James Agee Photograph by Walker Evans, 1937. Courtesy of the Library of Congress (LC-USZ62-103100).
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Agee, James Rufus (1909-1955)
In
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Agee, James Rufus (1909-1955), writer
William Stott
Agee, James Rufus (27 November 1909–16 May 1955), writer, was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, the son of Hugh James Agee, a construction company employee, and Laura Whitman Tyler. The father’s family were poorly educated mountain farmers, while the mother’s were solidly middle class. Agee was profoundly affected by his father’s death in a car accident in 1916. He idealized his absent father and struggled against his mother and her genteel and (he felt) cold values. “Agee’s mother wanted him to be clean, chaste, and sober,” the photographer ...
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Arnold, Eve (21 April 1912–04 January 2012)
Karen Patricia Heath
Arnold, Eve (21 April 1912–04 January 2012), photojournalist, was born Eve Cohen in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the seventh of nine children of the Ukrainian Jewish immigrants Vevel (William) Sklarski, a rabbi, and Bosya (Bessie) Laschiner. Although Eve’s parents were poor she received a good basic education. Eve first considered a career as a writer or a dancer, then settled on medicine, but she gave this up to move to New York City. During World War II she got a job at America’s first automated photographic film processing plant in Hoboken, New Jersey, although she knew little about photography then. It was only in 1946 when her then boyfriend gave her a forty-dollar Rolleicord camera that she took up photography as a hobby. The boyfriend did not last long, but her love of photography grew into a highly successful and fulfilling career....
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Ephron, Nora (19 May 1941–26 June 2012), screenwriter, film director, journalist, and humorist
Andie Tucher
Ephron, Nora (19 May 1941–26 June 2012), screenwriter, film director, journalist, and humorist, was born on the Upper West Side of Manhattan and grew up in Beverly Hills, California. Her parents, Henry Ephron and the former Phoebe Wolkind, were a successful screenwriting team best known for scripting such light-hearted fare as ...
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Gill, John (1732-1785), printer and newspaper publisher
Richard F. Hixson
Gill, John (17 May 1732–25 August 1785), printer and newspaper publisher, was born in Charlestown, Massachusetts, the son of Captain John Gill and Elizabeth Abbot. He served his apprenticeship with Samuel Kneeland, an established Boston printer who also owned the Boston Gazette. Gill married Kneeland’s daughter, Ann Kneeland, in January 1756. It is likely that Gill met ...
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Hopper, Hedda (1885-1966)
In
Hedda Hopper Courtesy of the Library of Congress (LC-USZ62-97336).
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Hopper, Hedda (1885-1966), actress and gossip columnist
Deborah M. Evans
Hopper, Hedda (02 May 1885–01 February 1966), actress and gossip columnist, was born Elda Furry in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania, the daughter of David E. Furry, a butcher, and Margaret Miller. The fifth of nine children, Hopper attended school until the eighth grade, after which she stayed home to help her mother with the household. She had an early driving desire to be on the stage, spurred by seeing ...
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Kael, Pauline (19 June 1919–3 Sept. 2001), film critic
Wayne Stengel
Kael, Pauline (19 June 1919–3 Sept. 2001), film critic, was the last of five children born to a chicken farmer of Russian Jewish extraction, Isaac Kael, and his wife, the former Judith Friedman, in Petaluma, California. When her family lost the farm when she was eight, they moved to San Francisco. She graduated from San Francisco Girls’ High School in ...
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Larsen, Roy Edward (1899-1979), publisher
Robert E. Herzstein
Larsen, Roy Edward (20 April 1899–09 September 1979), publisher, was born in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of Robert Larsen, a newspaperman, and Stella Belyea. Larsen was proud to proclaim himself a “first generation American,” for his father and mother had come to this country from Norway and Ireland, respectively. Larsen graduated from the Boston Latin School in 1917 and entered Harvard College. Drafted into the U.S. Army in his freshman year, Larsen served as a second lieutenant in the infantry. After the armistice, he returned to Harvard. Following his graduation in 1921, Larsen went to work for the New York Trust Company....
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Macdonald, Dwight (1906-1982), critic and editor
Stephen J. Whitfield
Macdonald, Dwight (24 March 1906–19 December 1982), critic and editor, was born in New York City, the son of Dwight Macdonald, an attorney, and Alice Hedges, the daughter of a successful Brooklyn merchant. Though his family was primarily middle class, Macdonald attended Phillips Exeter Academy and Yale University, from which he graduated in 1928 with a B.A. degree. The circumstances of Macdonald’s family were reduced in 1926 when his father died, but the new monthly magazine ...
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Parsons, Harriet Oettinger (23 August 1906–2 January 1983), journalist, filmmaker, and producer
J. E. Smyth
Parsons, Harriet Oettinger (23 August 1906–2 January 1983), journalist, filmmaker, and producer, was born in Burlington, Iowa, the only child of famed Hollywood columnist Louella Parsons and John Dement Parsons, a real estate salesman. When her parents’ marriage fell apart, she and her mother moved to Chicago. While Louella Parsons wrote scripts for Essanay Studios, Harriet was molded into a child star, “Baby Parsons,” and appeared in two films written by her mother, ...
