Frank Sullivan
Journalist, Humorist, Author, "Sage of Saratoga"
Francis John Sullivan was born in Saratoga Springs on September 22, 1892, to Irish immigrant parents. As a child he worked as a pump boy serving spring water at the race track, meeting turn-of-the-century luminaries like Diamond Jim Brady and Lillian Russell. He attended Saratoga Springs High School, working part-time for The Saratogian newspaper. His talent blossomed early, earning him a scholarship to Cornell University, where he graduated in 1914.
Frank returned to Saratoga Springs and worked for the newspaper again until he was drafted in 1917. After two years as a 2nd Lt. in the Infantry, he moved to New York City, ultimately ending up as a reporter and feature writer for the New York World, becoming a columnist in 1924.
As a humorist, Frank was known for his gentle touch and for the collection of fictitious characters he created to give voice to his observations on life: Aunt Sally Gallup, Martha Hepplethwaite, and Mr. Arbuthnot, the cliché expert. Frank wrote his column until the World closed down in 1931, but he had also been writing humor articles for The New Yorker since 1926 and continued to do so until the 1950s. He also contributed to Harper's, Atlantic Monthly, the Saturday Evening Post, Good Housekeeping, Vanity Fair and other magazines.
His 12 books include Broccoli and Old Lace and A Pearl in Every Oyster. He often wrote fondly of Saratoga Springs. A critic described Frank as “the master of undersimplification — he could take the clearest and most obvious commonplace and reduce it to its ultimate complexity.”