When editors were gods

On this day...

... in 1913, Sylvia Porter, later to become the nominal editor-in-chief of Sylvia Porter's Personal Finance magazine, was born. Porter, who might rightfully be considered the inventor of personal finance journalism, was past her prime during her magazine's run in the 1980s. To my knowledge (I was the magazine's managing, then executive, editor), she never set foot in its offices at in New York City's Chanin Building, although she did read manuscripts messengered to her Fifth Avenue apartment and house in pastoral Pound Ridge, New York. Sylvia would comment on them in her trademark green pen, and woe to you if you ever split an infinitive.

On this day...

... in 1876, Robert Joseph Collier, editor and publisher of Collier's Weekly and early booster of aviation, was born. He died at his dinner table in 1918.

Also on this day, in 1921, James W. Michaels, longtime editor of Forbes magazine, was born. Michaels died in 2007.

Quote

"I do not believe there is an editor in existence today who really knows what the public wants, or even what the public is." — Hamilton Holt, editor of The Independent, 1921.

Quote

"Do you know what good editors do? It's not all the management stuff. It's not changing commas and whipping manuscripts into shape. What good editors do is this: They find things." — Wade Nichols, onetime editor of Good Housekeeping, as recalled by Lamar Underwood, onetime editor of Sports Afield.

On this day...

... in 1926, The Chicagoan magazine was launched, a year after The New Yorker. Though The Chicagoan folded in 1935 and is all but forgotten now, it was celebrated in a handsome book by Neil Harris published last year.

Quote

"What separates a good editor from a merely competent one is the degree to which he enlarges on his successes, learns from his failures and persists in venturing into unfamiliar territory. The magazine that provides no surprises for its editor is not likely to provide any for its readers." — Robert Stein, ex-editor of McCall's and Redbook magazines, in his 2005 book "Media Power."

On this day...

... in 1979, the Girl Scouts of the U.S.A. announced that the organization was ceasing publication of The American Girl, its 72-year-old magazine. Though it has now been defunct for 30 years, the magazine's legacy lives on in Girl Scout Cookies, for which it published a recipe in 1922.

Quote

"Magazines must deal with the tough and controversial issues of our time. The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in time of moral crisis, maintain their neutrality." — Dan Mich, onetime editor of Look and McCall's, quoted by Look founder Gardner "Mike" Cowles in his 1985 memoir, "Mike Looks Back."

Quote

"There ain't no magazine without the editor. Anything else is not a magazine, but merely a corporation." — T. George Harris, editor of American Health magazine, quoted by Peter Jacobi in a 1988 Folio: magazine article.

On this day...

... in 1981, Jerome Ellison, the founder and, briefly, editor of '47 magazine, died at age 73. Named for the year of its launch, '47 represented one of the twentieth century's most interesting, if short-lived, magazine experiments. It was owned by its contributors, a total of more than 300 writers, artists, and photographers, who stood to share in the magazine's profits, had there been any. Among the writers were Pearl S. Buck, John Steinbeck, John Dos Passos, and Ellison himself.  '47 ceased publication in 1948. 

Also on this day, in 2003, Art Cooper, editor of GQ magazine for nearly 20 years, died following a stroke. Cooper had announced in February that we would be resigning/retiring in June. His final issue of the magazine was on newsstands at the time of his death.

Fleur Cowles, a flowery postscript

Flair, the magazine edited by Fleur Cowles, who died on Friday, was distinctive not only in its content and physical appearance. It even showed a certain flair in going out of business. Shana Alexander, who was briefly Flair's entertainment editor before going on to fame as a debater on TV's "60 Minutes," recalled the moment in "Happy Days," her 1995 memoir:

"On Monday morning a week before Christmas, every staff member found a pink rose tucked into his or her typewriter, along with a pink slip informing us that the magazine was suspending publication."

Fleur Cowles, R.I.P.

Cowles, who reportedly died on Friday at age 101, give or take, founded the short-lived but legendary 1950s magazine Flair.