Harold Latham
{{Infobox person
| name = Harold Latham
| birth_name = Harold Strong Latham
| birth_date = {{birth date|1887|02|14}}
| birth_place = Marlborough, Connecticut
| death_date = {{death date and age|1969|03|06|1887|02|14}}
| death_place = Arlington, New Jersey
| education = Columbia University (BA)
| occupation = Editor, publishing executive
| title = Editor-in-chief of Macmillan Inc.
}}
{{Short description|American editor}}
Harold Strong Latham (February 14, 1887 – March 6, 1969) was an American editor and publishing executive. He was editor-in-chief of Macmillan Inc., where he discovered and edited the works of notable writers including Margaret Mitchell and James Michener.{{Cite news |date=1969-03-08 |title=HAROLD LATHAM,, PUBLISHER, DEAD; Chief Editor for Macmillan 'Found' Margaret Mitchell |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1969/03/08/archives/harold-latham-publisher-dead-chief-editor-for-macmillan-found.html |access-date=2022-07-29 |issn=0362-4331}}
Biography
Latham was born on February 14, 1887, in Marlborough, Connecticut. He graduated from Columbia in 1909 and joined Macmillan Publishers.{{Cite book |last1=Columbia College (Columbia University). Office of Alumni Affairs and Development |url=http://archive.org/details/ldpd_12981092_002 |title=Columbia College today |last2=Columbia College (Columbia University) |date=1955 |publisher=New York, N.Y. : Columbia College, Office of Alumni Affairs and Development |others=Columbia University Libraries}} He began his career in the advertising department and joined the editorial department that year. He wrote short stories, teenage novels, and plays.{{Cite book |last=Dyer |first=Annie Robertson |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=X_o1AQAAIAAJ&dq=Harold+S.+Latham+%22editor-in-chief%22&pg=PA50 |title=Guide to Literature of Home and Family Life: A Classified Bibliography for Home Economics |date=1924 |publisher=J. B. Lippincott Company |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=Latham, Harold Strong, 1887- {{!}} The Online Books Page |url=https://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/lookupname?key=Latham,%20Harold%20Strong,%201887- |access-date=2022-07-29 |website=onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu}}
Latham was promoted to vice president of the company in 1931 and retired in 1953 as editor-in-chief of the company. Latham was most known for discovering Margaret Mitchell on a 1935 trip to Atlanta for scouting potential authors. He edited the first version of Gone with the Wind, which became an instant bestseller and one of the most celebrated American novels.{{Cite web |date=1989-12-24 |title=A PRICELESS STORY WAS ALMOST GONE WITH THE WIND DUE TO MITCHELL'S MODESTY |url=https://www.deseret.com/1989/12/24/18838317/a-priceless-story-was-almost-gone-with-the-wind-due-to-mitchell-s-modesty |access-date=2022-07-29 |website=Deseret News |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN AFTER 50 YEARS, 'GWTW' IS A CHAPTER OF HISTORY |url=https://www.mcall.com/news/mc-xpm-1986-07-17-2542390-story.html |access-date=2022-07-29 |website=The Morning Call|date=17 July 1986 }} Mitchell credited Latham not only for her personal success but also for pursuing the work of other Southern authors,{{Cite news |date=1933-03-09 |title=Book Brevities. |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1933/03/09/archives/book-brevities.html |access-date=2022-07-29 |issn=0362-4331}} helping to redefine the South in American popular culture.{{Cite book |last=Cox |first=Karen L. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZHUlnCCmXZsC&dq=Harold+S.+Latham+%22editor-in-chief%22&pg=PA127 |title=Dreaming of Dixie: How the South Was Created in American Popular Culture |date=2011-05-15 |publisher=UNC Press Books |isbn=978-0-8078-7778-4 |language=en}}
While an editor at Macmillan, Latham introduced and edited authors such as Edwin Arlington Robinson,{{Cite book |last1=Frost |first1=Robert Lee |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y3_GxPnBbI4C&dq=Harold+Latham+%22macmillan%22&pg=PA283 |title=The Collected Prose of Robert Frost |last2=Frost |first2=Robert |date=2007 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-02463-2 |language=en}} Richard Llewellyn, Phyllis Bentley, Mary Ellen Chase, Rachel Field, Agnes Sligh Turnbull, Ernest Poole, Immanuel Velikovsky, and James A. Michener.{{Cite book |last=Immanuel Velikovsky |url=http://archive.org/details/vlkvsky |title=Immanuel Velikovsky books - Worlds in Collision (1950), Earth in Upheaval (1955), Stargazers and Gravediggers (1983)}}{{Cite web |title=1945-08-07 Letter from Harold Latham to James A. Michener {{!}} UNC Digital Archives |url=https://digarch.unco.edu/islandora/object/cogru:8277#page/1/mode/2up |access-date=2022-07-29 |website=digarch.unco.edu}}
From 1947 to 1951, Latham also served as president of the Universalist Church of America and president of its publishing house from 1950 to 1952.{{Cite news |date=1947-09-14 |title=TRAINING OPPOSED BY UNIVERSALISTS; Church's General Assembly Elects Harold S. Latham as 5-Day Convention Ends |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1947/09/14/archives/training-opposed-by-universalists-churchs-general-assembly-elects.html |access-date=2022-07-29 |issn=0362-4331}}
Latham died in Arlington, New Jersey, on March 6, 1969.