He began his journalistic career at the
Washington Herald before moving to New York City. While working at the
New York Herald Tribune, he was described by
Stanley Walker as "one of the twelve best reporters in New York."
The New Yorker McKelway came to
The New Yorker at the behest of
Harold Ross who "was looking to infuse the magazine with a jolt of gritty reportage." While editor he hired
E. J. Kahn Jr.,
Joseph Mitchell,
Brendan Gill,
Philip Hamburger and
Margaret Case Harriman. According to
William Shawn, McKelway "was one of the handful of people who, together with
Harold Ross,
The New Yorkers founding editor, set the magazine on its course." St. Clair McKelway also wrote screenplays for two other movies in 1948:
Sleep, My Love, directed by
Douglas Sirk, and
The Mating of Millie, starring
Glenn Ford and
Evelyn Keyes. He published the book
The Edinburgh Caper: A One-Man International Plot, based on a
New Yorker article, in 1962. In 2010, Bloomsbury USA published a paperback-original collection of 18 of McKelway's works, ''Reporting at Wit's End: Tales from the New Yorker
(), with an appreciative introduction by Adam Gopnik of The New Yorker.'' ==Personal life==