Amy Loveman, as described in the reminiscences of her friends, was optimistic without being foolish, incisive without being unkind, hardworking without being self-righteous, and the embodiment of unfailing integrity. As one of the founding editors of the Saturday Review of Literature and an important member of the Book-of-the-Month Club staff, Loveman applied those extraordinary personal qualities to her lifelong work of evaluating literature. Harry Scherman, the originator of Book-of-the-Month Club, once explained that she rarely read fewer than thirty books a month, and the books she read were placed in a context that was extraordinarily broad, balanced, realistic, and generous.

Miriam Michelson began her writing career as a journalist, “interviewing a murderer one week and Paderewski the next” and “writing dramatic criticism of a very fearless and truth-telling sort,” according to a 1904 biographical note in Current Literature.