18 Facts About Jane Grant

Jane Grant was a New York City print journalist who co-founded the magazine The New Yorker with her first husband, Harold Ross.

Jane Grant was born Jeanette Cole Grant in Joplin, Missouri, and grew up and went to school in Girard, Kansas.

Jane Grant came to New York City at 16 to pursue singing, but fell into journalism when she joined the staff of The New York Times in the society department.

Jane Grant soon worked her way into the city room as a reporter and became close friends with the critic Alexander Woollcott.

Jane Grant joined the American Red Cross and entertained soldiers during shows in Paris and at camps.

In 1921, Jane Grant helped to form the Lucy Stone League, which was dedicated, in the manner of Lucy Stone, to helping women keep their maiden names after marriage, as Jane Grant did after her two marriages.

That year Jane Grant won the Census Bureau's agreement that a married woman could use her birth surname as her official or real name in the census.

Jane Grant was one of the founding members of the New York Newspaper Women's Club and served on its first board of directors after incorporation in 1924.

Jane Grant was chiefly a business and content consultant for the magazine and initially helped to gather investments towards starting the magazine.

Jane Grant brought her friend Janet Flanner into the magazine's coterie of correspondents, commissioning her enduring Letter from Paris column.

Jane Grant later produced a special overseas issue for the armed forces during World War II.

Ross and Jane Grant divorced in 1929 after nine years of marriage.

Jane Grant wrote Confession of a Feminist for American Mercury in 1943.

Jane Grant continued to be active in feminist causes, reactivating the Lucy Stone League and expanding its purpose.

Jane Grant continued to work for the rights of women into the 1960s, advocating for passage of the Equal Rights Amendment and serving on the National Council of Women.

Jane Grant was encouraged to do so by her second husband, William Harris, and ultimately dedicated the book to him.

Jane Grant died in 1972 on the Connecticut farm she shared with her husband.

Jane Grant was portrayed by the actress Martha Plimpton in the 1994 film Mrs Parker and the Vicious Circle.