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Margaret Case Harriman
MARGARET CASE HARRIMAN (c.1906-1966) was an American author and the daughter of the owner of the Hotel Algonquin during the heyday of the Algonquin Round Table, Frank Case (1872-1946).
Born four y...view moreMARGARET CASE HARRIMAN (c.1906-1966) was an American author and the daughter of the owner of the Hotel Algonquin during the heyday of the Algonquin Round Table, Frank Case (1872-1946).
Born four years after her father began working at the Algonquin in 1902, the hotel became her childhood home. Her mother, Caroline Eckert Case, died in 1908 whilst giving birth to Margaret’s brother Carroll, and, as the Algonquin was a relatively small hotel with 250 beds, both children became close to the hotel guests, even after their father’s remarriage nine years later to Bertha Walden (nicknamed “Hebe”). Margaret came to view the hotel staff—who educated her, showed her how to roller-skate, brought her to school on some days, and taught her about their own culture—as additional family members. While the hotel hierarchy remained firmly established, her relationship with the employees created a strong and lasting impact on her life.
Influenced by the literary crowd of the hotel, Margaret became a writer, working for magazines such as Vanity Fair, The New Yorker and the Saturday Evening Post. She maintained close ties with the Algonquin Hotel, even after she moved into an apartment with her son, and in 1951, five years after her father’s death, she published the memoir The Vicious Circle: The Story of the Algonquin Round Table. She died in New York on August 7, 1966.view less