Edward Streeter was born August 1, 1981 to Harvey and Frances "Fanny" Chamberlain in a small town hidden in the Adirondacks called Chestertown , New York. He was brought up in Buffalo, New York. As he was fascinated by his parents' home library, he was encouraged to read and write at a very young age. By age nine, he had started his first novel, but that ended soon after, as his interests wandered to being the editor of the Pomfret School newspaper and his class yearbook. When he studied at Harvard, he was the editor-in-chief for the Lampoon and wrote the Hasty Pudding Show. He received his A.B. in 1914.
For the two years after his graduation, he worked in Buffalo for a building supplies business and received his first introduction into journalism as he became a reporter for the Buffalo Express. He did his own investigational work, using his own car, given to him by his parents as a graduation gift. Here, he worked until 1916 when he was serving on the Mexican border in the National Guard, (Troop 1, First Calvary, Twenty-seventh Division). He continued correspondence with the Buffalo Express until he took over the Twenty-seventh Division's local paper, The Rio Grande Rattler, where his first "Dere Mable" letters appeared.
The "Dere Mable" letters were satirically written satirizing Army life with letters from "Private Bill Smith" to his sweetheart "Mable Gimp". As World War I began to form, he was transferred to Camp Wadsworth in Spartanburg, South Carolina for active duty. Here, he continued writing his "Dere Mable" letters. They were published by William Morrow at Frederick A. Stokes and Company. In 1918, Dere Mable had become a best-seller, having sold over 600,000 copies. Edward found out after he returned home from serving in France as first lieutenant in his field artillery.
Returning to Buffalo in 1919, Edward did some freelance writing until he joined the Bankers Trust Company of New York. From 1921-1929 he was the assistant vice-president. He married Charlotte Lockwood Warren (of Buffalo) on October 29, 1919. They had four children: Claire, Edward, William, and Charlotte.
From 1929-1930 he was a partner with Blake Brothers as members of the New York Stock Exchange. From 1931 until he retires in August 1956, he served as vice-president of the Fifth Avenue Bank, which became the Bank of New York in 1948. During the thirties, he had published some short storied in the Saturday Evening Post, Redbook, McCall's and Good Housekeeping. In 1938, he wrote in Daily Except Sundays where his reputation as a humorist became known, but the journal had no success for ten years.
It wasn't until 1948, with the sale of his masterpiece Father of the Bride, that Edward was most recognized for his success as an author. He based his "urban satire" on his own daughter's wedding in 1947, including the emotional, financial and familial details of being the "father of the bride". His novel made the Book-of -the-Month Club and was on the Publisher's Weekly "Bestsellers" list for three months. It later became a successful movie starring Elizabeth Taylor and Spencer Tracy in 1950.
Edward retired from banking in 1956 at the age of sixty-five. He continued writing, however, and completed three novels: Mr. Robbins Rides Again (1958), Chairman of the Bored (1961) which was a narrative about retirement, and Ham Martin, Class of '17(1961) about a father who supports his family as an eminent financier while attempting to be a creative-writer, only to see his literary success befall on his son. Chairman of the Bored received good reviews, and Ham?won an accolade from the Wall Street Journal. None of these three books, however, received him the fame of his previous novel.
Streeter contributed to travel literature with Skoal Scandinavia (1952) and Along the Ridge (1964). Streeter secured his position as an American Humorist and a "socially prominent New Yorker". He was a member in the Century Association, the Harvard Club, the Coffee House Club, and the Union Club. From 1965 to 1971, he served on Harvard College's board of overseers. He was described as "a gracious, charming man with a tremendous zest for life". His last residence was Sutton Place, New York where he died on March 31, 1976.
Edward Streeter's other works:
Dere Mable: Love Letters of a Rookie (New York: Stokes, 1918: London: Jarrolds,
1919);
"That's me all over, Mable" (New York : Stokes, 1919; London: Jarrolds, 1919);
Same Ole Bill, Eh, Mable (New York: Stokes, 1919; London: Jarrolds, 1919);
As You Were, Bill (New York: Stokes, 1920);
Beany, Gangleshanks and the Tub (New York and London: Putnam's, 1921);
Daily Except Sundays or, What every Commuter Should Know (New York: Simon and
Schuster, 1938);
Father of the Bride (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1949);
Skoal Scandinavia (New York: Harper, 1952; London: Hamish Hamilton, 1952);
Mr. Hobb's Vacation (New York: Harper, 1954);
Merry Christmas, Mr. Baxter [novel] (New York: Harper, 1956);
Merry Christmas. Mr. Baxter, a comedy in two acts [play], by Streeter and William
Fuson Davidson (Chicago: Dramatist Publishing Company, 1956);
Mr. Robbins Rides Again (New York: Harper, 1958);
Window on America: The Growth of a Nation as seen by New York's First Bank, 1784-
1959 (New York: The Bank of New York, 1959);
Chairman of the Bored (New York: Harper and Row, 1961);
Words of Welcome; an address at the dinner for new members of the Century Associa-
tion, October 5, 1961 (Stamford, Conn.: Overbrook Press, 1962);
Mr. Hobbs' Vacation, by Streeter and F, Andrew Leslie (New York: Dramatists Play
Service, 1963);
Along the Ridge: From Northwest Spain to Southern Yugoslavia (New York, Evanston
& London: Harper and Row, 1964);
Ham Martin, Class of '17 (New York: Harper & Row, 1969).