Background
Butcher, Fanny was born on February 13, 1888 in Fredonia, Kansas, United States. Daughter of L. Oliver and Hattie May (Young) Butcher.
Butcher, Fanny was born on February 13, 1888 in Fredonia, Kansas, United States. Daughter of L. Oliver and Hattie May (Young) Butcher.
Her family moved to Chicago when she was 3-years-old and she later attended Lewis Institute (now Illinois Institute of Technology) from 1906 to 1908. She graduated from the University of Chicago in 1910.
She began at the Tribune in 1913 and held various positions including society editor, club editor, crime reporter, fashion editor, assistant women"s editor, special correspondent, assistant music critic. In 1923 she became the literary editor and held the position for 40 years until her retirement in 1963. A cartoon by Helen East. Hokinson of The New Yorker on the back cover of Fanny Butcher"s autobiography Many Lives, One Love shows a bookstore clerk showing a book to an elderly lady.
The clerk is saying, "Hugh Walpole liked it, Fanny Butcher liked it, William
Rose Benet liked it, and Mistress Roosevelt liked it, but it *isn"t* very good." (drawing copyright 1940 and 1968 by The New Yorker Magazine).
This shows that Fanny Butcher was a household name among bookish Americans in 1940.
Member Society Midland Authors (Patron Saint award 1973), Adult Education Council(director), Modern Poetry Association (honorary director), International Poets, Playwrights, Editors, Essayists and Novelists association Club (past president Chicago chapter), Friends of America Writers (honorary), Officer d'Academie de France, Friends of Chicago Public Library (honorary Chairman of the Board), Friday Club, Fortnightly Club, Press Club, Kappa Phi Delta.
Married Richard Drummond Bokum, February 13, 1935.