Joseph McCrindle was a literary agent, art collector, and philanthropist. He founded the Transatlantic Review in 1959, and created the Henfield Foundation which awards grants to arts, music, and social justice organizations in 1977.

The collection contains both personal and professional papers of Joseph McCrindle. The professional papers are centered on the records of his literary agency, while the personal papers include photographs, correspondence, and ephemera related to McCrindle and his family. See, http://findingaids.cul.columbia.edu/ead/nnc-rb/ldpd_10299614/summary%3E

McCrindle was born in 1923 to Odette Feder and J. Ronald McCrindle and raised primarily by his grandparents on the Upper East Side of New York. He attended St. Paul’s School in Manhattan before attending Harvard University where he earned his BA. He served in World War II as a translator and, after his service, attended Yale Law School where he received his JD in 1948.

McCrindle worked briefly in publishing and on Wall Street starting his own literary agency where he worked with authors such as John Updike, Philip Roth, and L.P. Hartley. In 1959 he founded The Transatlantic Review, a literary journal dedicated to publishing both American and British writers. The journal ceased publishing in 1977, and McCrindle remained editor for the entire life of the magazine.

McCrindle was also an enthusiastic and discerning art collector. He began collecting art and antiquarian books at a young age; over the course of his life amassed a large and impressive art collection with a special focus on old master drawings.

McCrindle’s lifelong interest in the arts is reflected by his establishment of the Henfield Foundation, now known as the Joseph McCrindle Foundation, a philanthropy dedicated to promoting arts, music, and social justice.