author
John Chipman Farrar
1896–1974
A lively force in American publishing, he helped shape literary culture not just through his own writing but by launching major publishing houses and creating a writers’ conference that still endures. His career moved easily between poetry, editing, and publishing, giving him an unusually wide influence on 20th-century letters.
1 Audiobook
Songs for Parents
by John Chipman Farrar
About the author
Born in Burlington, Vermont, in 1896, John Chipman Farrar became an American editor, writer, and publisher whose impact reached far beyond his own books. He studied at Yale, with his education interrupted by service in the Army Air Service during World War I, and went on to build a career at the center of American literary life.
Farrar wrote poetry and literary criticism early on, but he is best remembered for his work as a publisher and editor. He helped found Farrar & Rinehart and later Farrar, Straus and Giroux, two important publishing houses that left a lasting mark on American reading and publishing. He also conceived the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference in 1926, creating a space that became deeply important to generations of writers.
That mix of creative and editorial work makes his story especially interesting: he was not only a man of letters, but also someone who helped make other writers' careers possible. For listeners curious about the world behind 20th-century books, Farrar stands out as one of the people who helped shape it from the inside.