Everyone is jumping up and down to celebrate (well, the nerds I follow), about The New Yorker turning 90 today. In every story Jane Grant gets left out. In my book and on my walking tour I say what her husband, Harold Ross, said: without her there’d be no magazine today. My book lays it out. But I truly believe if he’d started the magazine with a man, like a brother or partner, it would Continue Reading →
Letter from Harold Ross of The New Yorker to Frank Sullivan, both were Vicious Circle members. What I find ironic is now The New Yorker will use this language regularly. He also mentions John O’Hara.
This is some of the research from my new book The Algonquin Round Table New York: A Historical Guide (Lyons Press).
Now that my book is out, I am looking at what went right and what went wrong with The Algonquin Round Table New York: A Historical Guide. Today I was in a file of letters, and I came across one that I never got a response to. In 2010, I wrote to the director of the Castleton Free Library, in Castleton, Vermont. This is not far from where Alexander Woollcott and his friends had a vacation house Continue Reading →
This is Anita Loos, who wrote Gentlemen Prefer Blondes in 1925. I just digitized & posted a 1952 radio interview from The Algonquin Hotel with Anita that I uncovered. It’s on soundcloud.
Today is the anniversary of Margaret Leech’s birthdate, November 7, 1894 in Newburgh, NY. She’s the only woman to win the Pulitzer Prize twice in the History category. I write about her in my upcoming book The Algonquin Round Table New York: A Historical Guide. She led a fascinating life marked by tragedy & triumph and I hope people learn about her in my book.