When editors were gods

A Business Week editor's motivational secrets

"There are only three ways to motivate people: fear, greed, and challenge." — Lew Young, longtime editor-in-chief of Business Week, in a 1981 speech.

 

Why editors should run things (according to an editor)

"[A] publishing business ought to be run by people who are essentially editors or, at least, people who are in love with the newspapers or magazines or books the company is publishing." — Ed Fitzgerald, onetime editor-in-chief of Sport, among other magazines, in his 1985 memoir, "A Nickel an Inch."

He put magazines between hardcovers

Today is the birthday of Joseph J. Thorndike, a managing editor of Life magazine and later editorial director and editor, respectively, of the hardcover magazines American Heritage and Horizon. Thorndike was born July 29, 1913 in Peabody, Massachusetts. He died in 2005 at age 92.

An editor explains why most editors would rather be writers

"Nearly all editors are men and women who would vastly prefer to write than to edit. A successful writer, as the late Ray Long once pointed out, has the freest vocation in the world. Armed only with paper, pencils, or typewriter, the writer can go anywhere, live anywhere, and be independent of office hours. If his work is good enough, he can command a much larger income than any editor who ever lived."  — Harford Powel, Jr., onetime editor of Harper's Bazaar, Collier's, and the Youth's Companion, in the book "How to Write for a Living" (1937).

The 80-year saga of The American Magazine

On this day (July 26) in 1956, The American Magazine announced that it would cease publication after 80 years, with its August issue. It had been founded in 1876 as Frank Leslie's Popular Monthly and went through several wildly different editorial incarnations in the decades that followed, including muckraking in the early 20th century and cheerleading for big business in the years leading up to the Great Depression. At the end it was more of a general-interest title, with reported circulation of 2-plus million.

Best magazine history resources, part 2: the major reference works

Last week, for anyone who might be interested, I listed some of the online newspaper archives I've found useful in collecting information on magazines and their editors. The following general reference books are also helpful, especially in tracing the history of a particular magazine or editor over time:

• "A History of American Magazines," by Frank Luther Mott (D. Appleton and Co. and Harvard University Press, 1930-1968), is indispensable. A tour de force of journalism scholarship, it covers the years 1741 through the early 1960s in five very readable volumes. You can find a set in many good libraries and used copies turn up from time to time, though they can be expensive. 
• "The American Magazine: A Compact History," by John Tebbel (Hawthorn Books, 1969), is, as its title suggests, a less-detailed accounting than Mott's. It also starts in 1741 and ends in the 1960s. "The Magazine in America: 1741-1990," by John Tebbel and Mary Ellen Zuckerman (Oxford University Press, 1991), adds a couple more decades. Among Tebbel's other books is the biography "George Horace Lorimer and The Saturday Evening Post" (Doubleday, 1948).
• "Magazines in the Twentieth Century," by Theodore Peterson (University of Illinois Press, 1964). Also very lively and readable.
• "Magazines in the United States," by James Playsted Wood (The Ronald Press Company, 1948). A decade later Wood wrote a history of The Reader's Digest called "Of Lasting Interest."  

Next time: More books.

 

One famous magazine editor's credo

"To view the world of life and art with intelligence and humor, to avoid indignation and platitude, and to keep uppermost in mind good writing — that, as I see it, should be an editor's credo." — George Jean Nathan, co-editor, with H. L. Mencken, of The Smart Set and The American Mercury.

He gave new life to "America's oldest magazine"

Ben Hibbs, the editor credited with revitalizing The Saturday Evening Post during his 20 years at the top of its masthead (1942 to 1962), was born 110 years ago today, July 23, 1901.

Two other important editors who share Hibbs's birthday:  Ruth Whitney, the highly respected editor of Glamour magazine for an astonishing 31 years (born in 1928) and Albert Shaw of the Review of Reviews (born in 1857).

Ebony founder John H. Johnson gets stamp of approval

The U.S. Postal Service has announced that John H. Johnson, who built a magazine empire (Ebony, Jet, etc.) by borrowing $500 against his mother's new furniture, will be honored with a commemorative postage stamp next year. Not coincidentally, Johnson used that $500 to buy stamps. He died in 2005.

The editor who made science a must-read

Dennis Flanagan, the editor generally credited with reviving Scientific American magazine, was born in New York on this day (July 22) in 1919. Flanagan, who edited the magazine for 37 years, was elected to the Magazine Editors' Hall of Fame in 1999 and died in 2005, also in New York. 

 

Bad editors: a famous freelancer vents

"[T]here are so many inexperienced and inept editors in the magazine business these days that what starts out as a competent piece often appears as a horror, and the writer is blamed by the unfortunate reader for the editor's bad grammar, lack of taste, and stupidity." — Richard Gehman, a well-known and famously prolific freelancer of his day, in his 1959 book "How to Write and Sell Magazine Articles."

Spoken like a True editor...

"This, I think, is the sovereign secret of successful editing: the arbitrary attitude. No boards, no committees, no surveys, no IBM machines can replace it." — Ken Purdy, onetime editor of True magazine, quoted by Theodore Peterson in his book "Magazines of the Twentieth Century," 1964.