1898-1967
Publisher, Time, Life, and Fortune Magazines

The American Publisher.

Henry R. Luce was one of the most influential magazine publishers in the United States in the twentieth century. The magazines he began, Time, Life, and Fortune, had a profound impact on U.S. publishing and American public opinion. Time defined the modern newsmagazine, and Life established photo-documentary journalism. Moreover, the phenomenal success of these magazines gave Luce a platform from which to promote deeply held political and social ambitions. Wendell Willkie's internationalism was to some extent a product of Luce's influence, and the 1940 Republican candidate for president owed much of his popularity to Luce and his magazines. Luce championed U.S. assistance to China, intervention in World War II, and the escalation of the Cold War long before these issues became popular. His instincts both anticipated and seemed perfectly keyed to public interests. In...