author
Charles Hanson Towne
1877–1949
A lively early-20th-century man of letters, he moved easily between poetry, fiction, journalism, and magazine editing. His work often celebrated New York City, and his career made him a familiar literary figure of his day.
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, in 1877, he moved to New York City with his family when he was very young. He started writing early, even producing a children's magazine as a boy, and that early energy carried into a long career as a poet, author, editor, and columnist.
He worked on a remarkable run of magazines, including The Smart Set, The Delineator, Designer, McClure's, and Harper's Bazaar. Alongside editing, he wrote widely across forms—poetry, novels, plays, travel pieces, memoirs, song lyrics, and newspaper columns—and also taught poetry at Columbia University.
Library archives describe him as a popular New York literary celebrity, and that fits the impression his career leaves behind. Much of his writing was closely tied to the life and spirit of New York, helping make him, in the words preserved by the New York Public Library, a quintessential New Yorker.