Ralph McAllister Ingersoll (December 8, 1900 in
New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134,02 ...
– March 8, 1985 in
Miami Beach, Florida
Miami Beach is a coastal resort city in Miami-Dade County, Florida. It was incorporated on March 26, 1915. The municipality is located on natural and artificial island, man-made barrier islands between the Atlantic Ocean and Biscayne Bay, the ...
) was an American writer, editor, and publisher. He is best known as founder and publisher of ''
PM'', a short-lived 1940s
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
left-wing
Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in soci ...
daily newspaper that was financed by
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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, coordinates =
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, subdivision_name ...
millionaire
Marshall Field III
Marshall Field III (September 28, 1893 – November 8, 1956) was an American investment banker, publisher, racehorse owner/breeder, philanthropist, grandson of businessman Marshall Field, heir to the Marshall Field department store fortune, a ...
.
Biography
Ingersoll went to
Hotchkiss School
The Hotchkiss School is a coeducational University-preparatory school#North America, preparatory school in Lakeville, Connecticut, United States. Hotchkiss is a member of the Eight Schools Association and Ten Schools Admissions Organization. It i ...
, graduated from
Yale University
Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...
's
Sheffield Scientific School
Sheffield Scientific School was founded in 1847 as a school of Yale College in New Haven, Connecticut, for instruction in science and engineering. Originally named the Yale Scientific School, it was renamed in 1861 in honor of Joseph E. Sheffield, ...
and became a
mining engineer
Mining in the engineering discipline is the extraction of minerals from underneath, open pit, above or on the ground. Mining engineering is associated with many other disciplines, such as mineral processing, exploration, excavation, geology, and ...
in California, Arizona and Mexico. In 1923 he went to New York with the intention of becoming a writer.
[
]
He worked as a reporter for the ''
New York American
:''Includes coverage of New York Journal-American and its predecessors New York Journal, The Journal, New York American and New York Evening Journal''
The ''New York Journal-American'' was a daily newspaper published in New York City from 1937 t ...
'' from 1923 to 1925, and then joined ''
The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
'' where he was managing editor from 1925 to 1930. He had been hired by the ''New Yorker'' founder and editor
Harold Ross
Harold Wallace Ross (November 6, 1892 – December 6, 1951) was an American journalist who co-founded ''The New Yorker'' magazine in 1925 with his wife Jane Grant, and was its editor-in-chief until his death.
Early life
Born in a prospector's ...
a few months after the magazine commenced publication; Ross inadvertently spilled an inkwell on Ingersoll's new light suit (various sources claim it was either white or pale gray) during the job interview, then, in embarrassment, offered him the job. As Ingersoll left his office, he heard Ross mumble to his secretary: "Jesus Christ, I hire anybody."
According to his biographer, Roy Hoopes, Ingersoll "was one of the original guiding spirits of ''The New Yorker''. He held it together during its first five years."
In 1930 Ingersoll went to
Time Inc.
Time Inc. was an American worldwide mass media corporation founded on November 28, 1922, by Henry Luce and Briton Hadden and based in New York City. It owned and published over 100 magazine brands, including its namesake ''Time'', ''Sports Illu ...
as managing editor of
Time-Life publications, and devised the formula of business magazine ''
Fortune
Fortune may refer to:
General
* Fortuna or Fortune, the Roman goddess of luck
* Luck
* Wealth
* Fortune, a prediction made in fortune-telling
* Fortune, in a fortune cookie
Arts and entertainment Film and television
* ''The Fortune'' (1931 film) ...
'',
eventually becoming general manager of the company.
One of his most important assignments at ''Fortune'' was a detailed history of ''The New Yorker'' and its business. The scrutiny that Ingersoll gave Ross and his employees, which included mention of their foibles and salaries, initiated a feud between Ross and
Henry Luce
Henry Robinson Luce (April 3, 1898 – February 28, 1967) was an American magazine magnate who founded ''Time'', ''Life'', ''Fortune'', and ''Sports Illustrated'' magazine. He has been called "the most influential private citizen in the America ...
, publisher of ''Time'' and ''Fortune'', culminating in a famed profile of Luce by
Wolcott Gibbs
Wolcott Gibbs (March 15, 1902 – August 16, 1958) was an American editor, humorist, theatre critic, playwright and writer of short stories, who worked for ''The New Yorker'' magazine from 1927 until his death. He is notable for his 1936 parody o ...
that ran in ''The New Yorker'' in 1936, which lampooned both Luce and "Timestyle", the inverted writing style for which ''Time'' was (in)famous. Luce retaliated by having caricaturist
Al Hirschfeld
Albert Hirschfeld (June 21, 1903 – January 20, 2003) was an American caricaturist best known for his black and white portraits of celebrities and Broadway stars.
Personal life
Al Hirschfeld was born in 1903 in a two-story duplex at 1313 Carr ...
draw an image of
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secreta ...
over a picture of Ross.
''PM'' started on June 18, 1940 with $1.5 million of capital, a fraction of the $10 million that Ingersoll initially sought. Unlike in usual U.S. practice, ''PM'' ran no advertising, and editorials did not appear every day; when they did, they were signed by an individual, initially Ingersoll himself, instead of anonymously coming from the paper itself. Sometimes these editorials took over the front page. His first editorial took a forthright stand on
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
which was already under way in
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
: "We are against people who push other people around," he wrote, demanding material U.S. support for the nations opposing
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
and
Fascist Italy.
Ingersoll visited Britain in October and wrote a series for the paper that was published as an
instant book fixup
A fix-up (or fixup) is a novel created from several short fiction stories that may or may not have been initially related or previously published. The stories may be edited for consistency, and sometimes new connecting material, such as a frame s ...
.
The papers' first year was an overall success, although the paper was in some financial trouble: its circulation of 100,000–200,000 was insufficient.
Marshall Field III
Marshall Field III (September 28, 1893 – November 8, 1956) was an American investment banker, publisher, racehorse owner/breeder, philanthropist, grandson of businessman Marshall Field, heir to the Marshall Field department store fortune, a ...
had become the paper's funder; quite unusually, he was a "silent partner" in this continually money-losing undertaking.
The 41-year-old Ingersoll was
drafted into the military; when he returned after the war, he found a paper that was less lively and well-written than it had been under his leadership, and with the pro-
communist
Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...
and
anti-communist
Anti-communism is Political movement, political and Ideology, ideological opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 October Revolution in the Russian Empire, and it reached global dimensions during the Cold War, w ...
liberals writing at cross purposes. The paper never quite recovered and in June, 1948, with PM on the brink of folding, Field sold a majority interest to attorney
Bartley Crum
Bartley Crum (November 28, 1900 – December 9, 1959) was an American lawyer who became prominent as a member of the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry, his book on that experience, and for defending targets of House Un-American Activities Commit ...
and editor
Joseph Fels Barnes Joseph Fels Barnes (1907–1970) was an American journalist, who also served as executive director of the Institute of Pacific Relations (IPR).
Background
Barnes was born in 1907. he graduated from Harvard University in 1927, where he was managin ...
, who renamed it the ''New York Star.'' It ceased publication eight months later, in February, 1949.
Ingersoll later wrote numerous books about his service in World War II.
It has recently been suggested, based on research, that Ingersoll may have been the originator, chief advocate and mission planner of the tactical deception unit formed by the US Army during the war and deployed in the
European Theater of Operations
The European Theater of Operations, United States Army (ETOUSA) was a Theater of Operations responsible for directing United States Army operations throughout the European theatre of World War II, from 1942 to 1945. It commanded Army Ground For ...
known formally as the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops and colloquially as the
Ghost Army
The Ghost Army was a United States Army tactical deception unit during World War II officially known as the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops. The 1100-man unit was given a unique mission: to deceive Hitler's forces and mislead them as to the ...
of World War II.
In the 1950s Ingersoll acquired and managed several newspapers. His company,
Ingersoll Publications
21st Century Media was an American media company. It was the successor of Ingersoll Publications and Journal Register Company, and it was succeeded by Digital First Media.
The company operated more than 350 multi-platform products in 992 comm ...
, founded in 1957, was taken over by his son
Ralph M. Ingersoll Jr. in 1982 after he had bought his father out in a deal that left them no longer on speaking terms.
Further reading
*
Notes
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ingersoll, Ralph
The New Yorker staff writers
American newspaper chain founders
20th-century American newspaper founders
20th-century American newspaper publishers (people)
1900 births
1985 deaths
Businesspeople from New Haven, Connecticut
Fortune (magazine) people
Journalists from Connecticut
American male journalists
20th-century American journalists
20th-century American non-fiction writers
Ralph
Ralph (pronounced ; or ,) is a male given name of English, Scottish and Irish origin, derived from the Old English ''Rædwulf'' and Radulf, cognate with the Old Norse ''Raðulfr'' (''rað'' "counsel" and ''ulfr'' "wolf").
The most common forms ...
Recipients of the Legion of Merit
20th-century American male writers