Alexander Woollcott believed there was merit in a journalist using every available medium to further his career, and he proved his point by excelling as a reporter, drama critic, founder of the Algonquin Round Table, actor, playwright, world traveler, author, witty speaker, brilliant conversationalist, and radio's "Town Crier." But although Woollcott wrote more than fifteen books, compiled anthologies, wrote hundreds of magazine articles, appeared on radio programs, and covered opening nights of plays for fourteen years, he is most remembered not for his achievements but for his personality.

Woollcott began his journalism career as a fifteen-dollar-a-week reporter for the New York Times. In time, he was credited with "discovering" Katharine Cornell, Ruth Gordon, Lynn Fontanne, Alfred Lunt, Paul Robeson, and Fred and Adele Astaire. Comic W. C. Fields juggled for a living when Woollcott first wrote about him. Will Rogers was a comedian but Woollcott encouraged him to...