Russell, Leonard, 1906-

British editor and literary anthologist.

Leonard Russell, editor and literary anthologist, was born in London in 1906. He began his career in journalism at the Daily Telegraph registering the editor's incoming review copies. Cyril Lakin later made Russell an assistant when Lakin was appointed literary editor of the Daily Telegraph in 1929, and of the Sunday Times in 1933. When Russell succeeded Lakin literary editor of the Sunday Times in 1945, he contracted talents such as Cyril Connolly, Harold Hobson, Raymond Mortimer, and Hugh Trevor-Roper, who helped make the Sunday Times a leading voice in the literary community. He remained literary editor of the Sunday Times until 1954.

In addition to these accomplishments, Russell founded The Saturday Review in 1941, worked briefly on Go magazine after leaving the Sunday Times, and later returned to the newspaper, where he edited a succession of serials that changed the character of Sunday journalism and increased the Sunday Times' circulation dramatically. Notable serializations under Russell's direction include Lord Montgomery's memoirs, Somerset Maugham's Ten Novels and Their Authors, and William Manchester's Death of a President.

In his later years Russell was involved in several publishing projects, including The Pearl of Days, an unofficial history of the Sunday Times.

Russell married film critic Dilys Powell in 1943, and they remained together until his death in 1974.