Harold Ross (1892-1951) founded the New Yorker and remained at its helm for a quarter century. His idiosyncratic direction molded the magazine, with its blend of urbane wit and moral purpose.

Harold Wallace Ross was born November 6, 1892, in Aspen, Colorado, to George and Ida (Martin) Ross. His father was then in the lead mining industry and later worked at contracting and wrecking. Ross grew up in Salt Lake City and attended high school there, the whole extent of his formal education. At age 13 he went to work as a reporter for the Salt Lake City Tribune. In 1908 he and a friend left town, bumming their way west. Ross made it as far as Needles, California, where he briefly worked as a timekeeper before returning to Salt Lake City.

In 1910 he went back to California in earnest, working as a reporter, first for the Marysville Appeal, then for the...