The Publisher: Henry Luce and His American Century

by Alan Brinkley

  19. H. G. Buehler to HWL, December 29, 1913, HWL to HRL, n.d., 1913, LT; Hotchkiss Record, January 14, 1916, p. 3, Hotchkiss School Archives.

  20. HRL to parents, August 27, November 17, 1915, n.d., 1917, TIA; HRL Elson interview, 1965, TIA; Wertenbaker and Basserman, The Hotchkiss School, pp. 47–53.

  21. HRL to HWL, September 28, 1913, TIA.

  22. HRL to parents, May 16, 1914, HRL to ERL, November 22, 1913, January 15, 1915, TIA.

  23. HWL to HRL, December 19, 1913, LT; HRL Elson interview, 1965, p. 38, TIA.

  24. Nettie Fowler McCormick to HRL, June 12, August 9, December 13, 1913, HRL to HWL, December 19, 1913, HWL to HRL, December 11, 1913, LT; ERL to HWL, November 2, 1913, Uncle Charlie to HRL, December 13, 1913, ERL to HRL, n.d., 1913, LT.

  25. HRL to ERL, December, n.d., 1913, TIA.

  26. Nettie Fowler McCormick to HRL, January 14, n.d., 1914, LT.

  27. ERL to HRL, January 17, 1914, LT; “Walking Chart,” n.d., 1914, TIA.

  28. HRL to HWL, October 18, December 27, 1914, HRL to ERL, January 1, 1915, HRL to parents, August, n.d., 1915, TIA; ERL to HRL, October 10, November 28, 1915, September 1, 1914, HWL to HRL, December 22, 1915, Elisabeth Luce to HRL, October 2, November 3, 1915, Emmavail Luce to HRL, November 22, 1915, LT; B. A. Garside, Within the Four Seas (New York: Frederic C. Bell, 1985), pp. 58–59; Jessie Gregory Lutz, China and the Christian Colleges, 1850–1950 (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1971), pp. 122–23; HRL to parents, August 12, 1915, TIA.

  29. HRL to parents, August 19, 1915, TIA.

  30. HWL to HRL, April 17, 1914, LT.

  31. HRL to HWL, January 8, December, n.d., 1914, HRL to parents, n.d., 1914, TIA.

  32. HRL to parents, n.d., 1914, HRL to HWL, October 4, 1914, HRL to ERL, November 2, 1914, HRL to HWL, November 7, 1914, TIA; Hotchkiss Record, n.d., 1915, February 1, 1916, April, n.d., 1916, Hotchkiss School Archives.

  33. Hotchkiss Record, October 1, 1915, January 14, 1916; St. Luke’s Society Prayer Meeting announcement, n.d., 1916, LT; HRL to ERL, n.d., 1915, HRL to parents, May 23, 1915, TIA; Hotchkiss Literary Monthly (“the Lit”), November 1914, March 1915, April 1915, May 1915, March 1916, May 1916, June 1916.

  34. HRL to ERL, February 23, 1915, TIA; Isaiah Wilner, The Man Time Forgot: A Tale of Genius, Betrayal, and the Creation of Time Magazine (New York: HarperCollins, 2006), pp. 28–29.

  35. Daily Glonk, n.d., May 12, 1913, Hadden Mss., TIA; Noel F. Busch, Briton Hadden: A Biography of the Co-Founder of Time (New York: Farrar Straus, 1949), pp. 3–17; Hans L. Wydler, “‘The Late Gargantuan Man’: Briton Hadden, The Other Founder of Time” (senior essay, Yale College, 1988), in Hadden Mss., TIA; Wilner, The Man Time Forgot, pp. 10–16.

  36. BH to E. G. Driscoll, June 20, 1914, BH to mother, n.d., 1913, Hadden Mss., TIA; Busch, Briton Hadden, pp. 19–22, 26–28.

  37. Undated letters, BH to mother, 1913, 1914, 1915, in BH Mss., TIA; Hotchkiss Literary Monthly, June 1916, Hotchkiss School Archives; Robert T. Elson, Time Inc.: The Intimate History of a Publishing Enterprise, 1923–1941 (New York: Atheneum, 1968), pp. 33–34.

  38. Undated letters, BH to mother, 1913, 1914, 1915, in BH Mss., TIA.

  39. HRL to HWL, September 9, 1915, TIA; Wilner, The Man Time Forgot, pp. 32–34.

  40. HRL to ERL, October, n.d., 1915, TIA.

  41. Hothckiss Record, October 1, 1915, March 31, April 18, 1916, and 1915–1916, passim, Hotchkiss School Archives; Busch, Briton Hadden, p. 31; Wydler, “The Late Gargantuan Man,” pp. 7–9; Wilner, The Man Time Forgot, pp. 33–36; Elson, Time Inc., p. 32.

  42. HRL to parents, September 26, 1915, HRL to ERL, September 22, 1915, TIA.

  43. HRL to HWL, October 14, 1914, TIA; Hotchkiss Record, October 12, 1915, LT; H. G. Buehler to HWL, March 9, 1916, March 9, 1914, TIA.

  44. HRL to HWL, March, n.d., 1916, HWL to HRL, April 10, 1916, H. G. Buehler to HRL, with HRL notations, March 9, 1916, LT.

  45. HRL to parents, January 12, March 29, May 29, 1916, TIA; Hotchkiss Record, January 18, 1916, Hotchkiss School Archives.

  46. HRL to parents, June 7, 25, 1916, HRL 23-2, LC; Wilner, The Man Time Forgot, pp. 33–35, 38–39; John Kobler, Luce: His Time, Life, and Fortune (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1968), pp. 36–37.

  III BIG MAN

  1. HRL to parents, June 25, 1916, TIA; Erdman Harris to HRL, n.d., September 5, 1915, LT; John Kobler, Luce: His Time, Life, and Fortune (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1968), pp. 36–37.

  2. William D. Judson, Jr., ed., Hotchkiss Verse, 1917–1926 (Hotchkiss Literary Monthly, 1926), p. 3.

  3. HWL to HRL, December 8, 1915, May 14, 1918, LT; B. A. Garside, One Increasing Purpose: The Life of Henry Winters Luce (New York: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1948), pp. 154–87.

  4. HRL to HWL, January 7, 1914, May 13, 21, 1917, March 11, 1918, TIA; Jessie Gregory Lutz, China and the Christian Colleges, 1850–1950 (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1971), p. 123; Garside, One Increasing Purpose, pp. 147–62, 173–88.

  5. HRL to parents, April 23, May 29, 1916, TIA; George S. Merriam, The Life and Times of Samuel Bowles (New York: The Century Company, 1885, 2 vols.).

  6. HRL to Elisabeth Luce, July 9, 1916, HRL to parents, July 31, n.d., 1916, TIA.

  7. HRL to parents, August 7, 1916, TIA.

  8. HRL to parents, August 31, 1916, TIA.

  9. HRL to parents, October 1, 1916, TIA.

  10. Owen Johnson, Stover at Yale (1912; repr., New York: Macmillan Company, 1968), pp. 20–21; Henry Seidel Canby, Alma Mater: The Gothic Age of the American College (New York: Farrar & Rinehart, 1936), pp. 36–40.

  11. HRL to parents, January 12, April 8, August 13, 1916, TIA; Canby, Alma Mater,

  12. HRL to parents, September, n.d., 1916, TIA.

  13. HRL to parents, November 5, December 3, 1916, January 4, 21, March 30, 1917, TIA; Isaiah Wilner, The Man Time Forgot: A Tale of Genius, Betrayal, and the Creation of Time Magazine (New York: HarperCollins, 2006), pp. 41–43.

  14. HRL to parents, January 4, March 11, 12, 1917, TIA.

  15. HRL to parents, October 1, 8, 1916, TIA.

  16. HRL to parents, September, n.d., October 15, 1916, HWL to HRL, October 24, 1916, TIA.

  17. HRL to parents, March 31, April, n.d., 14, 1917, TIA.

  18. Commencement address, Hotchkiss School, June 13, 1964, Hotchkiss School Archives; HRL to parents, March 29, 1916, TIA.

  19. HRL to HWL, September 11, 1918, HRL Elson interview, 1965, p. 48, TIA.

  20. HRL to parents, April 14, May 13, 1917, TIA; HWL to HRL, March 21, 1918, Thomas Sammons to HWL, with HWL to HRL note, April 5, 1918, LT.

  21. HRL to parents, June 4, 1917, TIA.

  22. HRL to parents, April, n.d., June 4, August 12, 1917, TIA.

  23. HRL to parents, October 19, 1917, TIA.

  24. HRL to parents, October 22, November 22, 28, December 16, 1917, TIA.

  25. HRL to ERL, March, n.d., April 21, 1918, TIA.

  26. HRL to parents, January 10, 1918, TIA.

  27. HRL to parents, January 10, n.d., 20, 1918, ERL to HRL, February 20, 1918, TIA; HWL to HRL, March 4, 1918, LT; Wilner, The Man Time Forgot, pp. 48–50.

  28. HRL to ERL, March, n.d., 1919, TIA.

  29. HRL to parents, January 10, 1918, TIA; David Ingalls interview, July 28, 1948, Lila Luce Tyng interview; Elisabeth Luce Moore interview.

  30. Yale Daily News, January 28, 29, February 1, 1918; HRL speech, June 13, 1963, TIA; Wilner, The Man Time Forgot, pp. 59–60; Lila Luce Tyng interview.

  31. Yale Daily News, January 28, 29, February 1, 28, March 9, April 6, 9, 1918.

  32. ERL to HRL, September 3, 1918, LT.

  33. HRL Elson interview, 1965, TIA.

  34. HRL speech, n.d., 1963, TIA; Noel F. Busch, Briton Hadden: A Biography of the Co-Founder of Time (New York: Farrar Straus, 1949), pp. 35–36; Robert T. Elson, Time Inc.: The Intimate History of a Publishing Enterprise, 1923–1941 (New York: Atheneum, 1968), pp. 40–42.

  35. HRL to HWL, August, n.d., September 6, 18, 1918, TIA.


  36. HRL to HWL, September 11, 1918, TIA.

  37. HRL to ERL, September, n.d., October, n.d., 1918, HRL to parents, October 13, 1918, TIA.

  38. HRL to ERL, November, n.d., 3, 14, 1918, TIA.

  39. HRL to HWL, December 15, 18, 22, 1918, TIA.

  40. Henry Seidel Canby, College Sons and College Fathers (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1915), pp. 102–10; Canby, Alma Mater, pp. 58–59.

  41. HRL to ERL, February 24, March, n.d., 1919, TIA; Johnson, Stover at Yale, pp. 21–22.

  42. HRL to HWL, March 1919, HRL to ERL, May, n.d., 1919, TIA.

  43. HRL to HWL, May 16, 1919, HRL to ERL, May, n.d., 1919, TIA; Johnson, Stover at Yale, pp. 305–7; Wilner, The Man Time Forgot, pp. 58–59; LT interview.

  44. HRL to parents, August 10, September 25, n.d., December, n.d., 1919, HRL to ERL, n.d., 1920, HRL to ERL, March, n.d., April, n.d., 1920, TIA.

  45. HRL to parents, June 20, 1920, TIA; HRL to LH, December, n.d., 1921, LT; Elson, Time Inc., pp. 44–45.

  46. HRL to parents, June 20, 1920, TIA.

  47. ERL to HRL, July 24, 1918, HWL to HRL, April 19, 21, May 24, July 20, 1918, HRL to HWL, July 8, 1918, LT.

  48. HRL to parents, n.d., 1919, January, n.d., 1920, TIA.

  49. HRL to parents, July 9, 1920, TIA.

  50. Thornton Wilder to HRL, May 17, 1921, LT.

  51. “Mr. Luce at lunch with Bob Elson,” memo on interview, April 29, 1965, TIA.

  52. HRL to parents, September 2, 16, 1920, HRL to Emmavail, September 14, 1920, TIA.

  53. HRL to parents, November 4, 28, 1920, TIA.

  54. HRL to LH, December 4, 1921, LT.

  55. LH to HRL, January 3, February 13, 1921, HRL to LH, January 1, February 14, March 20, April 8, 16, May 3, 1921, Dance card, Magdalen College, June 20, 1921, HRL to LH, June 2, 7, 10, 24, 29, 1921, LT; HRL to parents, December 1, 16, 24, 1920, April 3, 1921, TIA.

  56. HRL to parents, December 24, 1920, TIA; HRL to LH, January 30, March 30, April 6, 1921, LT.

  57. HRL to parents, June 21, 1921, TIA.

  58. Ibid.

  IV “THE PAPER”

  1. Isaiah Wilner, The Man Time Forgot: A Tale of Genius, Betrayal, and the Creation of Time Magazine (New York: HarperCollins, 2006), pp. 63–65; HRL Elson interview, 1965, TIA; “Notes on tape,” n.d., TIA.

  2. Ben Hecht, “Bedtime Story,” transcript of radio broadcast, September 23, 1958, TIA; HRL Elson interview, 1965, TIA; “Notes on tape,” n.d., 1965, TIA.

  3. Alex Groner to Bill Furth, September 30, 1958, summary of Luce’s reaction to Hecht story, Chicago Daily News, July 13, 20, August 10, 30, 1921, clippings in TIA; HRL to parents, n.d., 1921, September 21, 1921, HRL to ERL, n.d., 1921, TIA; “Notes on Luce interview,” 1965, TIA.

  4. HRL to parents, n.d., 1921, November, n.d., 1921, HRL to ERL, n.d., 1921, TIA.

  5. HRL Elson interview, 1965, TIA; Robert T. Elson, Time Inc.: The Intimate History of a Publishing Enterprise, 1923–1941 (New York: Atheneum, 1968), pp. 54–55.

  6. HRL to ERL, n.d., 1921, TIA.

  7. HRL to LH, November 28, December 4, 1921, LT.

  8. HRL to LH, November 28, 1921, LT.

  9. HRL to Henry Justin Smith, editor, Chicago Daily News, n.d., 1921, TIA; HRL to parents, December, n.d., 1921, TIA; HRL to LT, December 1, 1921, LT; New York World clippings, July–August 1921, Hadden Mss., TIA; Matthew Schneirov, The Dream of a New Social Order: Popular Magazines in America, 1893–1914 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1994), pp. 85–91.

  10. HRL to Henry Justin Smith, n.d., 1921, TIA.

  11. HRL to LH, n.d., 1921, December, n.d., 1921, LT; HRL to parents, n.d., 1921, TIA.

  12. HRL to LH, December 4, 1921, LT.

  13. HRL Elson interview, 1965, TIA; HRL to LH, December 4, n.d., 1921, LT.

  14. HRL to ERL, January, n.d., 1922, HRL to LH, December 12, 1920, LT.

  15. HRL to Lila, n.d., 1922, LT; Noel Busch, “Interview with HRL,” June 20, 1939, Hadden to mother, n.d., 1922, Hadden Mss., TIA.

  16. HRL to Nettie Fowler McCormick, December 6, 1921, McCormick Collections, Series 2B, Box 177; Noel F. Busch, Briton Haddon: A Biography of the Co-Founder of Time (New York: Farrar Straus, 1949), pp. 64–65; James L. Baughman, Henry R. Luce and the Rise of the American News Media (Boston: Twayne, 1987), p. 24.

  17. “Plans and Specifications of the Newspaper Man,” Literary Digest, April 15, 1922, pp. 64–67; Elson, Time Inc., pp. 81–83; Baughman, Henry R. Luce, pp. 24–28.

  18. Gay Talese, The Kingdom and the Power (New York: World Publishing Company, 1969), pp. 159–63; Richard Kluger, The Paper: The Life and Death of the New York Herald Tribune (New York: Knopf, 1986), pp. 164–65, 184–86; Columbia Journalism Review 18 (November–December 1980): 73; Baughman, Henry R. Luce, p. 29.

  19. Schneirov, The Dream of a New Social Order, pp. 2–6.

  20. Ray Stannard Baker, American Chronicle (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1945), pp. 96–101; Frank Luther Mott, A History of American Magazines, 1885–1905 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1957), pp. 453–505, 589–619; Schneirov, The Dream of a New Social Order, pp. 75–124.

  21. Literary Digest, April 15, 1922, pp. 64–67, May 12, 1928, pp. 5–7, 9–11; Mott, History of American Magazines, 1885–1905, pp. 568–79; John Tebbel and Mary Ellen Zuckerman, The Magazine in America, 1741–1990 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991), pp. 160–61; David Reed, The Popular Magazine in Britain and the United States, 1880–1960 (London: British Library, 1997), pp. 128–29; Theodore Peterson, Magazines in the Twentieth Century (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1964), pp. 154–56.

  22. Mott, History of American Magazines, 1885–1905, pp. 575–77.

  23. Peterson, Magazines in the Twentieth Century, p. 154.

  24. HRL to LH, n.d., 1922, LT; HRL Elson interview, 1965, TIA.

  25. HRL to LH, February, n.d., March 21, 1922, LT; Robert T. Elson, The World of Time Inc.: The Intimate History of a Publishing Enterprise, 1941–1960 (New York: Atheneum, 1973), p. 57.

  26. Samuel Everitt to HRL, February 10, 1922, LT; Elson, Time Inc., p. 61.

  27. HRL to LH, May, n.d., 1922, Time circular, 1922, LT.

  28. HRL to LH, May 31, June 2, 1922, LT; “Preliminary Circular,” July 24, 1922, Larsen Mss., TIA.

  29. HRL to LH, June 7, 15, 19, n.d., 1922, LT.

  30. HRL to LH, April 30, June 7, July 14, 20, 1922, LT; HRL to HWL, n.d., 1922, TIA; HRL Elson interview, 1965, TIA.

  31. HRL to LH, August 1, 12, 1922, LT.

  32. HRL to LH, July 20, August, n.d., November 8, 1922, LT; “Money Raising,” Luce interview, June 20, 1939, TIA; Elson, Time Inc., pp. 9–14.

  33. Time prospectus, 1922, “Specimen Issue,” February 17, 1923, TIA.

  34. HRL to LH, n.d., March 4, November 3, 8, 1922, LT; “Early Days,” Luce interview, June 20, 1939, TIA.

  35. HRL to LH, March 11, n.d., 1922, TIA; HRL Elson interview, 1965, TIA.

  36. Manfred Gottfried oral history, August 4–6, 1961, pp. 1–6, TIA; HRL Elison interview, 1964, TIA.

  37. Roy E. Larsen to Celia Sugarman, November 26, 1962, TIA; Larsen oral history, pp. 10–19, TIA; Elson, Time Inc., p. 60; HRL to LH, February, n.d., 1923, LT.

  38. HRL to LH, January, n.d., 1923, January, n.d., 25, 29, 1923, LT; Gottfried diary, January 22, 1923, TIA.

  39. Time prospectus, 1922, TIA.

  40. Ibid.; Time advertising circular, May 1922, LT; Larsen oral history, TIA.

  41. Gottfried diary, January 3, 5, 7, 1923, TIA; HRL to LH, n.d., 1922, LT; Notes on Luce-Larsen discussion, January 28, 1957, TIA.

  42. HRL to LH, November 8, 1922, LT.

  43. HRL to LH, December, n.d., 20, 1922, January, n.d., February, n.d., 1923, LT; Specimen issues, December 30, 1922, February 17, 1923, TIA.

  44. HRL to LH, December, n.d., 1922, January, n.d., 29, 1923, LT.

  45. HRL to LH, n.d., January 25, 1923, LT; Gottfried oral history, 1964, TIA.

  46. Gottfried oral history, 1964, TIA; HRL Elson interview, 1965, TI
A.

  47. Gottfried oral history, 1961, TIA.

  48. Time, March 3, 1923.

  49. HRL Elson interview, 1965, TIA; HRL to LH, March, n.d., 1923, LT.

  V “TIME: THE WEEKLY NEWS-MAGAZINE”

  1. HRL to LH, n.d., 1923, LT.

  2. HRL to LH, July 15, 1923, March, n.d., 1923, LT; New York Times, March 2, 1923.

  3. HRL to LH, March, n.d., 1923, HRL to Nettie McCormick, July 1, 1923, HRL to parents, March, n.d., 1924, LT; Robert T. Elson, Time Inc.: The Intimate History of a Publishing Enterprise, 1923–1941 (New York: Atheneum, 1968), pp. 70–71.

  4. Notes on Luce-Larsen-Paine discussion at Paine 25th anniversary luncheon, January 28, 1957, HRL Elson interview, 1965, TIA; Time Annual Report, 1924, TIA; HRL to LH, May 5, 24, 1923, LT; Elson, Time Inc., pp. 70–71.

  5. HRL to LH, n.d., May 8, 1923, Yale, Commencement Week Program, 1923, HRL to LH, June 21, 1923, HWL to H. L. Banghart, September 14, 1923, LT.

  6. HRL to LH, March, n.d., 1923, October 7, 1923, LT; Time Inc. President’s Report, December 31, 1923, TIA.

  7. HRL Elson interview, 1966, TIA.

  8. HRL to Harry Davison, April 15, 1925, “Description of Capital Structure of Time Inc.,” April 10, 1925, HRL Elson interview, 1965, Roy Larsen letter to Saturday Review subscribers, December 2, 1924, TIA; Elson, Time Inc., pp. 77–79.

  9. HRL to LH, July 4, 18, 1923, LT.

  10. James L. Baughman, Henry R. Luce and the Rise of the American News Media (Boston: Twayne, 1987), p. 38; HRL to Nettie McCormick, n.d., McCormick papers, Series 2B, Box 182.

  11. Baughman, Henry R. Luce, p. 38; HRL to Nettie McCormick, n.d., McCormick papers, Series 2B, Box 182.

  12. HRL to LH, July 2, 1923, HRL to Lila, n.d., 1923, LT.

  13. HRL to LH, n.d., February, n.d., 1923, July 18, 1923, LT.

  14. HRL to LH, January 27, n.d., 1923, March, multiple n.d., March 18, 1923, LT.

  15. Lila Luce Tyng interview; HRL to LH, March, n.d., 1923, LT.

  16. HRL to LH, March, n.d., June, n.d., 1923, October 10, 1923, LT.

  17. HRL to LH, June, n.d., 1923, July, n.d., 1923, HRL to Nettie McCormick, July 1, 1923, HRL to LH, July 5, 12, 1923, LT.

  18. HRL to LH, October 12, 1923, LT.