Childhood and Early Life
Gilbert Seldes was born on January 3, 1893, in Alliance, New Jersey, and attended a small elementary school in the three hundred home farm community. The son of Russian parents, Gilbert's mother died in 1896 when Gilbert and his older brother, famed war correspondent and journalist George Seldes, were still young Gilbert's father, George Sergius Seldes, a strongly opinionated and radically philosophical man, impacted every aspect of his young sons' lives. The elder George pushed his sons to "read books that you will reread—and that you will never outgrow," and refused to force religion upon children who were "too young to understand it," instilling a free-thinking attitude within his sons.
Seldes attended Philadelphia's Central High School and then enrolled in Harvard, concentrating on English Studies and graduating in 1914 During this time, he was a self-confessed 'cultural elitist'. It was here that Seldes met and befriended both Scofield Thayer and James Sibley Watson, Jr. along with E.E. Cummings, Harold Stearns, and John Dos Passos. Upon graduation Seldes joined his brother as a war journalist from 1916–1917, eventually being promoted to Sergeant George Santanaya's and William James' ideas also influenced him greatly during this time.
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