Charles Hanson Towne

by George J. Dance

Charles Hanson Towne (February 2, 1877 - February 28, 1949 ) was an American poet, prose writer, and magazine editor.

Charles Hanson Towne (1877-1949). Courtesy My Poetic Side.

Life

Towne was born February 2, 1877, in Louisville, Kentucky, to Mary Stuart (Campbell) and professor Paul A. Towne.

Towne moved with his parents 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 year at City College of New York.

Career

Towne then became an editorial assistant at Cosmopolitan magazine.

In 1901 he joined the staff of a new magazine, Smart Set. He became the editor of Smart Set in 1904 and held that position 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 took up acting, appearing in the Broadway hit Life with Father (based on the book by Clarence Day). His autobiography, So Far, So Good, was published in 1945.

Towne died on February 28, 1949, in New York City.

Recognition

Around The Corner-0

In popular culture

Towne's poem "Around the Corner" was used for a 2012 online cartoon by Australian freelance cartoonist Gavin Aung Thon. Thon's cartoon was made into a short film by Sahel Takal, a student of film & TV at Anglia Ruskin University (in Cambridge, UK), and entered by Takal into the 2013 London Sundance Film Festival Short Film Competition.

Publications

Charles Hanson Towne, The Quiet Singer, and other poems. New York: B.W. Dodge, 1908. Courtesy Internet Archive.

Poetry

• Ave Maria. Cincinnati, OH: Editor Publishing, 1898.
• The Quiet Singer, and other poems. New York: B.W. Dodge, 1908.
• Manhattan. New York: Kennerley, 1909.
• Youth, and other poems. New York: Kennerley, 1911.
• Beyond the Stars, and other poems. New York: Kennerley, 1913.
• Jolly Jaunts with Jim: Verses (illustrated by H. Devitt Welsh). New York: Doran, 1915.
• Today and Tomorrow. New York: Doran, 1916.
• A World of Windows, and other poems. New York: Doran, 1919.
• Selected Poems. New York & London: Appleton, 1925.
• An April Song: New poems. New York & Toronto: Farrar & Rinehart, 1937.
• Testament of Love: A sonnet sequence. New York: Hastings House, 1945.

Novels

• The Bad Man: A novel (with Porter Emerson Browne). New York & London: Putnam, 1921.
• The Chain: A novel. New York & London: Putnam, 1922.
• The Gay Ones. New York & London: Century, 1924.
• Tinsel. New York: Appleton, 1926.
• The Shop of Dreams: A tale of love, youth, and books. New York & London: Appleton, 1931.
• Good Old Yesterday. New York: Appleton-Century, 1935.
• Pretty Girls Get There... New York: Appleton-Century, 1941.

Short fiction

• The Hungry Steam Shovel, and other stories. Windham, CT: Hawthorn House, 1935.

Non-fiction

• Autumn Loiterers (illustrated by Thomas Fogarty). New York: Doran, 1917.
• Loafing Down Long Island (illustrated by Thomas Fogarty). New York: Century, 1921.
• Shaking Hands with England. New York: Doran, 1923.
• Ambling through Acadia (illustrated by W. Emerton Heitland). New York: Century, 1923.
• The Rise and Fall of Prohibition: The human side of what the Eighteenth Amendment and the Volstead Act have done to the United States. New York: Macmillan, 1923.
• W. Somerset Maugham: Novelist, essayist, dramatist. New York: Doran, 1925.
• Adventures in Editing. New York & London: Appleton, 1926.
• Two Singers. New York: Rudge, 1928.
• This New York of Mine. New York: Cosmopolitan, 1931.
• Gentlemen Behave: Charles Hanson Towne's book of etiquette for men. New York: J. Messner, 1939.
• So Far, So Good. New York: J. Messner, 1945.

Juvenile

• The Tumble Man. New York: Appleton, 1913.

Edited

• The Balfour Visit: How America received her distinguished guest; and the significance of the conferences in the United States in 1917. New York: Doran, 1917.
• Roosevelt as the Poets Saw Him: Tributes from the singers of America and England to Theodore Roosevelt. New York: Scribner, 1923.

Of One Self Slain by Charles Hanson Towne 1877 1949

Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.

"Night" - Lorna Kelly (Audio)

Poems by Towne

1. Around the Corner
2. On First Looking into the Manuscript of Endymion

See also

• List of U.S. poets
• Timeline of American poetry

References

Fonds

• Charles Hanson Towne papers, 1891-1948 at the New York Public Library

External links

Poems

• "Around the Corner"
• "The City" in The Second Book of Modern Verse
• "Beyond the Stars" in The New Poetry: An anthology
• "America Unafraid"
• "Manhattan"
• Towne in Poetry: A magazine of verse, 1912-1922: "Beyond the Stars," "On First Looking into the Manuscript of Endymion"
• 6 poems by Towne: "An Easter Canticle," "The Lover in April," "Waiting," "August in the City," "April Madness," "A Distant Spring"
• Charles Hanson Towne at PoemHunter (107 poems)
• Charles Hanson Towne at AllPoetry (108 poems)

Audio / video

• Charles Hanson Towne poems at YouTube

Books

• Charles Hanson Towne at Amazon.com

About

• Charles Hanson Towne biography at My Poetic Side
• Charles Hanson Towne at the Internet Movie Database

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