Harrison, Gilbert A.

Gilbert A. Harrison was born in Detroit on May 18, 1915, one of three children to Samuel and Mabel Wolfe Harrison. He earned a B.A. degree in psychology from UCLA in 1937 and went on to serve in the U.S. Army in World War II. Following the war, in 1948, Harrison became national chairman of the American Veterans Committe. In 1953, with his wife, Anne Blaine, he purchased The New Republic, where he served as publisher and editor until 1974. Harrison was the author of two books, A Timeless Affair: The Life of Anita McCormick Blaine (1979), a biography of his grandmother-in-law, and The Enthusiast: A Life of Thornton Wilder (1983), and editor of several others, including Gertrude Stein's America (1965) and The Critic as Artist (1972).

From the guide to the Gilbert A. Harrison papers relating to Thornton Wilder, 1939-1975, (Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library)

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