Midwest Portraits

Harry Hansen

really liked it 4.00 · Rating details · 2 ratings · 1 review

One-time "Chicago Daily News" reporter Harry Hansen wrote these biographical sketches of Midwest writers (all who had a connection at some point or another with the Daily News, so he knew them both professionally as well as personally) including Carl Sandburg, Sherwood Anderson, Robert Herrick, Edgar Lee Masters, Harriet Monroe, Lew Sarrett, Wallace Smith and Ben Hecht. Th ...more

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357 pages

Published 1923 by Harcourt, Brace and Company

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Aug 19, 2008 Mia rated it really liked it

Recommends it for: persons interested in early 20th-century Midwestern writers

Recommended to Mia by: A.J. Liebling (not personally, of course!) ;)

The greatest accomplishment of this book is that it filled me with a desire to learn more about the writers Hansen profiled. There is a great deal of humor, including "an anecdote that once when Ben [Hecht] was working at an out-of-town hanging and was sending his own frank story of the proceeding his editor wired him to tone down the gruesome details. Hecht's reply came at once: "Will try to make hanging as pleasant as possible." My biggest complaint about the book is the number of pages devote ...more

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About Harry Hansen

Harry Hansen

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Hansen was born in Davenport, Iowa, and attended high school in that same city.

After graduation, he joined the Davenport Republican newspaper, serving as both the telegraph editor and a staff writer. He attended the University of Chicago, majoring in English and acquiring his Ph.D in 1909.

After graduation, Hansen joined the Chicago Daily News as a staff reporter and upon the outbreak of the First Hansen was born in Davenport, Iowa, and attended high school in that same city.

After graduation, he joined the Davenport Republican newspaper, serving as both the telegraph editor and a staff writer. He attended the University of Chicago, majoring in English and acquiring his Ph.D in 1909.

After graduation, Hansen joined the Chicago Daily News as a staff reporter and upon the outbreak of the First World War, Hansen became the Daily News' overseas war correspondent in Europe. When the United States entered the war, Hansen was promoted to foreign editor. By 1920, he had risen to the position of Literary Editor and he remained in that position until leaving the Daily News in 1926 to join the New York World as the "First Reader".

Hansen specialized more in literary affairs than in foreign affairs during his time at the World. He made the book review column into a daily feature and remained as book editor even after the World was sold to the New York Telegram in 1931, being one of the very few employees to remain with the paper.

Hansen also contributed literary criticism to other newspapers, including the Chicago Tribune, Harper's Magazine and Redbook. His book commentary columns were syndicated in magazines all over the country and Hansen also hosted radio programs both in Chicago and New York. In addition, he served as editor of the O. Henry Prize Stories from 1933 until 1940. He wrote several non-fiction books, including "The Adventures of the Fourteen Points" about the Versailles Peace Conference that ended World War I in 1919 and his only novel, 'Your Life Lies Before You' in 1935.

During and following the Second World War, Hansen continued his historical writing. He wrote one of Farrar & Rinehart's classic Rivers of America series on the Chicago River in 1942 and he also penned one of Random House's equally famous Landmark Series juvenile historical volumes, 'Old Ironsides, the Fighting Constitution' in 1955. In addition, Hansen also served as editor of the World Book from 1950 until 1965. During the 1960s and 1970s, Hansen wrote several volumes of the American Guide Series of state guidebooks including volumes on Louisiana, California and Illinois, among others. He also published an annual anthology of all the first-prize winners of the O.Henry Memorial Awards and in 1960 he published a complete anthology of the first-prize stories spanning the years from 1919 - 1960.

Hansen was married to Ruth McLernon in 1914 and the couple had two daughters, Ruth Eleanor (born 1915) and Marian (born 1916). Harry Hansen suffered a heart attack and passed away at the age of 92 on January 3, 1977.
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