- Note: There have been other minor publications also called the Saturday Evening Post; several were/are local
British newspapers.
A cover of the
Saturday Evening Post from
1903, illustrated by
George Gibbs.
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 to be 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 his 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 had 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, 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, 388 U.S. 130 (1967)). 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
See also
Popular Culture
- Steve Allen wrote a song inspired by the magazine's title.
Similar magazines
External links
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