Ellery Sedgwick

Ellery Sedgwick ( born February 27, 1872 in New York City, United States, † April 21, 1960 in Washington, DC) was an American writer and editor of the Atlantic Monthly until 1938.

Biography

Family

Ellery Sedgwick's parents were Henry and Henrietta Dwight Sedgwick, who was a granddaughter of William Ellery. His family was very influential in Stockbridge and already had a long tradition in the field of literature. Thus, the writer Catherine Maria Sedgwick and Henry Dwight Sedgwick were among his ancestors.

In 1904 he married Mabel Cabot and got with her four children: Ellery, Cabot, Theodora and Henrietta. His wife died in 1937, at a time in which he himself had to suffer from diseases; so he had to because of sciatica 1938-1939 for months in bed. In 1939 he married Isabel Marjorie Russell, but the marriage remained childless.

Training

Sedgwick attended the Groton School until 1890 and studied at Harvard University, where in 1894 he received his degree after that. Then he returned to the Groton School to teach Classical Studies there. In 1896 he accepted a position as deputy editor at Child and Youth magazine The Youth's Companion. In 1900 he moved as a lecturer to Leslie's Monthly Magazine, where he remained for four years. Later followed other employments at McClure 's Magazine and D. Appleton & Company.

Career

His career began in the Atlantic Monthly Sedgwick in 1908 when he bought the magazine the publisher Houghton Mifflin. At that time she had a circulation of 15,000 copies and generated an annual loss of U.S. $ 5,000 (today about $ 140,000 ). However, Sedgwick did this speedily repent, and 1928 was the support already 137,000 copies. Sedgwick was the first U.S. publisher who published the works of Ernest Hemingway. In 1938 he retired from the daily business and sold the magazine in 1939.

Awards

In 1920 he was honored by Tufts University and, in 1921 from Dartmouth College with a Doctor of Letters ( Litt.D. ). He also received the title of Doctor of Humane Letters ( LhD. ) from Syracuse University.

Own works

1899 Sedgwick published a biography of Thomas Paine. In 1946 he published his autobiography, The Happy Profession. The following year he published his favorite pieces from his time at the Atlantic Monthly under the title Atlantic Harvest. He was also co-author of the 1939 book printed Novel and Story: A Book of Modern Readings.

Further commitment

In professional point of view, Sedgwick was not limited to the editing. In 1918 he became vice president and part owner of Rumford Press, where he remained active until the 1940s into it. He held beyond contacts with its training centers Groton and Harvard upright and was there as well as at the Boston Public Library curator ( trustee ).

Publications

• Sedgwick, Ellery, Mark Antony DeWolfe Howe (ed.): Thomas Paine ( = The Beacon biographies of eminent Americans ). Small, Maynard & Company, Boston, 1899, OCLC 377,405th
• Sedgwick, Ellery: The Happy profession. Little, Brown and Company, Boston 1946, ISBN 978-0-8371-6039-9, OCLC 879243rd
• Sedgwick, Ellery: Atlantic harvest. Memoirs of the Atlantic, Wherein are to be found stories, anecdotes, and opinions, controversial and otherwise; together with a variety of matter, relevant and irrelevant, Accompanied by Certain obdurate convictions. Little, Brown and Company, Boston 1947, OCLC 635,097th
• Sedgwick, Ellery et al.: Novel and story, a book of modern readings. Little, Brown and Company, Boston 1939, OCLC 3,817,451th
• Sedgwick, Ellery: Willa Cather. In: The Atlantic. June 1, 1937, accessed on February 9, 2014 ( English).
• Sedgwick, Ellery: A History of the Atlantic Monthly from 1857 to 1909. Yankee Humanism at High Tide and Ebb. University of Massachusetts Press, Amherst, MA 1994, ISBN 978-0-8702-3919-9, OCLC 489 734 933 (Online in the Google Book Search, accessed on February 9, 2014).