Byron Darnton participant of World War I
Journalism career
Darnton was born November 8, 1897, in Adrian, Michigan. His interest in journalism began in adolescence, when he and his family visited his uncle Charles Darnton, a drama critic for Joseph Pulitzer's Evening World in New York, New York. After leaving high school in 1917, Darnton joined the American Expeditionary Force and served in World War I, before returning to the United States and entering the University of Michigan, where he joined the fraternity of Sigma Phi.The Sandusky Herald in Sandusky, Ohio, provided Darnton's entry to the newspaper industry; he followed this with a stint at The Baltimore Sun. Darnton also provided several short stories to The Smart Set magazine, then edited by H.L. Mencken, who attempted to convince Darnton to shift his attention to writing fiction. Instead, Darnton went on to write for the Philadelphia Bulletin and Philadelphia Evening Ledger, then in 1925 moved to the New York Post, where his work on the rewrite desk earned him the sobriquet, "the all-American rewrite man". Then, after a period as the Associated Press city editor in New York, he joined the staff of The New York Times in 1934.