When editors were gods

One editor’s trick for conquering worry

“I plan well. I work hard. I try to leave nothing to chance. I pray about things. Then, if someone disappoints me or if something goes wrong and things don’t work out the way I wish, I take a philosophical attitude toward it because I have done all I can do about it and I don’t let it worry me.” — an otherwise anonymous “distinguished magazine editor” quoted by Norman Vincent Peale in a 1951 newspaper column on “How to Take Things As They Come.”

In addition to being a bestselling author (“The Power of Positive Thinking,” etc.) and minister, Peale was also the founder of the magazine Guideposts.

Editors: More powerful than Presidents and as worthy of our prayers, 1879

"The Editor of a leading journal is more powerful than the President of the United States. Why should an Editor not be prayed for?" — Frank Leslie's Sunday Magazine, 1879.

Yes, even editors have a patron saint

January 31 is celebrated by Roman Catholics as the feast day of St. John Bosco, the patron saint of editors. Bosco died on this day in 1888, at age 72.