Ross, Harold W. 1892-1951

EDITOR

Ross of The New Yorker.

Harold Ross was a tramp reporter from Aspen, Colorado, who conceived and ran a cosmopolitan magazine that developed some of the best American writers for twenty-five years. Ross of The New Yorker became the subject of many anecdotes about his eccentricities and alleged lack of sophistication ("Is Moby Dick the Man or the whale?"), yet he was an editorial genius who permanently influenced the rationale of American magazine publishing and developed new literary forms.

Shaky Start.

Ross left high school to work as a reporter at a string of newspapers. In 1918 he became de facto editor in chief of The Stars and Stripes, the American expeditionary force newspaper published in Paris, with the permanent rank of private. He had discovered his genius: the ability to run a periodical in accordance with his high editorial standards. After the war he worked for...

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