Introduction
Lillian Ross (June 8, 1918 – September 20, 2017) was an American journalist and author, who was a staff writer at The New Yorker for seven decades, beginning in 1945. Her novelistic reporting and writing style, shown in early stories about Ernest Hemingway and John Huston, are widely understood as a primary influence on what would later be called "literary journalism" or "new journalism."
Biography
Ross was born Lillian Rosovsky in Syracuse, New York, in 1918 and raised, partly in Syracuse and partly in Brooklyn, the youngest of three children of Louis and Edna (née Rosenson) Rosovsky. Her elder siblings were Helen and Simeon. Much of her life was spent with New York journalist/editor William Shawn. In The Talk of the Town, following the death of J. D. Salinger, she wrote of her long friendship with Salinger and showed photographs of him and his family with her family, including her adopted son, Erik (born 1965).
Death
Ross died from a stroke in Manhattan on September 20, 2017, at the age of 99.