Robert Emmett Ginna Jr

Last updated

Robert Emmett Ginna Jr. (b. 1925) is a retired magazine reporter and editor, a film producer and screenwriter, and a Harvard faculty member. He co-founded People magazine, served as its first editor, and later was Editor-in-Chief of Little Brown.

Contents

Early life

Ginna was born to Robert Emmett Ginna, a Rochester Gas and Electric executive, and his wife, the former Margaret McCall, both descended from Irish immigrants. [1] [2] [3] Ginna and his father were named for Robert Emmett, an Irish revolutionary who was executed by British authorities in 1803. [3] After an admission to Harvard College, Ginna enlisted in the Navy at age 17, serving in the Pacific during World War Two. [3] He graduated from the University of Rochester in 1948, [4] and went on to get a Master's in Art History from Harvard University. [3]

Career

In his early career, Ginna worked as a reporter and editor for Horizon , Life , and Scientific American . [2] His article "Have We Visitors From Space?" appeared in the April 7, 1952 edition of Life magazine. [5] In 1955, Ginna interviewed Sean O'Casey for NBC television; A decade later, Ginna would produce a film about O'Casey. [6] [7] In 1960, Ginna interviewed filmmaker Stanley Kubrick for Horizon. [8] [9]

In February 1962, Ginnna authored "Life in the Afternoon", an essay about meeting Ernest Hemingway in 1958 Cuba. [10] [11]

During the 1960s, Ginna was a screeenwriter and film producer. Ginna worked with famous filmmaker John Ford on the film Young Cassidy, but Ford had to be replaced mid-shoot. [12] [13]

In 1974, Ginna co-founded People magazine and served as its first Editor-in-Chief. [14] From 1977 to 1980, Ginna was the Editor-in-Chief of Little Brown Publishing  ; In that role, he was influential in writer James Salter's switch from screenplays to novels. [15]

From 1988 to 2002, Ginna served on the faculty of Harvard University, teaching writing and filmmaking. In 2003, Ginna authored The Irish Way: A Walk Through Ireland's Past and Present. [16] [17]

In 2006, Ginna was profiled for his role in creating an academic press at New England College. [18]

Selected works

Filmography

Producer

Screenplays

Personal life

Ginna married Margaret Williams; The pair had two children. She died in 2004. [25] In 2017, their son dedicated his book What Editors Do to his parents. [26] After his wife's death, Ginna was the companion of journalist Gail Sheehy, who died in 2020 at the age of 83. [27]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ernest Hemingway</span> American author and journalist (1899–1961)

Ernest Miller Hemingway was an American novelist, short-story writer and journalist. Known for an economical, understated style that influenced later 20th-century writers, he has been romanticized for his adventurous lifestyle and outspoken, blunt public image. Some of his seven novels, six short-story collections and two non-fiction works have become classics of American literature, and he was awarded the 1954 Nobel Prize in Literature.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ford Madox Ford</span> English writer and publisher (1873–1939)

Ford Madox Ford was an English novelist, poet, critic and editor whose journals The English Review and The Transatlantic Review were important in the development of early 20th-century English and American literature.

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1924.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Seán O'Casey</span> Irish dramatist and memoirist

Seán O'Casey was an Irish dramatist and memoirist. A committed socialist, he was the first Irish playwright of note to write about the Dublin working classes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coddle</span> Irish stew with no fixed recipe, built around boiled sausages

Coddle is an Irish dish which is often made to use up leftovers. It most commonly consists of layers of roughly sliced pork sausages and rashers with chunky potatoes, sliced onion, salt, pepper, and herbs. Traditionally, it can also include barley.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">R. E. Ginna Nuclear Power Plant</span> Nuclear power plant located in Ontario, Wayne County, New York

The Robert Emmett Ginna Nuclear Power Plant, commonly known as Ginna, is a nuclear power plant located on the southern shore of Lake Ontario, in the town of Ontario, Wayne County, New York, United States, approximately 20 miles (32 km) east of Rochester, New York. It is a single unit Westinghouse 2-Loop pressurized water reactor, similar to those at Point Beach, Kewaunee, and Prairie Island. Having gone into commercial operation in 1970, Ginna became the second oldest nuclear power reactor, after Nine Mile unit 1, still in operation in the United States when the Oyster Creek power plant was permanently shut down on September 17, 2018.

Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature.

Joanna Scott is an American novelist, short story writer, and essayist. Her award-winning fiction is known for its wide-ranging subject matter and its incorporation of historical figures into imagined narratives.

Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature.

Red Roses for Me is a four-act play written by Irish playwright Seán O'Casey which premiered at the Olympia Theatre in Dublin in 1943. The story is set against the backdrop of the Dublin Lockout of 1913, events in which O'Casey himself had participated.

Bernard Benstock was a literary critic and professor of English at the University of Miami and an authority on British mystery writers and Irish writers Seán O'Casey and James Joyce.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Herbers</span> American journalist

John N. Herbers was an American journalist, author, editor, World War II veteran, and Pulitzer Prize finalist.

Thomas Woods was an Irish writer and diplomat.

Gene D. Phillips, S.J. was an American author, educator, and Catholic priest.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary Beth Keane</span> American writer of Irish parentage (born 1979)

Mary Beth Keane is an American writer of Irish parentage. She is the author of The Walking People (2009),Fever (2013),Ask Again, Yes (2019), and The Half Moon (2023). In 2011 she was named one of the National Book Foundation's "5 under 35," and in 2015 she was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship for Fiction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emmett Jay Scott</span> American political advisor

Emmett Jay Scott was an African American journalist, newspaper editor, academic, and government official who was Booker T. Washington's closest advisor at the Tuskegee Institute. He was responsible for maintaining Washington's nationwide "Tuskegee machine," with its close links to black business leadership, white philanthropists, and Republican politicians from the local level to the White House.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edmund Keating Hyland</span> Musical artist

Edmund Keating Hyland was an Irish uilleann piper of the early 19th century.

Temple B'nai Israel is a Reform Jewish congregation and synagogue, located at 1301 Marshall Street, in Tupelo, Lee County, Mississippi, in the United States. The congregation was established in 1939.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tom de Paor</span> Irish architect (born 1967)

Tomás "Tom" de PaorFRIAI Int FRIBA is an Irish architect and member of Aosdána.

<i>A Sense of Loss</i> (film) 1972 documentary film directed by Marcel Ophüls

A Sense of Loss is a 1972 documentary film directed and produced by Marcel Ophüls on The Troubles in Northern Ireland.

References

  1. Salpukas, Agis (May 26, 2015). "Robert Ginna, 94, a Champion of Nuclear Power - NYTimes.com". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 2015-05-26.
  2. 1 2 Keppen, Julie (October 4, 2004). Contemporary Authors. Cengage Gale. ISBN   978-0-7876-6706-1 via Google Books.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "Rochester • University of Rochester". www.rochester.edu.
  4. http://www.lib.rochester.edu/IN/RBSCP/University-History/ATTACHMENTS/Commencement/1948.pdf
  5. Bullard, Thomas E. (October 17, 2016). The Myth and Mystery of UFOs. University Press of Kansas. ISBN   978-0-7006-2338-9 via Google Books.
  6. O'Casey, Sean (1974). The Sting and the Twinkle: Conversations with Sean O'Casey. Barnes & Noble Books. ISBN   978-0-06-494818-0.
  7. Nelson, James (February 4, 1958). "Wisdom: Conversations with the Elder Wise Men of Our Day". Norton via Google Books.
  8. Duncan, Paul (February 4, 2003). Stanley Kubrick: Visual Poet, 1928-1999. Taschen. ISBN   978-3-8228-1592-2 via Google Books.
  9. "Stanley Kubrick speaks for himself". EW.com.
  10. Canada, Mark (April 3, 2013). Literature and Journalism: Inspirations, Intersections, and Inventions from Ben Franklin to Stephen Colbert. Springer. ISBN   978-1-137-32930-1 via Google Books.
  11. Buchholtz, Mirosława; Guttfeld, Dorota (July 21, 2022). Ernest Hemingway in Interview and Translation. Springer Nature. ISBN   978-3-031-07230-7 via Google Books.
  12. McBride, Joseph (February 11, 2011). Searching for John Ford. Univ. Press of Mississippi. ISBN   978-1-4968-0056-5 via Google Books.
  13. Grant, Barry Keith (February 4, 2003). John Ford's Stagecoach. Cambridge University Press. ISBN   978-0-521-79743-6 via Google Books.
  14. Salter, James (November 1, 2017). Don't Save Anything: Uncollected Essays, Articles, and Profiles. Catapult. ISBN   978-1-64009-001-9 via Google Books.
  15. Levasseur, Jennifer; Rabalais, Kevin (November 23, 2015). Conversations with James Salter. Univ. Press of Mississippi. ISBN   978-1-4968-0358-0 via Google Books.
  16. "Robert Emmett Ginna". October 2, 2015.
  17. 1 2 Ginna, Robert Emmett (February 4, 2003). The Irish Way: A Walk Through Ireland's Past and Present. Random House. ISBN   978-0-375-50430-3 via Google Books.
  18. "Concord Monitor 16 Apr 2006, page 39". Newspapers.com.
  19. "Esquire". 1962 via books.google.com.
  20. GINNA, ROBERT EMMETT (2002). "In Search of "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre"". The American Scholar. 71 (4): 75–89. JSTOR   41213368 via JSTOR.
  21. https://books.google.com/books?id=jgsEAAAAYAA
  22. Reid, John Howard (March 2006). America's Best, Britain's Finest. Lulu.com. ISBN   978-1-4116-7877-4 via books.google.com.
  23. Chibnall, Steve (15 June 2021). J. Lee Thompson. Manchester University Press. ISBN   978-1-5261-6286-1.
  24. Pitts, Michael R. (4 January 2013). Western Movies. McFarland. ISBN   978-0-7864-6372-5 via books.google.com.
  25. "Deaths GINNA, MARGARET WILLIAMS - NYTimes.com". The New York Times. May 16, 2004. Archived from the original on 2015-05-28.
  26. Ginna, Peter (October 6, 2017). What Editors Do: The Art, Craft, and Business of Book Editing. University of Chicago Press. ISBN   978-0-226-29997-6 via Google Books.
  27. Seelye, Katharine Q. (August 25, 2020). "Gail Sheehy, Journalist, Author and Social Observer, Dies at 83". The New York Times via NYTimes.com.