Harry Wilson Lawton (December 11, 1927 – November 20, 2005) was an American writer, journalist, editor and historian who wrote several books about Native Americans in California. One of them, Willie Boy: a Desert Manhunt, was made into a movie in 1969, by the title Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here, starring Robert Redford.
John McCarten (September 10, 1911, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – September 25, 1974, New York City) was an American writer who contributed about 1,000 pieces for The New Yorker, serving as the magazine's film critic from 1945 to 1960 and Broadway theatre critic from 1960 to 1967.McCarten was born in Philadelphia into an Irish-American family. After serving in the Merchant Marine, he started writing for American Mercury, Fortune, and Time during the 1930s.In 1934, he joined The New Yorker and began contributing satirical short stories and irreverent profiles. He became the magazine's regular film critic in 1945, employing a writing style that tended to be terse and was often condescending. He gained a reputation as something of a nemesis of Alfred Hitchcock in particular, whose films McCarten regularly panned. The screenplay for the 1956 British romantic comedy film The Silken Affair was adapted from an idea by McCarten.In 1960, McCarten switched to theatre criticism, where he was no less tough; on one occasion, theatrical producer David Merrick had McCarten barred from the opening night of Do Re Mi.In July 1967, McCarten suddenly quit reviewing and moved to Ireland. The following year, he submitted the first of his "Irish Sketches", a series of light pieces about Irish art and culture that ran in The New Yorker between February 24, 1968, and November 20, 1971.
Andrew Heiskell (September 13, 1915 – July 6, 2003) was chairman and CEO of Time Inc. (1960–1980), and also known for his philanthropy, for organizations including the New York Public Library. He was President of the Inter American Press Association (1961–1962) and president of the Harvard University Board of Overseers.
Heloise Bowles Cruse (May 4, 1919 – December 28, 1977) was the original author of the popular syndicated newspaper column "Hints from Heloise."Born in Fort Worth, Texas, Bowles married Marshal (Mike) Holman Cruse, a United States Air Force captain (later colonel) in 1946. Their daughter Ponce Kiah Marchelle Heloise Cruse, born in 1951, is the current "Heloise".Bowles Cruse had been exchanging hints with neighboring stay-at-home-wives. While at a party she mentioned her wish to start a newspaper column where housewives could share hints. A colonel with two degrees in journalism laughed and bet her $10 she couldn’t get a newspaper job, for she was "nothing but a housewife." The next day she went to the offices of the Honolulu Advertiser and convinced the editor to try her column on a 30-day, no-pay basis.The original column was first published as "Readers' Exchange" in 1959. In 1961, King Features syndicated it as "Hints from Heloise"; nearly 600 newspapers carried the column, and, at the time of her death, it was one of three most popular (in terms of syndication) in the United States.Her book Heloise's Housekeeping Hints, published by Prentice-Hall, Inc., was, at half a million copies total, one of the top 10 selling hardcover books in 1963. The book later became the fastest selling paperback in the history of its publisher Pocket Books.
John William Powell (July 3, 1919 – December 15, 2008) was a journalist and small business proprietor who edited the China Weekly Review, an English-language journal first published by his father, John B. Powell in Shanghai.
John W. Powell was tried for sedition in 1959 after publishing an article that reported on allegations made by Mainland Chinese officials that the United States and Japan were carrying out germ warfare in the Korean War. In 1956, the Eisenhower Administration's Department of Justice pressed sedition charges against Powell, his wife Sylvia, and Julian Schuman, after federal prosecutors secured grand jury indictments against them for publishing allegations of bacteriological warfare. However, the prosecutors failed to get any convictions. The defendants invoked their Constitutional right to refuse to reveal self-incriminating evidence, and U.S. Department of Defense officials also refused to provide any incriminating archives or witnesses. This information was not revealed until decades later as a result of Freedom of Information Act requests.
All three of the defendants were acquitted of all charges over the next six years, after a Federal judge dismissed the core aspects of the case against them in 1959, due to obviously insufficient evidence against them.
Robert E. Lee Taylor Jr. (June 8, 1913 – July 2, 2009) was an American publisher and chairman of the Philadelphia Bulletin in the years leading up to the paper's demise. He was jailed in 1963 for his refusal to testify before a grand jury about his paper's reporting, and was released after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that his actions were protected under the state's shield law.
Charlotte Milton Caldwell Giesen (January 27, 1907 – January 28, 1995) (nicknamed "Pinkie") was a Virginia politician and news editor. A lifelong resident of Radford, Virginia, she served in the Virginia House of Delegates from 1958 to 1961, becoming the first Republican woman elected to the House.
Ann Cottrell Free (June 4, 1916 – October 30, 2004) was an American journalist who wrote extensively on animal protection issues.
Abigail Pogrebin (born May 17, 1965) is an American writer, journalist, podcast host for Tablet magazine, and former Director of Jewish Outreach for the Michael Bloomberg 2020 presidential campaign.
William Nathan Oatis (January 4, 1914 – September 16, 1997) was an American journalist who gained international attention when he was charged with espionage by the communist Czechoslovakia in 1951. He was subsequently jailed until 1953.