George Jean Nathan
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George Jean Nathan (born February 14, 1882, Fort Wayne, Indiana - died April 8, 1958, New York, New York) was a U.S. drama critic and editor. Famous for the erudition and cynicism of his reviews, Nathan was an early champion of Eugene O'Neill. Together with H.L. Mencken he co-founded magazines Smart Set in 1914 and The American Mercury in 1924. He was also a founder and an editor (1932–35) of the American Spectator, and after 1943 he wrote a syndicated column for the New York Journal-American. His criticism appeared in the following: Mr. George Jean Nathan Presents (1917); The Critic and the Drama (1922); The Testament of a Critic (1931); Since Ibsen (1933); The World of George Jean Nathan, ed. by Charles Angoff (1952); and The Magic Mirror, edited by T. G. Curtiss (1960). Nathan's philosophy of criticism is laid out in Autobiography of an Attitude (1925).