John Chipman Farrar (1896-1974), late of the New York publishing firm of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, attended Yale University where his poem "Portraits" was the Yale University Prize Poem in 1916. After serving during the First World War as an intelligence officer with the U.S. Air Service, Farrar returned to Yale and graduated in 1919. His first book "Forgotten Shrines" was published late that same year as the second volume of the Yale Series of Younger Poets, reprinted in 1971, over half a century later.
After graduation, Farrar turned to publishing and literary criticism, editing George H. Doran Company's periodical "The Bookman". Between 1927 and 1929, Farrar was editor at Doubleday, Doran and Company. In mid- 1929, he and two sons of the famous mystery writer Mary Robert Rinehart started the publishing firm if Farrar and Rinehart, Inc. His connection with that firm lasted until 1945, although he was absent during the war years assisting in U.S. government psychological war efforts. Farrar and Rinehart was later absorbed by Henry Holt.
As a young editor in New York, Farrar volunteered in 1922 for the organizing committee of an American chapter of PEN (originally Poets, Essayists and Novelists) founded in England the year before by Sappho (Amy Dawson Scott) to foster support of visiting foreign writers. PEN grew quickly to become an international advocate for freedom of expression and continues its activism to this day. (See http://www.pen.org)
After the Second World War, the American chapter of PEN foundered for lack of direction. Farrar, co-principal of the newly formed publishing house of Farrar, Straus and Company, now Farrar, Straus and Giroux, stepped in to refocus its energies and recruit dozens of new members. He served as president twice, once from 1951-1953 and again from 1963-1965.
In his roles as both and editor and a publisher, Farrar had a lasting impact on literature through the years. Farrar, Straus & Giroux has published many Nobel Laureates (20 as of 1995) and dozens of distinguished poets and authors. It is my privilege to reprint this etext of some of his own work for posterity.
—Stewart A. Levin