The great American magazine: an inside history of Life

Abstract

Wainwright spent more than 20 years on the staff of Life--as office boy, reporter, correspondent, writer, editor, and columnist. Based on interviews with former staff members and from archives, he presents a detailed history of the magazine from its beginning in 1936: the founding of Life by Henry Luce and his playwright wife Clara Boothe; the magazine's tough editors like John Shaw Billings and Ed Thompson; photographers such as Robert Capa, Alfred Eisenstadt, and Margaret Bourke-White; writers; and staff members. We see Theodore White interviewing Jackie Kennedy after her husband's assassination, foreign correspondents and photographers risking their lives in the wars, and an editor hiring a lip-reader to eavesdrop visually on the Queen of England watching the American football game. Wainwright also covers the dark moments and pressures of working there, but captures what it was that made Life special. ISBN 0-394-45987-3: $19.95.