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.
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