COLUMNIST

Apprenticeship.

In an era of brilliant newspapermen, some of whom acquired national reputations and legendary status, Heywood Broun was probably the columnist most respected by his readers and colleagues. Broun was born into a well-off Brooklyn family and attended Harvard as a member of the class of 1910. The extracurricular pleasures of the poker table and the Red Sox and an inability to pass French prevented him from graduating. He went to work as a reporter—at that time the normal move for someone with literary ambition. In 1912 he began covering sports for the New York Tribune, and his articles were admired for their detail and vivid description. After going to France as a correspondent during World War I—where he criticized the American leadership—he returned to the Tribune as drama critic and literary editor.

"It Seems to Me."

Broun's national fame and influence commenced...