When editors were gods

On this day...

... in 1967, Henry Luce, co-founder of Time magazine and longtime poo-bah of the Time-Life publishing empire, died in Phoenix at age 68.

Wishful thinking?

On February 27, 1939 Fortune magazine published a survey-based article that concluded, "it appears practically impossible for [President Franklin D.] Roosevelt to be re-elected in 1940." Roosevelt ultimately defeated his Republican opponent, Wendell Willkie, with 54.7 percent of the popular vote and 449 electoral votes to Willkie's 82.

On this day...

... in 2005, Henry Grunwald, longtime managing editor of Time magazine and editor-in-chief of Time Inc., died at age 82. His autobiography is "One Man's America" (Doubleday, 1997).

Quote

"We try to edit Playboy with the adult directness of a good foreign film, the spice and fun of a Broadway show." — Hugh M. Hefner, editor, publisher, and philosopher, 1962.

On this day...

... in 1948, Will Irwin, a journalist billed as, among other things, "the world's greatest reporter," died at age 74. Irwin served as an editor for Collier's Weekly, McClure's, and other major magazines of his day. 

Also on this day, in 1990, Malcolm Forbes, flamboyant publisher and nominal editor in chief of Forbes magazine, died at age 70.  

Quotes

"I make a conscious effort to retain the friendship of the people we try to serve." — Ben Hibbs, editor of The Saturday Evening Post from 1942 to 1962.

On this day...

... in 1968, Harley (H. W.) Magee, a longtime editor of Popular Mechanics magazine, died at age 71.

On this day...

... in 1925, the first issue of The New Yorker appeared.

Quote

"Have you ever heard of anyone—that is, any stranger, say a distinguished French or British visitor—going out to a graveyard to put a tin wreath on the grave of a magazine editor? Who knows, indeed, where the editor of Godey's Lady's Book is buried?" — George Jean Nathan, co-editor with H.L. Mencken, of The Smart Set, 1921.

On this day...

... in 1898, Edward Weeks, longtime editor of The Atlantic Monthly, was born in Elizabeth, N.J. He died in 1989.

On this day...

... in 1957, Kenneth Gould, editor-in-chief of Scholastic magazines, was narrowly defeated by Charles Van Doren, a Columbia University instructor, on the rigged TV game show "Twenty-One," later the basis of the 1994 movie "Quiz Show."

Also on this day, in 1994, Spy magazine folded.

On this day...

... in 1857, S.S. (Samuel Sidney) McClure was born in Ireland. After immigrating to the U.S. as as boy, he had a long career in publishing, most notably as founder and editor of McClure's magazine. He died in 1949.