author
Charles Hanson Towne
1877–1949
A lively New York literary figure, he moved easily between poetry, magazine editing, and popular journalism in the early 20th century. His career stretched from publishing a childhood magazine to editing major periodicals and writing across an unusually wide range of forms.
2 Audiobooks
The Rise and Fall of Prohibition The Human Side of What the Eighteenth Amendment and the Volstead Act Have Done to the United States
by Charles Hanson Towne
The Bad Man: A Novel
by Charles Hanson Towne, Porter Emerson Browne
About the author
Born in Louisville, Kentucky, on February 2, 1877, he moved to New York City with his family when he was very young. Archival records from the New York Public Library describe an early start in publishing: as a boy, he created a children's magazine, and he went on to build a long career as an author, poet, editor, and public literary personality.
Towne worked on a remarkable mix of magazines, with sources noting editorial roles connected with McClure's, Smart Set, Delineator, Designer, and Harper's Bazaar. He also wrote far beyond poetry, producing novels, plays, travel writing, memoirs, newspaper columns, lyrics, and works for the stage.
Poetry remained a steady thread through his life. The Poetry Foundation notes that he published several volumes of verse and collaborated on song cycles, while archival sources add that he later taught poetry at Columbia University and toured with the actress and reader Ethel Barrymore. He died on February 28, 1949.