Ross, Lillian, 1918-2017

Lillian Ross (1918-2017) was an American journalist and author, born Lillian Rosovsky in Syracuse, New York. She was raised partially in Syracuse and partially in Brooklyn. She was a staff writer for The New Yorker starting in 1945 during World War II and working nearly up to her death. She wrote articles with a novelistic reporting style, which would later be called “new journalism” or “literary journalism,” including early stories about Ernest Hemingway and John Huston’s filming of The Red Badge of Courage. Ross also wrote a series of pieces called Talk of the Town, which were later compiled into two books: Talk Stories (1966), Takes (1983), and The Fun of It. Other publications, often based on her reporting, include Reporting (1964), Portrait of Hemingway (1961), The Player (written with her sister Helen Ross, 1962), Adlai Stevenson (1966), and Moments with Chaplin (1980). Ross also wrote a novel, Vertical and Horizontal (1963) and memoir, Here But Not Here (1998). She also wrote pieces on writer J.D. Salinger, with whom she was friends. Ross died from a stroke at the age of 99 in September, 2017.