Maitland Edey
Maitland A. Edey (1910-1992) was an American writer and editor known for his significant contributions to nonfiction, particularly in the fields of science and evolution. Born in New York City, he graduated from Princeton University in 1932 and initially worked on Wall Street before pursuing a career in publishing. Edey married Helen Winthrop Kellogg, a physician, and they had four children. He published his first two books on ornithology in the early 1940s and later took a position at Life magazine, where he advanced to editor of the Speaking of Pictures section.
During World War II, Edey served in the U.S. Army Air Forces Intelligence and continued to write for Life. He later transitioned to freelance writing and, finding success in nonfiction, joined Time-Life Books in 1960. Edey's most notable works include "Lucy: The Beginnings of Humankind," coauthored with paleoanthropologist Donald C. Johanson, which explores human evolution through the discovery of a three-million-year-old skeleton. Edey's writing, characterized by its clarity, contributed to public understanding of complex scientific concepts and sparked discussions on evolution during the 1980s. He was also active in civic and cultural initiatives, serving as mayor of Upper Brookville and holding positions with various educational and scientific organizations. Edey passed away in 1992 due to a brain hemorrhage.
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Maitland Edey
Writer
- Born: February 13, 1910
- Birthplace: New York, New York
- Died: May 9, 1992
- Place of death: Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts
Biography
Maitland A. Edey was born on February 13, 1910, in New York City. His father, Alfred Edey, was a stockbroker, and his mother, Marion Armstrong Edey, was a writer. Edey graduated from Princeton University in 1932, and then worked for a year as a messenger on Wall Street, experiencing the world of his father’s career.
Wanting to become a writer, he began a career in the book publishing business. His first publishing jobs were low-level clerking positions, which he held at various firms between 1933 and 1941. In 1934 he married Helen Winthrop Kellogg, who later became a physician specializing in family planning and population issues. The couple settled in Upper Brookville, New York, and had four children: Maitland, Jr., Winthrop, Beatrice, and Marion.
Edey’s first two books, American Songbirds (1940) and American Waterbirds (1941), drew on his lifelong interest in ornithology. Edey took a job with Life magazine in 1941, writing short essays to accompany photographs for the magazine’s Speaking of Pictures section, and he eventually becoming editor of the section. During World War II he served in the U.S. Army Air Forces Intelligence department, earning the rank of major and receiving the Legion of Merit. He was able to continue his duties with Life during the war and worked his way up to increasingly important managerial positions. By 1955, he was an assistant managing editor, but he found the work gave him little chance to write.
From 1955 to 1960, he worked as a freelance writer, focusing on fiction. He wrote several short stories and novels, but none were published. Realizing his talents were not in writing fiction, he returned to writing nonfiction with a renewed determination to polish his skills. When Time-Life Books was established in 1960, Edey was hired as an editor, and he was eager to help the company bring clear explanations of science and technology to general readers. He wrote six books for Time-Life on evolution, exotic animals, and geography.
In 1972, he resigned his job at Time-Life and once again became a full-time writer. His most important book, Lucy: The Beginnings of Humankind (1981), continued his fascination with early humans and evolution. Coauthored with paleoanthropologist Donald C. Johanson, it told how Johanson discovered a three-million-year-old skeleton of a human ancestor in Africa. Edey and Johanson followed Lucy with Blueprints: Solving the Mystery of Evolution (1989).
Edey was involved in numerous civic and cultural organizations. He was a trustee and then mayor of Upper Brookville and a longtime director of the New York Philharmonic Symphony Society, and he served on the boards of various educational and scientific institutions. He died of a brain hemorrhage on May 9, 1992, in Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. During his career as a writer and editor, Edey valued clarity in writing above all other qualities, and his own writing is recognized for its clarity. Lucy won the American Book Award in Science in 1981 and was an important part of a lively controversy about evolution in the 1980’s.