John Mosher (writer)
{{Short description|American short story writer and film critic (1892–1942)}}
{{infobox person
| name = John Mosher
| birth_name = John Chapin Mosher
| birth_place = Ogdensburg, New York, United States
| birth_date = June 2, 1892
| death_place =New York City, New York, United States
| death_date = September 3, 1942 (aged 50)
| education = Williams College
| occupation = Short story writer, Film critic
| known_for = Works with The New Yorker
}}
John Chapin Mosher (June 2, 1892 – September 3, 1942) was an American short story writer as well as the first regularly assigned film critic for The New Yorker, a position he held from 1928 to 1942.
Life and career
Mosher was born in Ogdensburg, New York, and graduated from Williams College in Massachusetts in 1914.{{cite web |url=http://everyweek.unl.edu/view?docId=EveryWeeksEditorialStaff.html |title=Every Week's Editorial Staff |last1=Homestead |first1=Melissa |website=everyweek.unl.edu |publisher=University of Nebraska-Lincoln |access-date=November 23, 2014 }} Moving to New York City in 1915, he joined the editorial staff of the general interest magazine Every Week and became involved in the Greenwich Village theater community, writing the one-act comedy plays Sauce for the Emperor{{cite web |url=http://www.provincetownplayhouse.com/saucefortheemperor.html |title=Sauce for the Emperor by John Chapin Mosher |last1=Kennedy |first1=Jeff |date=2007 |website=Provincetown Playhouse |access-date=November 23, 2014 }} and Bored,{{cite web |url=http://www.provincetownplayhouse.com/bored.html |title=Bored by John Chapin Mosher |last1=Kennedy |first1=Jeff |date=2007 |website=Provincetown Playhouse |access-date=November 23, 2014 }} which were staged by the Provincetown Players in 1916–17. During the First World War Mosher served in the shell shock ward of a U.S. Medical Corps hospital in Portsmouth, England.Homestead, Meliissa J. "Edith Lewis as Editor, Every Week Magazine, and the Contexts of Cather's Fiction." Willa Cather: A Writer's Worlds. Ed. John J. Murphy, Françoise Palleau-Papin, and Robert Thacker. The Board of Regents of the University of Nebraska, 2010. 338. {{ISBN|0803230257}}.
After the war, Mosher traveled around Europe and wrote various freelance articles for magazines before becoming an English instructor at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. In 1926 he joined the staff of The New Yorker, initially contributing short stories. In the earliest historical chronicle of the magazine published in 1951, Mosher was credited as "a pioneer of the New Yorker short story."{{cite book |last=Lee |first=Judith Yaross |date=2000 |title=Defining New Yorker Humor |url=https://archive.org/details/definingnewyorke00leej|url-access=registration |publisher=University Press of Mississippi |page=[https://archive.org/details/definingnewyorke00leej/page/275 275] |isbn=1-57806-198-9 }} He became the magazine's resident film critic starting with the September 22, 1928 issue. According to The New York Times, Mosher's writings "had a personal note and were noteworthy for their humor and bristling style", while The New Yorker stated he "wrote with restraint and was never dull."{{cite magazine |author= |title=John Mosher |magazine=The New Yorker |location=New York |publisher=F-R Publishing Corporation |date=September 12, 1942 |page=72 }} In addition to writing, Mosher read the magazine's unsolicited manuscripts.
In 1940, a compilation of Mosher's New Yorker fiction was published in a book titled Celibate at Twilight and Other Stories. A number of these stories, featuring a wealthy, middle-aged bachelor named Mr. Opal, capture 1930s community life on Fire Island, where Mosher was among the earliest gay property owners in Cherry Grove.Bergman, David. "Beauty and the Beach: Representing Fire Island." Public Sex/Gay Space. Ed. William L. Leap. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999. 102-103. {{ISBN|0-231-10691-2}}. Mosher's final New Yorker column ran in the June 20, 1942 issue; he died less than three months later in New York City of heart disease at the age of 50. The magazine eulogized him as "witty, perceptive, and influenced by a deep and tolerant knowledge of the world" and "one of the most delightful companions we have ever known."
References
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Category:American film critics
Category:20th-century American short story writers
Category:The New Yorker critics
Category:The New Yorker people
Category:American male short story writers
Category:American male non-fiction writers