At the time this magazine profile first appeared in 1919, P.G. Wodehouse (1904-1975) had recently resigned his post as the Drama Critic for VANITY FAIR MAGAZINE in order to pursue his ambition as a novelist and playwright. This article revealed to all Wodehouse's keen interest in American slang and the language of American comic strips.
Click here to read magazine articles about D.W. Griffith. During much of the 20s and 30s satirist H.L. Mencken (1880 - 1956) was widely read and respected for the critic that he was -and as you read this British essay from the arts journal, The English Review, you'll get a sense that the author/groupie must have been waiting by the docks for several years in anticipation of his arrival.
The historian Henry Steele Commager ranked H.L. Mencken at number 9 insofar as his impact on the American mind was concerned - click here to understand his reasoning...
Click here to read an article about one of New York's greatest mayors: Fiorello LaGuardia.
Written with a strong spirit of gratitude, this is the obituary of Teddy Roosevelt as it appeared in the N.A.A.C.P. magazine The Crises. Published at a time when the friends of the black man were few, this is a stirring tribute to a man who, although not always an ally, was respected as "the world's greatest protagonist of lofty ideals and principles".
Click here to read a 1945 article about the funeral of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, TR's nephew.
Click here to read an article about one of New York's greatest mayors: Fiorello LaGuardia.
Here is a very thorough profile of Mustafa Kamel Atatürk (1881 - 1938), the first president of the Republic of Turkey (1923 - 1938). The article goes into some detail concerning his humble beginnings, his vices and his secret writings for the revolutionary Vatan ve Hürriyet (Motherland and Liberty) underground movement. His rise to power came with his assorted military triumphs in the Italo-Turkish War, the Balkan War, the First World War and most notably, the Greko-Turkish War. He came to power in 1922 and began reforming Turkish society in ways that rocked the nation to its very corps.
Click here to read a 1922 article about the Turkish slaughter of Christians.
A witty if dry profile of George Jean Nathan (1882 - 1958), one of the more prolific essayists and reviewers of all things dramatic and literary during the Twenties. At the time of this printing he was serving as the co-editor (along with his friend H.L. Mencken) of the American magazine The Smart Set while contributing occasional drama reviews to Vanity Fair. You'll read a very long list of Nathan's likes and dislikes, which, in fact, comprise 99% of the profile.
Later in life, Nathan would wed Mary Pickford - read about her here... The back-and-forth that took place throughout a number of Florentine conversations between journalist Fredericka V. Blankner and Italian writer and drama theorist Luigi Pirandello (1867 1936: awarded Nobel Prize for Literature in 1934) were printed in her 1928 article, "Pirandello, Paradox":
"I see life," says Pirandello, "as a tragedy..."
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