The Review of Contemporary Fiction

Letters from the Editor: The New Yorker’s Harold Ross by Harold Ross. Ed. Thomas Kunkel
Sally E. Parry

Untitled document

Harold Ross. Letters from the Editor: The New Yorker’s Harold Ross. Ed. Thomas Kunkel. Modern Library, 2000. 428 pp. $26.95.

Harold Ross was one of the most influential magazine editors of the first half of the twentieth century and this collection of letters shows us why. Ross started the New Yorker in 1925 as a topical magazine that was dedicated to printing serious fiction as well as being “entertaining and bright.” He encouraged good writers such as E. B. White, James Thurber, Rebecca West, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, and John Hersey. In 1929 he wrote to F. Scott Fitzgerald thanking him for a submission and asking for more: “You wouldn’t get rich doing it, but it ought to give you satisfaction.” Ross exhibited a strong sense of ethics in connection with his magazine. He prohibited advertising that contained lies and by 1942 banned ads for hotels that would not admit Jews. He warned the business manager not to request theater tickets for anyone other than the theater critic. And he was an early champion of copyright protection for all of his writers and cartoonists. Although somewhat conservative on social issues such as race, Ross was willing to change. He wrote against firing staffers who were branded as communists in 1947 and edited a piece on lynching that same year. He also wrote in support of a homosexual who had been dishonorably discharged from the navy. Despite making snide comments about working women, he collaborated with many women writers and relied heavily on the advice of Katherine Angell. He was aware of the influence that the New Yorker had and was willing to take unpopular stands including not promoting war in 1940 and in 1946 devoting an entire issue to John Hersey’s writing on Hiroshima. Letters from the Editor is well edited, with just enough information to set each of the letters in context. It is worth reading for insight into an era and into one of the most scrupulous editors in American letters. [Sally E. Parry]


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The Review of Contemporary Fiction Letters from the Editor: The New Yorker’s Harold Ross by Harold Ross. Ed. Thomas Kunkel Sally E. Parry Untitled document Harold Ross. Letters from the Editor: The New Yorker’s Harold Ross. Ed. Thomas Kunkel. Modern Library, 2000. 428 pp. $26.95. Harold Ross was one of the most influential magazine editors of the first half of the twentieth century and this collection of letters shows us why. Ross started the New Yorker in 1925 as a topical magazine that was dedicated to printing serious fiction as well as being “entertaining and bright.” He encouraged good writers such as E. B. White, James Thurber, Rebecca West, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, and John Hersey. In 1929 he wrote to F. Scott Fitzgerald thanking him for a submission and asking for more: “You wouldn’t get rich doing it, but it ought to give you satisfaction.” Ross exhibited a strong sense of ethics in connection with his magazine. He prohibited advertising that contained lies and by 1942 banned ads for hotels that would not admit Jews. He warned the business manager not to request theater tickets for anyone other than the theater critic. And he was an early champion of copyright protection for all of his writers and cartoonists. Although somewhat conservative on social issues such as race, Ross was willing to change. He wrote against firing staffers who were branded as communists in 1947 and edited a piece on lynching that same year. He also wrote in support of a homosexual who had been dishonorably discharged from the navy. Despite making snide comments about working women, he collaborated with many women writers and relied heavily on the advice of Katherine Angell. He was aware of the influence that the New Yorker had and was willing to take unpopular stands including not promoting war in 1940 and in 1946 devoting an entire issue to John Hersey’s writing on Hiroshima. Letters from the Editor is well edited, with just enough information to set each of the letters in context. It is worth reading for insight into an era and into one of the most scrupulous editors in American letters. [Sally E. Parry]

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