When editors were gods

Ladies' Home Journal editor Edward Bok's secret of success

"Concentration is the secret of success, and the more a man concentrates on one thing, the greater his success in it." — Edward Bok, editor of The Ladies' Home Journal, in an 1898 interview.

True's adventure comes to an end, 1975

It was on this day (July 19) in 1975 that newspapers reported the men's adventure magazine True would cease publication with its September issue. Founded in 1937, True at one time offered its readers a money-back guarantee. If you didn't consider it "the best investment in reading entertainment you have ever made," you could return its front cover for a refund.

Also on this day, in 1946, newspapers noted that subscribers to the recently folded Mother's Home Life magazine had been surprised to receive, as a replacement, a publication called Soviet Russia Today.

Legendary Esquire editor Harold Hayes' secret of success

"A successful magazine has to build a myth its readers can believe in." — Harold Hayes, near-mythical editor of Esquire, 1972

Helen Gurley Brown's secret of success (and it's not what you think)

"[T]he only thing that separates successful people from the ones who aren't is the willingness to work very, very hard." — Helen Gurley Brown, longtime editor of Cosmopolitan, 1982.

"Doomed" magazine editor who worked to the end

It was on this day (July 16) in 1923 that John M. Siddall, editor of The American Magazine, then a major, mass-circulation title, died at home in Ardsley-on-Hudson, New York. The New York Times headlined his obituary the next day: "JOHN M. SIDDALL, DOOMED, WORKED ON; American Magazine Editor, Cancer Victim, Told Further Labor Would Hasten End. BUT REFUSED TO TAKE REST." Siddall was 49.

Death comes to the dean of West Coast literary editors

It was on this day (July 15) in 1955 that Joseph Henry Jackson, editor of Sunset Magazine in the late 1920s, died in San Francisco. Known as the "dean of West Coast literary editors," Jackson had edited the San Francisco Chronicle's book reviews for 25 years. He suffered a stroke while taping a radio show and died without regaining consciousness. He was 60.

Frances Lear: She gave a magazine her name and her millions

Frances Lear, founder, funder, and editor-in-chief of Lear's, a pioneering magazine for women over a certain age, was born in the Vanderheusen Home for Wayward Girls in Hudson, New York, on this day (July 14) in 1923. Lear, who invested an estimated $25 million in the magazine, died in 1996. Her memoir is "The Second Seduction" (Knopf, 1992). A bit more about her in this earlier post.

Quote

"I want the magazine to be intelligible to the Kansas farmer's hired man's thirteen-year-old daughter." — Walter Hines Page, editor of The Atlantic Monthly from 1898 to 1899, quoted by author Burton J. Hendrick.

Eleanor Sullivan, mystery woman

On this day, in 1991, Eleanor Sullivan, editor in chief of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine and, before that, Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, died at age 62. (I knew her slightly when we were working at the same parent company, Davis Publications, and remember her as being very nice.)

Also on this day, in 1937, the widely syndicated gossip columnist O.O. McIntyre informed his readers that Harry Payne Burton, then editor of Cosmopolitan magazine, "is a pushover for black bean soup."

Depression-era publisher provided meals for a penny

On this day (July 11) in 1934 Bernarr Macfadden, a food and fitness faddist as well as hugely successful magazine publisher (Liberty, True Story, Photoplay, Physical Culture, etc.), announced plans to close several of the Penny Restaurants he had opened in 1931 to provide cheap, wholesome meals to Depression-era Americans. Macfadden is the subject of a recent biography, "Mr. America" by Mark Adams.

Esquire's all-but-forgotten little sibling

It was on this day, July 10, in 1961 that Coronet Magazine, a digest-size Esquire spinoff, announced that it would cease publication after 25 years with its October issue.

A famous editor ends it all

It was on this day, 75 years ago, that Ray Long, one of the most powerful magazine editors of his era and reportedly the highest paid, killed himself with a rifle at his home in Beverly Hills. In 1931, after 13 years as editor of Cosmopolitan and head of Hearst's entire magazine group, Long quit to join a book publisher. He soon abandoned that job to sail to the South Seas. Near the end of his life he tried and failed to establish himself as a scenario editor at several Hollywood studios. Time magazine's report on his death quotes a friend as recalling, "He said he guessed he had passed his peak." At his death, Long was 57.