"And how hard I was on Ross as well!"Brendan GillHere at The New Yorker (1975), p. 368
Brendan Gill published Here at The New Yorker in 1975 to coincide with the venerable publication's fiftieth anniversary. For me and for a generation of readers it was an immersive look at five decades of storied New Yorker lore. It wasn't perfect, of course. There were a few errors and many omissions. The anecdotes were highly selective and some were simply too good to be true. To this day, though, when I write about the early days of the magazine, I feel as if I know the personalities who worked there. So, credit Brendan Gill.
Six weeks after its publication on February 21, the date of the first 1925 issue, he must have sent a copy of the book to Ariane Allen. The actress had become, in 1940, the third wife of Harold Ross (1892-1951), the magazine's founding editor. Gill inscribed the volume handsomely and included a typewritten letter.
Gill's note begins with the end of the book, recounting his memorable reassessment of Ross. The reticent William Shawn, the magazine's second editor, went on to write an appreciation of Ross that Gill believes was the first piece of which he, Shawn, publicly acknowledged authorship.
Not too shockingly (to any who have read the book), Gill seems to have burned a few bridges along the way: "Helen Thurber is furious with me," he writes, referring, of course, to the widow of James Thurber. Similarly enraged, he hears, is Elena Wilson, the widow of Edmund Wilson. Maybe that's the price of giving the world a fascinating history.
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| Brendan Gill AbeBooks listing accessed October 25, 2022 AbeBooks listing accessed October 26, 2022 |
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