A. J. Liebling (1904–1963)
Author of Between Meals: An Appetite for Paris
About the Author
A. J. Liebling was an urbane and prolific journalist whose style, incorporating first-person narrative, street talk, and exuberant metaphor, became a model for the New Journalism of the 1960's and later. Although he came from a genteel New York family, he was fascinated by the irreverent underworld show more all his life and made it his special subject. After being expelled from Dartmouth College for refusing to attend chapel, Liebling graduated from Columbia University's Pulitzer School of Journalism in 1925 and then worked for various newspapers, including The New York Times, which fired him, and the New York World, before he found his metier at The New Yorker magazine in 1935. It was there that he developed his signature style and did his best work, writing about a wide range of subjects, from the city's characters to gastronomy to boxing to the London Blitz and the Normandy invasion. A born raconteur with a fertile imagination, Liebling carved out a territory between objective reporting and fiction, which so many other journalists have mined since. Yet he could also produce straight war reportage fine enough to merit receiving the Legion of Honor from a grateful France in 1952. Starting in 1945, Liebling wrote a widely admired column for The New Yorker called "The Wayward Pressman," in which he criticized American journalism's priorities and performance. This was probably the first such column in U.S. journalism. During the 1950s and 1960s, he also wrote book reviews for Esquire. Besides his massive newspaper and magazine output, Liebling wrote about 20 books. He was married three times, the last time to the writer Jean Stafford. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Image credit: John Burlinson
Works by A. J. Liebling
World War II Writings: The Road Back to Paris / Mollie and Other War Pieces / Uncollected War Journalism / Normandy… (2008) 207 copies, 3 reviews
The Sweet Science and Other Writings: The Sweet Science / The Earl of Louisiana / The Jollity Building / Between Meals… (2009) — Author — 141 copies, 1 review
Associated Works
Secret Ingredients: The New Yorker Book of Food and Drink (2007) — Contributor — 549 copies, 10 reviews
Reporting World War II Part One : American Journalism, 1938-1944 (1995) — Contributor — 444 copies, 3 reviews
Reporting World War II Part Two : American Journalism 1944-1946 (1995) — Contributor — 397 copies, 3 reviews
The Art of Fact: A Historical Anthology of Literary Journalism (1997) — Contributor — 216 copies, 1 review
The New Yorker Book of War Pieces: London, 1939 to Hiroshima, 1945 (1988) — Contributor — 100 copies, 2 reviews
Writing New York: A Literary Anthology (Expanded 10th-Anniversary Edition) (2008) — Contributor — 95 copies, 1 review
The Tavern Lamps Are Burning: Literary Journeys through Six Regions and Four Centuries of New York State (1964) — Contributor — 20 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Liebling, A. J.
- Legal name
- Liebling, Abbott Joseph
- Birthdate
- 1904-10-18
- Date of death
- 1963-12-28
- Burial location
- Green River Cemetery, East Hampton, New York
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- New York, New York, USA
- Places of residence
- New York, New York, USA
Providence, Rhode Island, USA
Paris, France - Education
- Columbia University
Dartmouth College - Occupations
- journalist
war correspondent
essayist
media critic - Relationships
- Stafford, Jean (wife)
- Organizations
- The New Yorker
- Awards and honors
- Legion d'Honneur
- Short biography
- Abbott Joseph (A.J.) Liebling was the legendary journalist who spent many years writing for The New Yorker magazine. He was born into a wealthy family on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. He attended Dartmouth College, where he wrote for the Jack-O-Lantern, its nationally known humor magazine. He left Dartmouth without graduating, later claiming he was thrown out for "missing compulsory chapel attendance." He then enrolled in the School of Journalism at Columbia University. He began his career as a reporter at the Providence Evening Bulletin and worked briefly in the sports department of the New York Times.
In 1926, his father offered him the chance to study in Paris for a year, which he seized. He studied French medieval literature at the Sorbonne and began a life-long love affair with French life, culture, and cuisine. After returning to the USA, he campaigned for a job on The New York World, which he won. In 1934, he married Mary Anne Quinn, who was often hospitalized for mental illness during their marriage.
They were later divorced and he married author Jean Stafford.
Liebling joined The New Yorker in 1935. During World War II, he served as a war correspondent in North Africa, England, and France, and took part in the D-Day invasion of Normandy. He became famous for his reporting on fine food, politics, horse racing, boxing, and journalism itself. Slate Magazine wrote, "If Liebling didn't invent press criticism, he might as well have. Liebling still ranks so high that, in 2000 when the New Republic's Franklin Foer wanted to take the Washington Post's media reporter Howard Kurtz down a couple of point sizes, he wrote that Kurtz was no Liebling. . .Foer's gist was clear: A few writers may occasionally reach Lieblingesque heights in their press criticism, but nobody survives at the long-dead master's altitude for very long."
Members
Reviews
Lists
Best War Stories (1)
Chicago Books (1)
Awards
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Statistics
- Works
- 31
- Also by
- 21
- Members
- 2,226
- Popularity
- #11,512
- Rating
- 4.0
- Reviews
- 44
- ISBNs
- 72
- Languages
- 3
- Favorited
- 9