I.F. Stone

I. F. Stone was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Jewish Russian immigrants who owned a shop in Haddonfield, New Jersey; the journalist and film critic Judy Stone was his sister. Stone attended Haddonfield High School. He was ranked 49th in his graduating class of 52 students. 

His journalism career began in his second year of high school when he founded The Progress newspaper. He later worked for the Haddonfield Press and the Camden Courier Post. After dropping out of the University of Pennsylvania, where he had studied philosophy, Stone joined The Philadelphia Inquirer, then known as the "Republican Bible of Pennsylvania."

After advice from a newspaper editor in 1937, Stone changed his professional journalistic byline from Isidore Feinstein Stone to I. F. Stone; the editor had told him that his political reportage would be better received if he minimized his Jewish identity. Years later, Stone acknowledged being remorseful about having changed his professional name, thereby yielding to the systemic anti-Semitism then prevalent in American society. Personally, Stone spoke of himself as "Izzy" throughout his life and career.