Born in Kewanee, Illinois, Ellis also worked as a newspaper reporter in Chicago and New York City. Ellis began his diary in 1927 as a teenager and wrote for more than 70 years, nearly every day totaling a volume for each year.

He also authored books on the Great Depression and New York City, as well as a study of suicide. According to his book A Diary of the Century, his diaries were to go to the Fales Library at New York University after his death.

External links

• Salon: "The Man Who Wrote the Century" by Laura Johnston
• New York University's Fales Library and Special Collections Guide to the Edward Robb Ellis Papers