Janet Flanner

Born this day in 1892: JANET FLANNER, (1892–1978), longtime The New Yorker magazine columnist and Paris correspondent known for her witty and sophisticated “Letter from Paris” pieces (writing under the pseudonym Genêt) and for her insightful contributions to the magazine’s “Profile” series.

Here’s an excerpt from her profile of Adolph Hitler (March 14, 1936):

“Lacking the cerebral faculty of creating new public ideologies, as a fanatic [Hitler] has developed his unusual capacity for adapting those of others. Being self-taught, his mental processes are mysterious; he is missionary-minded; his thinking is emotional, his conclusions material. He has been studious with strange results: he says he regards liberalism as a form of tyranny, hatred and attack as part of man’s civic virtues, and equality of men as immoral and against nature. Since he is a concentrated, introspective dogmatist, he is uninformed by exterior criticism. On the other hand, he is a natural and masterly advertiser, a phenomenal propagandist within his limits, the greatest mob orator in German annals, and one of the most inventive organizers in European history. He believes in intolerance as a pragmatic principle. He accepts violence as a detail of state, he says mercy is not his affair with men, yet he is kind to dumb animals…. His moods change often, his opinions never. Since the age of twenty, they have been mainly anti-Semitic, anti-Communist, anti-suffrage, and Pan-German. He has a fine library of six thousand volumes, yet he never reads; books would do him no good—his mind is made up.”

Read more: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/backissues/2010/03/eighty-five-from-the-archive-janet-flanner.html#ixzz2NR0TyerS

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Meg Greenfield

Born this day in 1930: Mary Ellen (Meg) Greenfield (1930–1999), influential, Pulitzer Prize winning editorial-page editor of the Washington Post

Known for her disciplined intellect, wry writing style, and informed insight, Meg Greenfield was considered by many to one of the most influential women in Washington during the 1980s and 199os.

Greenfield began working at the Washington Post as an editorial writer in 1968. The following year she was named deputy editor of the editorial page. She was admired for her rigorous ethics and for demanding high standards from her editorial staff. In 1974 she also began writing a weekly column for Newsweek magazine. In 1978 she won a Pulitzer Prize for her editorial writing. The following year she became the Post’s editorial-page editor, a position she held until her death in 1999. Her memoirs were published posthumously in 2001.

Greenfield held a B.A. from Smith College (1952), was a Fulbright scholar (1953), and was the recipient of several honorary degrees.

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Lydia Sayer Hasbrouk

Born this day in 1827: Lydia Sayer Hasbrouk (1827–1910), writer, feminist, and proponent of dress reform

Lydia Sayer was born in 1827 in Warwick, New York. In 1849 he began wearing what later became known as “bloomers”—a knee-length skirt paired with a pair of pantaloons (or “Turkish trousers”). She wore them for practical reasons, but when her style of dress kept her from being admitted to the Seward Seminary (Florida, New York), she began wearing them as a matter of principle as well.

In 1856 she began editing The Sibyl: A Review of the Tastes, Errors and Fashions of Society, a feminist periodical established by her future husband, John Whitbeck Hasbrouck, editor of the Whig Press (Middletown, New York). She married John that same year. The couple had three children.

Hasbrouck opposed slavery and embraced many feminist causes. She was a proponent of medical training and education for women. She believed in property rights for women, equal pay, and suffrage—even refusing to pay taxes on the grounds that she could not vote for representation. The cause she most championed in The Sibyl, however, was dress reform. She was also president of the National Dress Reform Association, 1863–1864. Many other feminists, including Amelia Bloomer, whose name is inextricably linked with the trousers (she vigorously defended them, though did not invent them), gave up the cause of dress reform: the outfits engendered so much ridicule that they distracted the public from the more urgent needs of women’s movement.

For a description of the layers and layers of skirting and undergarments women typically wore in the mid-19^th century, go here. This hoop frame is the least of it!

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Jeannette Leonard Gilder

Born this day in 1849: Jeannette Leonard Gilder (1849–1916), journalist, editor, and arts critic influential in the late 19^th century.

Jeannette Gilder was barely 20 years old when she began contributing to the Newark Morning Register, a paper founded by her brother Richard. She also became the Newark correspondent for the New York Tribune (until the Tribune editor realized she wasn’t a man). In 1875 she moved to New York, and celebrity journalist Kate Field introduced her to New York Herald publisher Gordon Bennett. Bennett named her the Tribune’s literary critic. Before long she was penning reviews and criticisms of music and drama as well. In 1881 she and her brother Joseph founded a biweekly (later weekly) journal called the Critic. Gilder served as the sole editor from 1901 until 1906, when the Critic merged with Putnam’s Monthly. She remained with Putnam’s until it was taken over by the Atlantic Monthly in 1910. The seemingly inexhaustible Gilder wrote columns for many publications, served as agent for both authors and publishers, wrote several plays, a novel, a couple of autobiographies, and edited several anthologies. She was a central figure in the New York arts scene and counted among her friends some of the most celebrated writers, singers, and artists of the times.

Also on October 3:

• Educator and civil rights advocate Mary McLeod Bethune (1875–1955) opened her first school for African-American students in Daytona Beach, Florida. 
• Emily Post (1873–1960), etiquette guide, was born (or possibly on Oct 27, 1872).