Writer; born in Haverford, Pa. His family moved to Baltimore (1900), he graduated from Haverford College (1910), and he studied at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar (1910--13). He worked as a journalist in New York City for many years, and lived in Roslyn Heights, Long Island. He wrote many novels, essay collections, and poetry; his best-known novel is Kitty Foyle (1939). As an editor he is credited with promoting the works of Joseph Conrad and Sherwood Anderson, among others, and as a longtime judge for the Book-of-the-Month Club (1926--54) he influenced a generation of Americans' reading habits.