The Saturday Evening Post
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 |
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 descendancy from The Pennsylvania Gazette founded in 1728 by
Benjamin Franklin, though the magazine's first issue 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.
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. Fiction authors included the likes of
John Steinbeck,
William Saroyan,
John P. Marquand,
Paul Gallico,
C. S. Forester,
Hammond Innes,
Sax Rohmer,
Louis L'Amour,
Rex Stout, 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 cheaper photographic covers and advertisements.
The final 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 won, and the magazine was ordered to pay $3,060,000 in damages for
libel (Curtis Publishing Co. v. Butts, 388 U.S. 130 (1967)).
In
1971, it was revived, first as a quarterly, then as a bi-monthly publication specializing in
nostalgia. The magazine is currently published six times a year by an organization called the "Benjamin Franklin Literary and Medical Society", and concentrates on articles involving health issues, especially in the elderly.
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Cyrus Curtis*
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Saturday Evening Post website*
Saturday Evening Post illustration archive*
George Horace Lorimer
