birth_date: 1895-12-15 00:00:00
avg_rating: 3.88
name: Ishbel Ross
about: Ishbel Ross, journalist and biographer, spent her childhood in the Highlands of Scotland, living only ten miles from industrialist Andrew Carnegie's castle. Later in life she recalled her childhood in terms of watching the comings and goings of Carnegie's famous guests and reading classic literature.In 1916, Ross left Scotland and moved to Canada where she landed a filing job at the Toronto Daily News. Ross, who would later be considered "New York's best woman reporter," needed no more than six weeks to move up the newspaper's ranks from clerical worker to reporter with a front-page headline and a byline to her credit, after getting the scoop on Emmeline Pankhurst's visit to Canada.In 1919, she joined the New York Tribune (later the Herald Ishbel Ross, journalist and biographer, spent her childhood in the Highlands of Scotland, living only ten miles from industrialist Andrew Carnegie's castle. Later in life she recalled her childhood in terms of watching the comings and goings of Carnegie's famous guests and reading classic literature.In 1916, Ross left Scotland and moved to Canada where she landed a filing job at the Toronto Daily News. Ross, who would later be considered "New York's best woman reporter," needed no more than six weeks to move up the newspaper's ranks from clerical worker to reporter with a front-page headline and a byline to her credit, after getting the scoop on Emmeline Pankhurst's visit to Canada.In 1919, she joined the New York Tribune (later the Herald Tribune). While covering the infamous Stillman divorce, she met and fell in love with Bruce Rae, who was reporting on the case for the New York Times. The two married in Montreal in 1922 and had one daughter. After their marriage Ross and Rae continued working for rival newspapers and frequently covered the same stories. The couple made a point of balancing high professional standards and married life. In 1932 Ross published her first novel, Promenade Deck. Encouraged by its success, Ross left the Tribune to pursue a career as a novelist. Although Ross wrote four more novels, her work as a biographer ultimately overshadowed her career as a novelist. Ross first turned to biography when Stanley Walker, city editor at the Tribune, suggested that she write a book about famous women journalists. Her Ladies of the Press traced women's roles in print journalism, covering the range from stunt reporters and "sob sisters" to social crusaders, foreign correspondents, and editors in chief.Ross went on to complete eighteen more works of nonfiction, most of which considered the lives of famous American women. Ross was drawn to women who led unconventional lives. She wrote about women who had exciting careers, such as physician Elizabeth Blackwell; the founder of the American Red Cross, Clara Barton; and Confederate spy Rose O'Neal Greenhow. Ross emphasized the importance and complexity of women's lives. By achieving success as a journalistand biographer, by balancing marriage and professional ambition, Ross herself led a life much like those she deemed worthy of study.- excerpted from American National Biography, referenced at: http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrows... ...more
death_date: 1975-09-21 00:00:00