Everything about The Saturday Evening Post totally explained
The Saturday Evening Post was a weekly
magazine published in the
United States from
August 4,
1821 to
February 8,
1969. From 1897, it was published by
Curtis Publishing Company. Curtis claimed the
Post was descended from
The Pennsylvania Gazette founded in 1728 by
Benjamin Franklin, although the magazine's first issue was published more than 30 years after Franklin's death. According to historians, and the circulation numbers, the magazine gained prominent status under the leadership of its editor (1899-1937)
George Horace Lorimer.
Description and history
Its contents consisted primarily of articles on current events and pieces of well-written popular fiction in mainstream genres, at least one of which was usually run in serial format over several issues. These were supplemented by single-panel
cartoons, small human-interest, humorous or poetic filler pieces (often reader-contributed), editorials, a letter column, and quality interior
illustrations of both stories and advertising plus illustrated covers. In March 1916 Lorimer agreed to meet
Norman Rockwell, a 22 year old artist from New York. He immediately accepted two front covers he'd produced and commissioned three more. Rockwell did covers and illustrations for the magazine through 1963, and gained his public fame by these works; several of these are among his critically best-acclaimed works. Other artists also gained fame by contributing
Post covers, for example
Nebraska artist
John Philip Falter. Fiction authors included the likes of
John Steinbeck,
William Saroyan,
John P. Marquand,
Paul Gallico,
Kay Boyle,
C. S. Forester,
Hammond Innes,
Sax Rohmer,
Louis L'Amour,
F. Scott Fitzgerald,
Agatha Christie,
Rex Stout,
Joseph C. Lincoln,
C. S. Lewis,
Brian Cleeve, and
Ray Bradbury.
Along with many other general-interest magazines, the
Post saw a decline in the late 1950s and 1960s, generally attributed to the rise of television. In addition, interest in the Post's style of fiction and its conservative editorial bent declined during the advent of American counterculture. "Name" authors were drawn to more libertine magazines like
Playboy as a high-status and high-paying venue for their work. Increasingly, the
Post turned to articles on more current and fashionable topics, using cheaper photographic covers and advertisements.
An account of the final years of the
Post (1962-1969) by
Otto Friedrich, the magazine's last managing editor, was published as
Decline and Fall (Harper & Row, 1970). Friedrich acknowledged that times were against the
Post, but insisted that the magazine was of high quality and appreciated by its readers, attributing the financial difficulties largely to unimaginative and incompetent corporate management at Curtis.
The demise of the
Post came after the magazine ran an article implying that
football coaches Paul "Bear" Bryant and
Wally Butts had conspired to "fix" a game between the
University of Alabama and the
University of Georgia. Butts sued and the case went all the way to the
Supreme Court, where it became a landmark
libel case (
Curtis Publishing Co. v. Butts, ). Butts ultimately won, and the magazine was ordered to pay $3,060,000 in
damages.
In 1971, the
Post was revived, first as a quarterly, then as a bi-monthly publication specializing in health and medical breakthroughs. The magazine is currently published six times a year by the "Benjamin Franklin Literary & Medical Society", a
501(c)(3) non-profit organization.
In 1958,
Mad Magazine published a satire of the
Post titled "The Saturday Evening Pest," whose first page shows a spoof of a
Norman Rockwell Thanksgiving scene (pipe-smoking painter "Norman Shockwell" smirks at the reader from one corner); the cover announces articles such as "Our
State Department--Do We Need It?" by Joseph and Stewart Allslop" (
Joseph and
Stewart Alsop) and "This Isn't Exactly What I Had in Mind" by
Benjamin Franklin.
Editors
(from the purchase by Curtis, 1898)
Cover gallery
Image:1905-05-20 Saturday Evening Post.jpg|May 20, 1905. Illustrated by N. C. Wyeth
Image:Babynew.jpg|December 28, 1907. Cover by J. C. Leyendecker.
Popular culture
Steve Allen wrote a song inspired by the magazine's title.Further Information
Get more info on 'The Saturday Evening Post'.
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