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Letters from the Editor: The New Yorker's Harold Ross (Modern Library Paperbacks)

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Even more than Kunkel's brilliant biography "Genius in Disguise," this book offers special insights into "New Yorker" founder and editor Harold Ross, not only a seminal figure in American letters but a sardonic wit reminiscent of H.L. Mencken, one of the people with whom he frequently exchanged letters. (Indeed, the sweep of his correspondence, from "New Yorker" stalwarts like E.B. White and his wife Katherine to Dorothy Parker and James Thurber all the way to John O'Hara, Harpo Marx, various state governors and other polticos, President Truman, and Premier Nehru, is impressive in itself.) While in many of these letters, Ross comes across as that curmudgeon one might expect, there is a touch of tender concern in others that shows you that some of the gruffness was merely a pose--as is his stance as the long-suffering, embattled editor who says he would rather be doing anything else, but who clearly shows he is having the time of his life.

The book may be a bit abstruse in places for those who do not know the history of the "New Yorker" during the Ross editorship, but there seems to be enough comedy throughout to maintain even a casual reader's interest. Anyone who has enjoyed "Genius in Disguise" will surely love this book. I guess the greatest complement I can offer is now that I've read Kunkel's two Ross portrayals, I can't wait for his next book.

Ross's legendary gruffness and expansive curiosity are revealed in this wonderful book. Kunkel's superb biography of Ross, "Genius in disguise," deserved this follow-up, in which the subject speaks for himself. He is as lively a letter-writer as ever lived, making one wish that email weren't the washed out modern excuse for correspondence that it so often is. Read it; then go and read the old New Yorkers on microfilm at the university library. Sensational.

These letters were my companion as I read "Genius in Disguise", Kunkel's wonderful biography of Harold Ross. The biography tells the story of Ross and his founding and development of The New Yorker. These letters bring Ross to life and convey the personality that spotted and nurtured the talent that made the magazine great. Here's a quick letter to John Cheever in 1947, which gives a little flavor of the man:

"Dear Cheever:
I've just read "The Enormous Radio," having gone away for a spell and got behind, and I send my respects and admiration. The piece is worth coming back to work for. It will turn out to be a memorable one, or I am a fish. Very wonderful, indeed."
As ever,
Ross

I've long been a fan of The New Yorker altho the drawings and not the too lengthy articles are my favorites now.

Have read most of the books about working at the magazine, but this is the best. Harold Ross had such a way with words. I particularly liked the letter of sympathy to E.B. White (page 97) upon death of White's father: "...after you get to be thirty people you know keep dropping off all the time and it's a hell of a note." And about Christmas: "...it always comes at the very worse moment in the year for me."

Here is truly a genius at work. I thought it was ironic also that although he said don't waste time writing letters as you don't get paid for them, he wrote them so well. It is also interesting that the editor of this book finally found some recordings that Ross made and he was dictating letters!

I recommend this book for anyone who enjoys The New Yorker and would like to know how it developed over the years.

An engaging look at the history of the New Yorker through the founder's own words. A peek into the process of publication of some of the most well-known writers. Famous writers' correspondance with a brutally honest Harold Ross. EXCELLENT!

Most of the text is Ross's; this is what makes the book worth 4 stars.

Some of the explanatory comments are pretty clumsy:

"Married to Fleischmann's ex-wife, Ruth, a major New Yorker stockholder, Vischer played a strong behind-the-scenes role at the magazine and was trying to keep Ross from quitting." (p. 271)

Would a sentence like that have ever made the pages of the New Yorker?

I can't comment on the selection of letters with any authority, but it's at least adequate: Truman Capote progresses from someone who, in September 1944, "wouldn't have been employed here [even] as [an office boy] probably, if it hadn't been for the man- and boy-power shortage" (Capote had insulted Robert Frost by walking out on poetry reading) to somone whose stories Ross would like to see more of, if they "aren't too psychopathic" in July 1949.

I found these very personal and interesting letters to be a very revealing mirror of the times, the mores, the ways of speaking and behaving that were quite touching. A disappearing time... amusing and sad and funny, all at once!

Ross is clearly revealed in his letters, as is much of the history of The New Yorker during his time. Greatly enjoyed this.

Letters From The Editor, The New Yorker's Harold Ross, Thomas Kunkel, Ed.; Random House (2000)


Recommended without reservation!

But first, read Kunkel's brilliant biography, "Genius In Disguise, Harold Ross of The New Yorker" (Carroll & Graf Publishers, Inc. 1995).

Initially, LFE made a poor impression ("Kunkel tossed in all of Ross's letters, including the duds & the laundry lists. One, addressed to his ex-wife, centers around the hardly compelling subject of alimony payments").

But when I resumed reading, the wisdom of the adage, "first impressions can be treacherous" was reaffirmed.

Ross's sense of humor (for which he has never been given credit by the politically prejudiced) is right up there with Thurber & Co.

This is illustrated perfectly by his 1936 letter to rival magazine publisher & preening blockhead, Henry Luce, who had hotly contested the accuracy of remarks made in his forthcoming TNY profile (a copy of which had been provided to him by Ross, both as a courtesy & a fact-checking precaution):

Ross: "I was astonished to realize the other night that you are apparently unconscious of the notorious reputation Time & Fortune [magazines] have for crassness in description, for cruelty & scandal-mongering & insult. I say frankly but really in a not unfriendly spirit, that you are in a hell of a position to ask [for] anything."

Ross's response to the magnificent actor & incorrigible narcissist, Orson Welles, also delights:

"I was astonished at your column...in which you say TNY sneers at you...I advise you to beware of columning...a deadly occupation, leading frequently & successively to overzealousness, super-seriousmindedness, monomania, hysteria, & sometimes madness. When a columnist takes himself too seriously, he is grave danger...look at what happened to Broun, Pegler, Winchell, & several others."

Paging the present-day New York Times & The New Yorker...

And god bless the Random House editor, Jeanne Tift - who surely would seen to it that the Ross-Luce letter would have been included in New Yorker's otherwise incompetently assembled "Fierce Pajamas, An Anthology of Humor Writing from TNY."

(Random House 2001. An apparent divine retribution for this publishing atrocity has come at last, in the form of the recent news that the TNY offices will soon be forcibly relocated to the sterile concrete & cultural wasteland of the Wall Street area. How this would have amused Ross!)

This book should be read slowly, to get the flavor of the man, and there's a mouthful, as you'd expect. Several chews bit me. Ross writes like his writers, so much so that he could have written in any department of his magazine. He accepts people on their own terms and relates to them as they wish to be, a good approach for anyone, but salutary for someone in charge. His troubles are legion, and friends meant everything to him. And there's an aftertaste from Ross's reactions to articles that one has read--his note to Leibling on the essay about crossing the Atlantic in an oil tanker during WWII, and some bitter flavors, too--his attitudes toward women, blacks, and his publisher. All this is a taste treat for any who wants to savor American prose at its freshest, in company with those who prepared it. And it will leave you hungry for more.