Bernarr Macfadden is better known for his lifelong interest in physical culture and the founding of True Story magazine, but he also gave New Yorkers the Graphic, called by his critics the "Pornographic." Macfadden was credited by Oswald Garrison Villard with starting the war of "gutter journalism" in New York. In addition to the Graphic, Macfadden owned newspapers in Michigan, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania. For a decade (1931-1941) he owned Liberty magazine. Yet today his influence lingers on through True Story, the grandfather of all such "true" and "confessional" periodicals that have cluttered the newsstands since 1919.

Macfadden's name at his birth was Bernard Adolphus McFadden. His family, which reached Missouri by way of Virginia and Kentucky, had a Scottish or Irish background. After he became more involved with the public, Macfadden thought his name should be changed. He considered "Bernard" too weak and too commonplace, so he shifted to...