Lillian Ross

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 considered a primary influence on what would later be called New Journalism or literary journalism. She died months before her 100th birthday.

Ross was born Lillian Rosovsky in Syracuse, New York, in 1918. She was raised in Syracuse and Brooklyn, the youngest of three children of Louis and Edna (née Rosenson) Rosovsky. Her elder siblings were Helen and Simeon. During most of her career at The New Yorker she conducted an affair with its longtime editor William Shawn. Following the death of J. D. Salinger, she wrote in The New Yorker’s "The Talk of the Town" section of her long friendship with Salinger and showed photographs of him and his family with her family, including her adopted son, Erik (born 1965).

Ross died from a stroke in Manhattan on September 20, 2017, at the age of 99.