When editors were gods

Leap Day in magazineland

In honor of Leap Day, a link to a web site devoted to the topic, and its collection of old magazines with a Leap Year theme. 

The Time co-founders who died one day (and 38 years) apart

Time magazine's two founders, Briton Hadden and Henry Luce, died on February 27 and February 28 respectively, Hadden in 1929, Luce in 1967.

Hadden had celebrated his 31st birthday a little over a week before his death, the exact cause of which remains a mystery but seems to have involved some sort of infection.

Hadden's short life has been the subject of two biographies: a 1949 one by his cousin, the writer Noel F. Busch, and 2006's "The Man Time Forgot," by Isaiah Wilner. 

Henry Luce, meanwhile, lived on to create Fortune, Life, and Sports Illustrated, among other magazines. He was 68 at his death. Luce is the subject of numerous biographies, among them, 2010's "The Publisher: Henry Luce and His American Century," by Alan Brinkley.

 

Fortune magazine's unfortunate Presidential prediction

It was on this day (February 27) in 1939 that Fortune magazine published a survey-based article concluding, "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.

 

One author's advice to rejected writers: Give up

"Whenever I hear a writer cursing the editors I know at once that I am listening to a failure. One editor makes mistakes, but the body of editors reaches the high average of truth in its common judgment. If the majority of the well-informed and keen-eyed editors reject your literature, the chances are great that your writing is worthless and that you had better take up some other calling." — Novelist and journalist Maurice Thompson, 1886.

An editor is paid to make mistakes

"Researchers live by numbers. An editor lives by instinct. It isn't infallible, but nothing is. One must remember that to some extent an editor is paid to make mistakes; if he doesn't make a few once in a while he's playing everything too safe, which is no prescription for success."  — Herbert R. Mayes, onetime editor of Cosmopolitan, Good Housekeeping, and McCall's, among other magazines, in his 1980 memoir, "The Magazine Maze."

The party ends for Malcolm Forbes, 1990

Malcolm Forbes, the flamboyant and fun-loving editor-in-chief of Forbes magazine, died on this day (February 24) in 1990 at age 70. Written on his memorial, according to a recent article: "When alive, he lived."

The smartest editor who ever edited

"The smartest editor who ever edited never got up a magazine every part of which was of equal merit. No editor ever will." — Publisher Frederic L. Colver in Leslie's Magazine, 1904. Among other magazines Colver seems to been associated with was Boys' Life.

The magazine editor lost in a San Francisco sea disaster

It was on this day (February 22) in 1901 that Rounsevelle Wildman, former editor of the Overland Monthly, died in the sinking of the steamship City of Rio de Janeiro off San Francisco. Wildman had more recently served as the U.S. counsel general to Hong Kong. Wildman's wife and two children were also reported as among the 122 victims of the disaster, which occurred when the ship hit a rock in dense fog.

George Washington blurbs magazines, 1788

George Washington, whose birth in 1732 we celebrate on February 22, reportedly said this about magazines in a 1788 letter:

"I consider such easy vehicles of knowledge more happily calculated than any other to preserve the liberty, stimulate the industry, and meliorate the morals of an enlightened free people." 

Two centuries later, Washington would be the namesake of John F. Kennedy, Jr.'s magazine, George. 

The New Yorker turns 87 today

Today marks the birthday of The New Yorker, the first issue of which appeared on this day (February 21) in 1925. The magazine's founding editor was Harold Ross.

Some people just don't deserve magazines, this noted editor said

"Men are divided everywhere into two classes. They live in two houses—the house of 'do' and the house of 'don't.' It is for the former that the American magazine must be written. The latter, who spend their time wailing about the faults of their homeland and crying that this Republic is all wickedness, do not deserve magazines." — Walter Hines Page, editor of The World's Work and a former editor of The Atlantic Monthly, 1901. Page was later a U.S. ambassador.

Today's birthday boy: Atlantic editor Edward Weeks

Today (February 19) is the birthday of Edward Weeks, longtime editor of The Atlantic Monthly, born in Elizabeth, N.J., in 1898. He died in 1989.

Weeks wrote several books about his experiences as an editor as well as an advice guide for would-be writers called "This Trade of Writing." He may also hold some sort of record for signing books; autographed copies of his works seem as plentiful as unautographed ones.