67 “Mr. Ross says”: Louis Forster to Frederick Packard, July 16, 1946.
67 “Executive Assistant,” etc.: T. D. Quinn to Packard, April 10, 1942.
67 “I regret that we cannot”: Lillie Jones to Packard, November 1941.
67 “Dear Mrs. Jones”: Packard to Jones, November 14, 1941.
67 “Joe Lewis”: Allen Churchill, “Harold Ross: Editor of The New Yorker,” Hearst’s International Combined with Cosmopolitan, May 1948.
67 “Ross has two gods”: JT in McNulty, World of McNulty, p. 15.
67 “Commas in The New Yorker”: EBW, interview by George Plimpton and Frank H. Crowther, “The Art of the Essay No. 1,” Paris Review, Fall 1969.
68 “Wolcott (‘Comma’) Gibbs”: Richard B. Gehman, “The Great Dissenter,” Theatre Arts, March 1949.
68 “[I]f youse guys”: JT to HWR, n.d.
68 “Did you know”: EBW to JT, January 1936.
68 “blacklisted”: Ik Shuman, memo, March 2, 1938.
68 “It seems that all refrigerators”: WG to EBW, July 18, 1935.
68 “The editors I had”: Irwin Shaw, interview by George Plimpton and John Phillips, “The Art of Fiction No. 4,” Paris Review, Spring 1979.
68 “I wish editors were always”: Clarence Day to KSW, July 8, 1935.
69 “Since I never write”: JT to HWR, n.d.
69 “I wish you and your”: WG to HWR, January 26, 1942.
69 “The average contributor”: “Theory and Practice of Editing New Yorker Articles” was first published in JT, Years with Ross, but had been widely circulated within the magazine’s office for years.
71 “I rather think,” etc.: KSW to HWR, November 4, 1947.
71 “ ‘Maternal’ is the word”: Maxwell, Outermost Dream, p. 167.
72 a five-and-one-half-page letter: KSW to Jean Stafford, August 16, 1957.
72 “I believe in all of us expressing”: KSW to William Maxwell, n.d., ca. 1951.
72 “without one smile,” etc.: KSW to HWR, n.d., 1935.
72 “She can write English”: KSW to StCM, January 5, 1937.
72 “the most ravishing creature”: Nancy Hale to Linda Davis, December 18, 1977.
72 “I was intimidated”: William Walden, interview by author, July 27, 2006.
72 “the terrible Katharine White”: Gordon Cotler, interview by author, July 15, 2006.
72 “a cold-blooded proposition”: Danton Walker, Danton’s Inferno, p. 263.
72 “I always had a feeling”: Kinney, Thurber Life and Times, p. 570.
73 “I regard Mrs. White as essential”: HWR to Raoul Fleischmann, December 11, 1933.
73 “He didn’t want anyone”: Sullivan, Reminiscences.
73 “a velvet hand”: Davis, Onward and Upward, p. 144.
73 “sainted”: Frank Sullivan to EBW, various correspondence.
73 “way beyond the call”: Nancy Hale to Linda Davis, December 18, 1977.
73 “If you are too cross”: KSW to Clarence Day, October 22, 1935.
73 “It is many ages”: KSW to Will Cuppy, October 30, 1934.
73 “I’ll surely try something”: Cuppy to KSW, November 1934.
73 “I think the ‘Hate Cuppy Movement’ ”: KSW to Cuppy, November 14, 1934.
74 “There is abroad”: Weidman, Father Sits in the Dark, pp. xvi–xvii.
75 “Once a writer has finished”: Weidman, Praying for Rain, pp. 77–78.
75 “elliptical”: Bruccoli, O’Hara Concern, p. 57.
75 “finger exercises”: WG, preface to JOH, Pipe Night, p. x.
75 “He carried O’Hara along”: KSW to Bruccoli, May 17, 1971.
75 “The particular virtue”: WG, preface to JOH, Pipe Night, p. xi.
76 “rigid economy”: WG in Woods, ed., I Wish I’d Written That, p. 278 .
76 J. D. Salinger, among many others: J. D. Salinger to WG, January 20, 1944.
76 “No matter how bad things were”: Joel Sayre, review of Finis Farr, O’Hara: A Biography, n.d., New Yorker Records, NYPL.
76 “At his best he is”: HWR, memo, November 13, 1934.
76 “How the hell is O’Hara”: JOH, introduction to Five Plays, p. x.
77 “The ending must be clear” and “a very earnest attempt”: WG to JOH, April 3, 1936.
77 “On the whole,” “unfailingly polite,” “mostly because”: KSW to Bruccoli, May 17, 1971.
77 “starlet”: WG to JOH, July 1, 1948.
77 “with some of the accumulating”: WG, “Watch Out for Mr. O’Hara,” Saturday Review of Literature, February 19, 1938.
78 “Gibbs, you’re fucking my story!”: Kunkel, Genius in Disguise, p. 263.
78 “I have decided to reject”: JOH to HWR, January 1939.
78 “I am very discontented”: JOH to WG, n.d., 1936.
78 “These pieces, and a slice”: JOH to William Maxwell, early 1939.
78 “My pieces don’t run second”: JOH to KSW, ca. October 1947.
78 “a lovable man,” “the greatest egotist”: KSW to Bruccoli, May 17, 1971.
78 “Somebody told me”: WG to C. A. Pearce, October 26, 1937.
78 “He started out with many”: KSW to Bruccoli, May 17, 1971.
79 “My little pieces”: JOH to Thomas O’Hara, October 23, 1933.
79 “You probably won’t sell many”: JOH to Thomas O’Hara, January 17, 1932.
79 “silly, vulgar drawings,” etc.: WG to HWR, n.d., August 1937.
80 “advanced and intellectual verse”: KSW to Louise Bogan, September 3, 1937.
80 “I guess there’s no question”: WG to HWR, August 23, 1937.
80 “I meant what I said”: Bogan to WG, August 20, 1937.
81 “Writers are uterine”: Janet Flanner to WS, June 10, 1954.
81 “[Y]ou probably use grammar”: Louise Bogan to WG, March 28, 1933.
CHAPTER 4: “MOST INSANELY MISCAST”
82 “Everybody talks”: HWR to Hugh Wiley, October 15, 1925.
82 “The one thing Ross had demanded”: Philip Wylie to JT, January 3, 1958.
83 as many as a thousand: Ralph McAllister Ingersoll, “The New Yorker,” Fortune, July 1934.
83 up to 2,500: HWR to Arnot Sheppard, January 19, 1948.
83 “Conceived in the spirit”: Craven, Cartoon Cavalcade, p. 103.
84 “[B]efore the New Yorker”: HWR to Alice Harvey, n.d.
84 Irvin wore a fedora: KSW note, “Re New York Times obit on Rea Irvin,” April 1973.
85 “At the very beginning”: Ibid.
85 “The invaluable Irvin” and “Wylie would hold up”: JT, Years with Ross, p. 42.
86 “Where am I in this picture?”: Kramer, Ross and New Yorker, pp. 127–29.
86 “Goddam awful”: Grant, Ross, New Yorker and Me, p. 12.
86 “better dust”: JT, Years with Ross, p. 48.
86 During World War II: Dale Kramer and George R. Clark, “Ross and New Yorker: A Landscape with Figures,” Harper’s, April 1943.
86 It took him a long time: Gill, Here at New Yorker, p. 15.
86 “too many goddam clubs”: Dan Pinck, “Paging Mr. Ross: Old Days at ‘The New Yorker,’ ” Encounter, June 1987.
87 “Drawings of sheep”: Louis Forster to HWR, July 18, 1947; HWR to Hobart Weekes, September 8, 1947.
87 “Why, Henry Whipple”: JT, Years with Ross, p. 49.
88 “I wouldn’t have bought it”: HWR to JOH, September 24, 1947.
88 “Not a bad idea”: Carl Rose, “Harold Ross, Impatient, Irascible, Was Fighting ‘an Innate Kindness,’ ” Boston Globe, December 8, 1951.
88 “The strain of looking”: Ibid.
90 He had a good aesthetic sense: Tony Gibbs, interview by author, June 30, 2007.
91 Consistent with his peculiar ideas: KSW Note, April 1973.
91 “A great deal of what”: William Maxwell, interview by John Seabrook, “The Art of Fiction No. 71,” Paris Review, Fall 1982.
91 “always seemed uncomfortable”: Syd Hoff, www.sacreddoodles.com, 198
7.
91 “would make you redraw”: Groth, Road to New York, p. 249.
92 “Arno: There’s so much here”: WG to Peter Arno, n.d., 1936.
93 Reportedly, only two artists: Carl Rose, “Harold Ross, Impatient, Irascible, Was Fighting ‘an Innate Kindness,’ ” Boston Globe, December 8, 1951.
93 “Want me to run up”: WG to HWR, n.d.
93 “For years I had been”: JT, Years with Ross, p. 54.
93 “as a hell of a way”: WG, “James Thurber,” Book-of-the-Month Club News, February 1945.
94 “It was White who got”: JT, Years with Ross, p. 55.
94 “I don’t remember just when”: WG to JT, “Monday,” n.d., summer of 1957 or 1958.
94 “These, I take it, are”: EBW and JT, Is Sex Necessary? (1950 ed.), p. 6.
94 “[I]t was I who, during”: Ibid. (1929 ed.), p. 195.
95 fifty thousand copies: Bernstein, Thurber: A Biography, p. 186.
95 “How the hell did you”: JT, Years with Ross, p. 57.
95 “would in all probability”: JT, “Dogs I Have Scratched,” Harper’s Bazaar, January 1933.
96 “He hated their goddam guts!”: Kinney, Thurber Life and Times, p. 534.
97 “My drawing?”: Eddie Gilmore, “ ‘Call Me Jim’: James Thurber Speaking,” Columbus Sunday Dispatch, August 3, 1958.
97 “I very much resent”: JT to Daise Terry, n.d., 1937.
97 “most insanely miscast”: WG, “Fresh Flowers,” in Seventh New Yorker Album.
98 “a little too pure for my taste,” “tainted with dust,” etc.: Lewis Mumford, “The Undertaker’s Garland,” ibid.
98 “perplexing lot,” etc.: WG, “Fresh Flowers,” in Seventh New Yorker Album.
98 “one of the most alarming”: WG, foreword to George Price, Who’s In Charge Here? (New York: Farrar and Rinehart, 1943).
98 “economy of means”: WG, preface to Alan Dunn, Should It Gurgle?: A Cartoon Portfolio, 1946–1956 (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1956).
98 “intensely emotional atmosphere”: WG, foreword to William Steig, The Lonely Ones (New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1942), p. 8.
99 “the best caricatures”: WG to Al Frueh, November 30, 1950.
99 “I can only report”: WG, foreword to Charles Addams, Addams and Evil: An Album of Cartoons (New York: Random House, 1947).
99 “He had a sweetness”: Davis, Charles Addams, p. 161.
100 “That’s really not the sort of thing”: Ibid., pp. 91–92.
100 But his midtown Manhattan apartment: Ibid., p. 13.
100 like the black rubber spider: Saul Pett, “Grim, Repressed Violence Comes to Charles Addams the Diabolical Cartoonist,” Charleston (S.C.) News and Courier, October 11, 1953.
100 “Charley is this kind of a guy” and “I don’t think much about why”: Ibid.
101 “dominant strain”: WG, foreword to Addams and Evil.
101 “Will you take it with you”: HWR to Margaret Case Harriman, April 10, 1950.
101 “[S]omething really ought to be done”: WG to Charles Addams, n.d., 1947.
102 “six cases of weed killer”: “The Christmas Caller” manuscript can be found in Box 1649 of New Yorker Records, NYPL.
102 “I ended up feeling”: Addams to HWR, February 25, 1948.
102 “I’m convinced”: HWR to WG, n.d., 1948.
103 One of eleven children: Sarah Herndon, interview by author, August 3, 2013.
104 “Make them funny”: Herbert Valen, “Funny Came First at The New Yorker,” New York Times, June 11, 1997.
104 “Make it beautiful”: Dana Fradon, interview by Michael Maslin, November 14, 2013, Michaelmaslin.com.
104 “Nothing, Geraghty” and “Gibbs was delighted”: James L. Geraghty, Box 11, James Geraghty Papers, NYPL.
104 “I got very sick”: WG to JT, August 12, 1957.
CHAPTER 5: “SOME VERY FUNNY PEOPLE”
105 “We thought nothing”: Davenport, Too Strong for Fantasy, p. 119.
106 “There was always the little”: Lois Long, “Tables for Two: One Hundred Years with ‘The New Yorker,’ ” TNY, February 19, 1927.
106 “she used the doorknob”: Kramer, Ross and New Yorker, p. 83.
106 As for the crap games: Don Mankiewicz, interview by author, August 21, 2012.
106 “The single-spaced stuff,” etc.: Altman, Laughter’s Gentle Soul, pp. 272–73.
106 “[She] would tell me,” etc.: WG to JT, “Monday,” n.d., summer of 1957 or 1958.
107 SWELL JAM I’M IN: WG to Dorothy Parker, telegram, March 26, 1928.
107 “held very clumsily,” etc.: HWR to Raoul Fleischmann, April 9, 1935.
107 “I saw some very funny people”: WG to JT, “Monday,” n.d., summer of 1957 or 1958.
108 “a cesspool of loyalties”: JT to HWR, August 15, 1947.
108 “Pest”: Bennett Cerf, “Try and Stop Me” column, Kentucky New Era, February 1, 1949.
108 “The New Yorker did not begin”: JT, Years with Ross, p. 229.
108 “a ribbon clerk’s salary”: Ibid., p. 231.
108 As late as 1934: Raoul Fleischmann, memo, September 19, 1934.
109 Two years later Gibbs: Anonymous TNY memo, April 16, 1936.
109 “There is only one White”: HWR to EBW, July 1, 1942.
109 “Harold’s relationship with Andy”: KSW to S. N. Behrman, October 12, 1965.
109 “White’s customary practice”: JT, “E.B.W.,” Saturday Review, October 15, 1938.
109 “We got on fine”: Elledge, White: A Biography, p. 132.
109 “[O]ne of the persons”: Ibid., p. 130.
110 At the end of his life: A photograph of the sculpture, taken after White’s death is with other personal photos in Boxes 220A and 220B of the E. B. White Papers at Cornell University.
110 “To know Thurber”: EBW to Lillian Hellman, n.d., 1975.
110 “With Thurber, the scene”: Kinney, Thurber Life and Times, p. 547.
110 “We Whites were in such”: KSW cover note re: letter from Maxwell, April 8, 1974.
110 “a talent”: William Maxwell to KSW, April 8, 1974.
110 “I’ve never known”: Kinney, Thurber Life and Times, p. 389.
110 “discussing his bowels”: EBW to KSW, July 21, 1930.
110 “He had the semi-hangdog air”: Jim Munves, interview by author, July 15, 2006.
110 “I can almost hear”: Frank Modell, interview by author, July 22, 2006.
110 “glided past like”: Edmund Wilson to JT, March 22, 1958.
110 “sourpuss”: Brinnin, Truman Capote, p. 35.
110 “I never saw him smile”: Frank Modell, interview by author, July 22, 2006.
110 “The few times I saw him”: William Walden, interview by author, July 27, 2006.
110 “high spirits are those”: EBW to JT, January 8, 1938.
110 “When you were with him”: WG, “Robert Benchley: In Memoriam,” New York Times, December 16, 1945.
111 “Gilbert Seldes hanging”: Davis, Charles Addams, p. 66.
111 “was a really dependable”: Tony Gibbs, interview by author, July 1, 2007.
112 “They were not pals”: KSW to Harrison Kinney, March 23, 1973.
112 “You think you can be”: Kinney, Thurber Life and Times, p. 547.
112 “Don’t think I am”: JOH, “Vox, Possibly, Humana,” Newsweek, August 25, 1941.
112 he once compared: WG, introduction to JOH, Pipe Night.
112 “If . . . he can contrive”: WG, “Watch Out for Mr. O’Hara,” Saturday Review of Literature, February 19, 1938.
112 “a kindly man whose days”: JOH, “All Packed?” Newsweek, May 12, 1941.
112 “The conversation was animated”: JOH, Sweet and Sour, p. 94.
113 He once sent Gibbs: Roger Angell, interview by author, September 20, 2007.
113 “Gibbs and John”: KSW to Bruccoli, May 17, 1971.
113 “I have no arguments”: Kriendler, “21,” pp. 108–11.
113 �
��putting wrestling holds,” etc.: MacShane, Life of O’Hara, p. 85.
113 “I know him better than anybody”: WG to KSW, ca. October 1934.
114 about a hapless fellow: Russell Maloney, “Inflexible Logic”, TNY, February 3, 1940.
114 “something like 2,600”: Russell Maloney obituary, New York Times, September 5, 1948.
114 “a cranky genius”: James L. Geraghty, notes, Box 11, James Geraghty Papers, NYPL.
114 “very bad reporters” and “Perfection”: Russell Maloney, “Tilley the Toiler: A Profile of the New Yorker Magazine,” Saturday Review of Literature, August 30, 1947.
114 “totally incompetent,” etc.: HWR to JOH, September 24, 1947.
114 “psychosis” and “mostly by abusing us”: KSW to HWR, November 4, 1947.
114 Growing up in Newton Centre: Much of this information on Maloney’s background comes from Amelia Hard to author, personal statements, February and March, 2013.
115 he was only about nine: Amelia Hard, interview by author, February 10, 2013.
115 “went stomping in”: Russell Maloney to family, October 30, 1943.
115 “As far as I can tell”: Maloney, It’s Still Maloney, p. 10.
115 During the first half: Maloney to family, January 1, 1944.
115 “filled by a Greek”: HWR to Ik Shuman, n.d., 1939.
115 “no evidence”: I. Schwartz to TNY, May 15, 1939.
116 “He was frustrated”: HWR to JOH, September 24, 1947.
116 “no trace of imagination”: Russell Maloney, “The Wizard of Hollywood,” TNY, August 19, 1939.
116 “The Giants have come”: James L. Geraghty, notes, Box 11, James Geraghty Papers, NYPL.
116 “in his gas mask”: EBW to StCM, December 7, 1953.
116 “a bonus of twice”: Russell Maloney to family, January 1, 1944.
116 “a definite offer”: Maloney to family, October 30, 1943.
116 “the current Eustace”: Maloney to EBW and KSW, October 3, 1943.
116 “mistaken kindness” and “One night”: WG to JT, “Monday,” n.d., summer of 1957 or 1958.
117 “was out to do away,” etc.: Russell Maloney to “Famlet, dear,” December 12, 1942.
118 “getting out a weekly”: WG, Season and Other Pleasures, p. xii.
118 ostensibly because: Russell Maloney obituary, New York Times, September 5, 1948.
118 “to broaden my scope,” etc.: Maloney, personal statement., ca. 1947, courtesy of Amelia Hard.
Cast of Characters Page 40
