Jane Grant
Thank you for following along! If you’d like to learn more, I’ve created reading lists on Bookshop and Amazon. If you’re catching up, I added hyperlinks to the schedule for easy navigation.
Have we tempted a biographer? I’ve heard of initial excitement, so please keep sharing until we seal the deal. At the very least, I hope that Jane Grant gets more attention in forthcoming stories about the founding of The New Yorker, and that her efforts at the magazine decades after her divorce—covered in some detail here (and here) alongside letters and documents with visible dates—will be recognized, too.
A note on what I was light on: The New York Times and The New Yorker’s general history. Concurrent luminaries (most notably, Katharine White). The Algonquin Round Table and literary Manhattan. Many more articles and essays written by Grant. After Wit’s End, I spent little time describing her homes, and who worked in them. I only touched on White Flower Farm. And so much more. That’s why we need a book.
When I discovered Jane Grant almost a year ago, I would never have imagined I’d share her story in a newsletter—or that I’d have a newsletter—but I’m grateful for the opportunity.
See you next week! Until then, you can find me on Twitter and Instagram.
It is hard to imagine someone being a better biographer of Jane Grant. Your series was rich with detail and was a nice lesson in how far women have come. For starters, maybe consider shopping it to Long Reads or the Atlantic or the New Yorker itself?
On a side note, one thing I found interesting is how the graphics in the New Yorker appear mostly unchanged from its inception.
I was previously unfamiliar with Jane but I won’t forget her now. So thank you for a great job. It was enough to make me subscribe and pay because you earned it.
Thank you so much for the special week-long articles about the life of Jane Grant.
I will admit that I am not a person who normally read biographies, but the series was fascinating! After the first, I waited until they were all in my inbox and read them slowly over a couple of days.
It was fascinating to read about a woman of a generation just behind my generation hitting against so many obstacles similar to those I faced during my career – things were a easier for me, but I recognized all the male excuses… I retired from a long career in computer systems development about 5 years ago. Jane Grant was such a capable woman, whose accomplishments were (of course) associated with the men around her… Things have changed… but only a little!