned that it should be the writer's goal to present ideas in language that in and of itself gives pleasure," he wrote in the Tampa Tribune.
Mr. Chamberlain wrote eight books, including his memoirs, "A Life with the Printed Word," in 1982.
"He was tireless: his integrity was always unimpeachable," said reviewer Roy A. Childs Jr.