Liebling, A. J.

Related Category: Journalism and Publishing: Biographies

(Abbott Joseph Liebling), 1904–63, American journalist, b. New York City. He left Dartmouth, attended the Columbia School of Journalism, and wrote for the Providence, R.I. Evening Bulletin and several New York City newspapers before joining (1935) The New Yorker magazine, where he remained until his death. Liebling earned a reputation as an irreverent, tough-minded, and urbane commentator on the world around him. He was a correspondent in Europe during World War II, and then was (1945–63) the New Yorker's press critic. Liebling's dispatches, columns, and musings on his many enthusiasms were collected in The Road Back to Paris (1944), on the war; The Wayward Pressman (1947) and The Press (1961); The Telephone Booth Indian (1942), on urban low lifes and eccentrics; The Sweet Science (1956), on boxing; and Between Meals (1962), on food. Among his most memorable articles was a series profiling Earl Long, which later appeared as The Earl of Louisiana (1961).

See also the anthologies Liebling Abroad (1981), Liebling at Home (1982), and Just Enough Liebling (2004); biography by R. A. Sokolov (1980); study by E. M. Midura (1974).