Double Ambition

"I have always had two ambitions," says Frederick Lewis Allen, "to edit and to write." He achieved both of them. A staffer on Harper's Magazine for 30 years, Allen has been its top editor for the last 11. He has also turned out dozens of articles and found time to write such well-known books as Only Yesterday, The Great Pierpont Morgan, and The Big Change. Last week, at 62, Writer-Editor Allen's second ambition triumphed over his first. He announced his resignation as editor of Harper's Magazine (although he will continue as an adviser and board member) to devote more time to writing.

Into his chair next fall as the seventh editor of 103-year-old Harper's Magazine will go John Fischer, 42, general book editor for Harper & Bros, and a contributing editor of the magazine. Scholarly, able Jack Fischer, born in Oklahoma, is a graduate of the University of Oklahoma and was a Rhodes scholar (1933-35). He started out as a reporter on the Amarillo (Texas) News-Globe, became a correspondent for the United Press and Associated Press in Europe and in Washington. During World War II Fischer worked for the Board of Economic Warfare, later joined the Foreign Economic Administration. At Harper's since 1944, he has written magazine articles on politics and economics and is the author of Why They Behave Like Russians and Master Plan, U.S.A. Said retiring Editor Allen: "He is the logical man for the job. Harper's is primarily a magazine of political and international affairs; Jack Fischer is a very good man in those fields."

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