Hammond, Percy

Hammond, Percy (1873–1936), critic. Born in Cadiz, Ohio, where he fell in love with the theatre at the age of thirteen after witnessing a tent show, Hammond began his newspaper career with small Ohio papers, eventually joining the Chicago Evening Post, where he became its drama critic. In 1908 he moved to the Chicago Tribune, then in 1921 became critic for the New York Tribune (later Herald Tribune), a position he held until his death. His criticism was sharp, and his style a curious, identifiable mixture of hominess and Latinate phrases. He opened one notice, “Well, as Grandfather would say, draw up your chair and let's talk about the Follies of 1917.” Later, reviewing Alexander Woollcott's acting debut, he wrote, “Observation of his billowy amplitudes suggests that the world might be a safer globe on which to live were the abdomens of its inhabitants more convex and less concave.” His best writings were anthologized in But—Is It Art? and This Atom in the Audience. After his death Franklin P. Adams and other writers published Percy Hammond: A Symposium in Tribute (1936).