Volume 68, Issue 4 | Page 28

BOOK REVIEW (continued from page 25) on child health and protection. She got the White House involved in her endeavors, and the experts of the day happily contributed to her activities. In 1926, she became the (first female) editor of the Sunday Magazine of the New York Herald Tribune. Her husband had passed away in December of 1925, and after a period of personal illness, she decided new challenges were what she needed to help in her recovery. She instituted what became the annual Tribune Forum. Her network of politicians and world leaders grew exponentially as she took a deep dive into the major problems of the era. On her many trips to Europe, she became acutely aware of propaganda masquerading as journalism. She interviewed Benito Mussolini four times, each time becoming increasingly disenchanted with his rhetoric. She turned down a request to interview Adolf Hitler. In both word and deed, she was a staunch supporter of the freedom of the press. In 1934, the Sunday Magazine of the Herald Tribune became This Week magazine with Missy remaining at the helm until her death in 1943. Throughout the years, she traveled widely in search of news. Missy never took her contributors for granted. She paid them tribute and properly showcased their work. Eminent writers answered her call whenever she requested their involvement with her projects. She brought young aspiring female journalists under her wing and gave them the freedom to excel. She was always there to help and advise when things did not go quite as expected. She never stole their thunder. Eleanor Roosevelt regarded Missy as a close friend and confidante. After Missy’s death, Mrs. Roosevelt wrote in her own column My Day about her: “If I am sometimes weary and think there is no use in fighting for things in which I believe, against overwhelming opposition, the thought of what she would say will keep me from being a slacker. She believed that women, all women, had an important part to play in their future.” Mrs. William Brown Meloney never rested on her laurels. She recognized her own privilege and used it the only way she knew how: to improve the condition of other women. At the time of Mrs. Meloney’s death, according to the author, women made up 50% of newspaper staffs in smaller American cities and 25% of American journalists as a whole. 127 women were cleared by the State Department and accredited by the War Department as World War II correspondents, and 100 women reported from the Capitol press galleries. Historian Katherine Cairns stated that… “World War II finally demonstrated that women belonged in front page journalism.” Based on the content of this book, it was “clearly a trajectory that Missy had a heavy hand in helping along.” Dr. Amin is a retired diagnostic radiologist. STAY Connected www.glms.org facebook.com/Greater-Louisville-Medical-Society @LouMedSociety @LouMedSociety linkedin.com/groups/Greater-Louisville-Medical-Society 26 LOUISVILLE MEDICINE