When editors were gods

Mark Twain reacts to being edited

"Any editor to whom I submit my manuscripts has an undisputed right to delete anything to which he objects, but God Almighty Himself has no right to put words in my mouth that I never used." — Mark Twain, chastising the editors of St. Nicholas magazine, in a visit to their offices. The magazine was publishing excerpts from Twain's "Tom Sawyer Abroad" and had apparently made some changes that were not to his liking.

The anecdote comes from "Hardly a Man Is Now Alive: The Autobiography of Dan Beard" (1939). More about Beard in a future item...

But they would if they could...

“The only story an editor doesn’t blue pencil is his own obituary.” — Jim Bishop, in his syndicated newspaper column, 1962.

Although best known as a newspaperman and author of popular books (“The Day Lincoln Was Shot,” “The Day Kennedy Was Shot,” etc.), Bishop also had stints as an editor, with Collier’s and Liberty magazines.

The Literary Digest’s second-worst prediction

The Literary Digest, a major magazine of the late 19^th and early 20^th century, is probably best known today for its disastrous prediction that Republican candidate Alf Landon would defeat incumbent Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1936 presidential election. The prediction, which was based on faulty polling, helped contribute to the magazine’s demise (and absorption by Time) the following year.

But that wasn’t the first faulty forecast to appear in the Literary Digest. Consider this, from its October 14, 1890 issue:

“The ordinary type of ‘horseless carriage’ is at present a luxury for the wealthy, and although its price will probably fall in the future, it will never, of course, come into as common use as the bicycle.”

The death of travel writing, 1895

“The travel article has had its day…. Said one of the leading magazine editors in New York to me in explanation of this: ‘Why, the simple fact of the matter is that the people who read the magazines are traveling so much more nowadays that the travel article no longer has the reason for existence which it once had. Before the means of travel were expedited as they are to-day people clamored for descriptions of foreign lands. Now, they go and see these places for themselves, and, as a rule, the average magazine reader is better informed on foreign travel than is the ordinary writer.’” — Edward W. Bok, in a February 1895 newspaper article.

Bok was the editor of the Ladies’ Home Journal and probably the best-known magazine editor of his time.

Busy editor finds time to take on Nazis

On this day (October 6) in 1938, Arnold Gingrich testified before the House Committee on Un-American Activities about German attempts to set up a spy network in the United States, working in collusion with Nazi sympathizer groups here. Gingrich was called to testify as a result of several investigative articles that had recently appeared in Ken magazine, including one titled "Prelude to American Fascism."

According to another Ken article, the Nazis' goal was "not mere propaganda and conversion to Nazi ideology, but a military organization for sabotage and espionage in the United States in the event of European war, whether we are neutral or not. For this ticklish work the leaders are too smart to use suspected aliens but rely on native Americans."

At the time, the very busy Gingrich was the editor not only of Ken, but also of Esquire and Coronet.

The Library of Congress has this photo of Gingrich in the witness chair.