New York Columnist Lucius Beebe: A Real 'Dandy'

By: E&P Staff In his lifetime, journalist Lucius Beebe was expelled from Yale, name-checked in songs by Cole Porter, and made the cover of Life magazine. Despite this glowing resume, the name and work of Beebe -- most famous for his syndicated column, "This New York," written for the New York Herald Tribune -- has largely been lost to history.

Robert Sacheli, a columnist for Dandyism.net -- a Web site that has made a mission of reviving what it calls the "Brummellian concept of the dandy as social being, sportsman and urbane philosopher of life" -- has composed a three-part profile of Beebe, part one of which can be found here.

"Lucius Beebe was at one time one of the most famous men in America," Sacheli told E&P. "[His 'This New York' column] brought news of Caf? Society (a phenomenon largely of his own creation) to the American heartland. Charming, cantankerous, and a relentless 'peasant baiter,' Beebe was a journalistic personality unlike any other."