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For those of us of an historical bent, here's an intro and the link to Liberty Magazine, a very popular publication from primarily the 1930s. Articles are being released at the site.
April 17, 2010
A Magazine, Long Gone, Is Given Digital CPR
By TIM ARANGO
A few months ago Robert Whiteman dashed off an e-mail message to Warren Buffett reminding that investor that he reportedly earned his first nickel selling Liberty Magazine in the 1930s. He told Mr. Buffett that he planned to resurrect the old publication for the digital age.
“If you ever need a carrier in Omaha, let me know,” Mr. Buffett wrote back.
Mr. Whiteman, a courtly man of 84, owns a treasure trove of all the material, including artwork, produced for Liberty. Much of the Liberty library that he bought is work by some of the world’s most famous writers: F. Scott Fitzgerald, George Bernard Shaw and H. L. Mencken are a few who contributed to the magazine. Others, famous in different arenas, also wrote for Liberty, including Winston Churchill, Joe DiMaggio, Benito Mussolini and Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Mr. Whiteman has spent the last couple of years collating and organizing the collected materials of the magazine, 1,387 issues’ worth, in the well-appointed basement of his Westchester County home, with the help of an assistant.
That interest is partly personal obsession and retirement hobby, but also reflects Mr. Whiteman’s hope that he can turn Liberty into something of a business again by using a Web site to garner interest in the material that he plans to shop to book publishers and television and film producers. There are no firm plans for a print edition.
“Everything has a beginning, a middle and an end,” he said. “Liberty’s material is so relevant today it makes me feel, at age 84, that I am at the beginning.”
Liberty Magazine traversed the American scene from the Jazz Age through the Great Depression and World War II before halting publication in 1950. Sometimes referred to in its time as the second-greatest magazine in the country next to The Saturday Evening Post, Liberty was started in 1924 by Joseph Medill Patterson, founder of The Daily News, and Col. Robert R. McCormick, the publisher of The Chicago Tribune.
Costing a nickel, it tried to go slightly downscale from The Post and aimed for a general audience; its slogan was “Liberty: A Weekly for Everybody.”
“What made Liberty unique was it was trying to be more for the masses,” said Jared Gardner, a professor of English, film and popular culture at Ohio State University who is also an editor of American Periodicals, a scholarly journal.
Mr. Whiteman, who made his living by licensing the rights to “Ripley’s Believe It or Not” after meeting Robert Ripley in 1946, started a Web site for Liberty last year (libertymagazine.com). When current events warrant it, he will dip into the archive and come up with a piece that relates to today’s news. When the earthquake struck Haiti, he posted a story written by Frank Lloyd Wright about why his Imperial Hotel survived the Tokyo earthquake of 1923.
With Sarah Palin in the news, he found an article that said that Woodrow Wilson’s wife once ran the country for eight months while her husband was sick. And for those astonished by the Yankees’ $210 million payroll last year, Mr. Whiteman has an article by Joe DiMaggio titled “How Much Is a Ballplayer Worth?”
“Liberty was not a left-wing magazine, but it tapped into that resentment against the rich,” Professor Gardner said, describing the magazine’s approach during the Depression. “It often took a right-wing, populist approach to exposing corruption.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/17/ar...17liberty.html
April 17, 2010
“If you ever need a carrier in Omaha, let me know,” Mr. Buffett wrote back.
Mr. Whiteman, a courtly man of 84, owns a treasure trove of all the material, including artwork, produced for Liberty. Much of the Liberty library that he bought is work by some of the world’s most famous writers: F. Scott Fitzgerald, George Bernard Shaw and H. L. Mencken are a few who contributed to the magazine. Others, famous in different arenas, also wrote for Liberty, including Winston Churchill, Joe DiMaggio, Benito Mussolini and Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Mr. Whiteman has spent the last couple of years collating and organizing the collected materials of the magazine, 1,387 issues’ worth, in the well-appointed basement of his Westchester County home, with the help of an assistant.
That interest is partly personal obsession and retirement hobby, but also reflects Mr. Whiteman’s hope that he can turn Liberty into something of a business again by using a Web site to garner interest in the material that he plans to shop to book publishers and television and film producers. There are no firm plans for a print edition.
“Everything has a beginning, a middle and an end,” he said. “Liberty’s material is so relevant today it makes me feel, at age 84, that I am at the beginning.”
Liberty Magazine traversed the American scene from the Jazz Age through the Great Depression and World War II before halting publication in 1950. Sometimes referred to in its time as the second-greatest magazine in the country next to The Saturday Evening Post, Liberty was started in 1924 by Joseph Medill Patterson, founder of The Daily News, and Col. Robert R. McCormick, the publisher of The Chicago Tribune.
Costing a nickel, it tried to go slightly downscale from The Post and aimed for a general audience; its slogan was “Liberty: A Weekly for Everybody.”
“What made Liberty unique was it was trying to be more for the masses,” said Jared Gardner, a professor of English, film and popular culture at Ohio State University who is also an editor of American Periodicals, a scholarly journal.
Mr. Whiteman, who made his living by licensing the rights to “Ripley’s Believe It or Not” after meeting Robert Ripley in 1946, started a Web site for Liberty last year (libertymagazine.com). When current events warrant it, he will dip into the archive and come up with a piece that relates to today’s news. When the earthquake struck Haiti, he posted a story written by Frank Lloyd Wright about why his Imperial Hotel survived the Tokyo earthquake of 1923.
With Sarah Palin in the news, he found an article that said that Woodrow Wilson’s wife once ran the country for eight months while her husband was sick. And for those astonished by the Yankees’ $210 million payroll last year, Mr. Whiteman has an article by Joe DiMaggio titled “How Much Is a Ballplayer Worth?”
“Liberty was not a left-wing magazine, but it tapped into that resentment against the rich,” Professor Gardner said, describing the magazine’s approach during the Depression. “It often took a right-wing, populist approach to exposing corruption.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/17/ar...17liberty.html
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(Wall Street seduces the Widows' and Orphans' Fund while Goldman looks on.
Just kidding....
...:rolleyes: )
(Wall Street seduces the Widows' and Orphans' Fund while Goldman looks on.
Just kidding....
...:rolleyes: )