Cecil Inslee Dorrian was one of eighteen women whom the American Expeditionary Forces accredited as visiting war correspondents during World War I. ^{[1] [2]} She wrote about the war in France and England for the Newark Evening News, beginning in 1914, and her work often ran on the front page. ^[1] When Dorrian died, in 1926, a front-page article in the Newark Evening News claimed that she had been “the first accredited American woman war correspondent to reach the battlefront in France in 1918.” ^[3]

Cecil Inslee Dorrian
Born	(1882-09-20)September 20, 1882 New York, US
Died	August 18, 1926(1926-08-18) (aged 43) Baltimore, Maryland, US

Early life

Dorrian was born September 20, 1882, in Troy, New York, to Joseph and Marie Dorrian. ^{[4] [5]} Her father was a secretary to Edward Weston. ^[6] Dorrian attended Barnard College and graduated in 1905. ^[7] In the Barnard yearbooks Dorrian participates in activities from dance committee and theater, to basketball, journalism and pingpong. ^[7] In 1907 she accepted a job with the Ladies' Home Companion. ^[8] Sometime after this she worked as drama critic for the New York Tribune, also writing other pieces. ^{[9] [10]} From 1912 to 1914, Dorrian wrote for the New York Tribune as a theater critic and European representative of the Oscar Morosco Theater Company. ^[11]

War correspondent

Dorrian began writing for the Newark Evening News as a war correspondent in 1914. ^[11] She wrote about the war in France and England for the Newark Evening News, beginning in 1914, and her work often ran on the front page. ^[1] When Dorrian died, in 1926, a front-page article in the Newark Evening News noted that she had been “the first accredited American woman war correspondent to reach the battlefront in France in 1918.” ^[12] In October 1918, while she and two other women war correspondents were touring a battlefront with the Press Department of the Foreign Office, their guide was killed by a hand grenade. ^[13] She went to the front lines with the 78th Division sending the News "a firsthand account". ^[14]

Captain Arthur Hartzell wrote of Dorrian, "Miss..Dorian writes more intelligently about the operations of the Army than any other woman correspondent if one judges her writing from a military viewpoint”. ^[1] Her articles for the Newark News were often weekly and often on the front page . ^[15]

Playwright

Dorrian wrote the play "The Age of Reason -- a Divorce Problem Play for Modern Children" . ^[16] It ran on Broadway from 1915 to 1916 ^[17] and was published in Vanity Fair in July 1916. ^[16] It then played around the country with the Los Angeles Times calling it "a brilliant satire on divorce". ^[18]

Later work and death

Dorrian provided extensive international coverage for the Newark Evening News through the mid-1920s. ^[1] She died Aug 18, 1926 of pneumonia at a sanitorium near Baltimore, Md. with her mother by her side. ^{[14] [19]}

References