(Gardner Botsford tells the fascinating and humorous story...)
Gardner Botsford tells the fascinating and humorous story of his W.W. II experiences, from his assignment to the infantry due to a paperwork error to a fearful trans-Atlantic crossing on the Queen Mary, to landing under heavy fire on Omaha Beach and the Liberation of Paris. After the war, he began a distinguished literary career as a long-time editor at the New Yorker, and chronicles the magazine’s rise and influence on postwar American culture with wit and grace.
Gardner Botsford was an American editor and writer. His most popular work is "A Life of Privilege, Mostly".
Background
Gardner Botsford was born on 7th of July, 1917 in New York City, New York, United States into a family of great privilege. His mother was "an international heartbreaker", and father, Alfred Miller Botsford, was a journalist and eventually worked in the advertising department for the Famous Players-Lasky movie company.
Mr. Botsford's parents divorced, and his mother remarried Raoul Fleischmann, whose family had bankrolled The New Yorker and with whom Mr. Botsford spent much of his childhood. There were eight servants for a family of five at their New York townhouse, and summers were spent in France and on Long Island. He grew up surrounded by writers and actors.
Education
Mr. Botsford attended boarding school at Hotchkiss, later he studied at Yale University and graduated from it in 1939.
After leaving Yale University, Botsford got a job at the New Yorker as a reporter but was fired by editor Harold Ross, who told him to go get newspaper experience. Botsford went on to the Jacksonville Journal in Florida, and in 1942, rejoined the New Yorker.
In 1942, he was drafted to serve in World War II. Upon returning to the New Yorker after the war, Botsford found that the atmosphere had turned more serious. He was made an editor by William Shawn and managing editor under Harold Ross. Mr. Botsford retired from the magazine in 1982.
Gardner Botsford wrote "A Life of Privilege, Mostly" in 2003, which concludes with a series of memorable vignettes about life on the magazine and about NewYorker ornaments such as A.J. Liebling, Maeve Brennan and William Shawn, Botsford's long-term friend, mentor, boss, and, at the last, adversary.
(Gardner Botsford tells the fascinating and humorous story...)
2003
Connections
Mr. Botsford was married twice, his first wife, Katharine Chittenden, died in 1974, and the following year he married Ms. Malcolm, whom he had edited since the 1960's. He had two daughters from his first marriage, Margot, a Superior Court judge, of Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, and Dr. Susan Workum, of Cambridge, Massachusetts; he also had three grandchildren and one stepgrandchild.