Editor Sedgwick

He Receives Irate Letters

The Editor of The Atlantic Monthly is one of the hardest-working and most modest of editors. He has brought a staid Boston publication to a circulation almost unbelievably large for that type of magazine.* Under his eye "The Atlantic Monthly Press" was born and is starting to flourish. The Living Age, now published from his offices, prospers. The Independent, in which he has no actual ownership, under a new group of owners and editors has moved to Massachusetts and is now making its home in the Atlantic offices under Mr. Sedgwick's benignant glances. He is one of our greatest American editors, yet I believe the public knows little about him, and that is his desire. He believes that a magazine itself should speak for the personality of the Editor, and that the personality of the Editor should not be imposed on the magazine. The Atlantic Monthly carries no such slogan as "Edited by Ellery Sedgwick."

In his offices in Boston--colonial offices, exquisitely furnished--he appears, quiet, forceful, softspoken, a country gentleman, perhaps, receiving a caller in his study. I suppose many people think of him as a decided conservative, and of his publication as of the same shade of opinion. Not so. You have only to talk to Bostonians nourished in the elder tradition to find that they actually consider The Atlantic Monthly radical. Liberal, it assuredly is, and tuned to the latest thought; more liberal politically and culturally than it is in regard to literature. Yet it has often published matter of a startlingly controversial nature, and I fancy that its quiet Editor is not really happy unless his desk is flooded with irate letters from objecting subscribers. That is a sign of real life to him.

The opinions which back the issues of his magazine are not formed lightly. I once knew of his traveling miles and spending very nearly a month in order to visit a section of the country about which he was to publish a series of articles, and he insisted on being convinced for himself that the conditions set forth in these articles were actual.

Ellery Sedgwick was born in New York City, of a family distinguished for its origins as well as its accomplishments. He was educated at Harvard. He was for a time a teacher at Groton School, then turned to editorial and publishing pursuits, and served on various magazines and publishing houses. The Atlantic is interesting because of its Editor's keen interest in present-day affairs, and his unwillingness to be fitted into any groove of opinion. After all, that is the first characteristic, I believe, of a successful editor.

J. F.

*The circulation of The Atlantic Monthly is 117,352.