Charles Hanson Towne

Charles Hanson Towne (1877-1949) was an American poet, prose writer, and editor.

Life
Towne was born in Kentucky; his parents moved to New York City when he was 3 years old. At 11 years of age, he began publishing and editing a magazine, Unique Monthly, for himself and his friends; 12 copies of the magazine are preserved at the New York Public Library.

He spent a City College of New York, and then became an editorial assistant at Cosmopolitan magazine. [http://allpoetry.com/Charles-Hanson-Towne Charles Hanson Towne, AllPoetry. After graduating, he joined the staff of Smart Set in 1901. He became the editor of Smart Set in 1904 and held the positon until 1907, when he left to become editor of The Delineator. He went on to edit other popular magazines, including McClure's, Designer, and Harper's Bazaar.

Towne was also a prolific writer. He authored books of poetry, plays, song cycles, literary columns, essays, memoirs, travel essays, lyrics for musicals and operettas, and even a book of etiquette. He wrote a column for the New York American, and taught poetry at Columbia University (where his students included J.D. Salinger).

In 1940 he turned to acting, appearing in the Broadway hit Life with Father. His autobiography, So Far, So Good, was published in 1945.