author

Charles Hanson Towne

1877–1949

A lively New York literary figure, he built an unusually varied career as a poet, magazine editor, columnist, teacher, and performer. His writing often celebrated Manhattan, and his long run through publishing and the arts made him a familiar name in early twentieth-century cultural life.

2 Audiobooks

The Rise and Fall of Prohibition

The Rise and Fall of Prohibition

by Charles Hanson Towne

The Bad Man: A Novel

The Bad Man: A Novel

by Porter Emerson Browne, Charles Hanson Towne

About the author

Born in 1877, Charles Hanson Towne moved from Kentucky to New York City as a small child and started writing early. The New York Public Library notes that at just eleven he was already producing a children's magazine called Unique Monthly, an early sign of the energy he would bring to literary life.

Towne went on to become an author, editor, and well-known New York personality. He worked on major magazines including Smart Set, Delineator, Designer, McClure's, and Harper's Bazaar, while also publishing poetry, novels, plays, travel writing, memoirs, and newspaper columns. Much of his work centered on New York City, and the library describes him as someone many readers saw as a quintessential New Yorker.

Later in his career, he taught poetry at Columbia University and even joined the touring company of the Broadway hit Life With Father. He died in 1949, leaving behind a body of work that reflects both the bustle of magazine culture and a deep affection for the city that shaped him.