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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 the Post was descended from The Pennsylvania Gazette founded in 1728 by Benjamin Franklin, although the magazine's first issue was 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 its editor (1899-1937) George Horace Lorimer.

Contents 1 Description and history 2 Editors 3 Cover gallery 4 Popular culture 5 See also 6 References 7 External links

The Saturday Evening Post published current events articles, editorials, human interest pieces, humor, illustrations, a letter column, poetry (including work written by readers), single-panel cartoons and stories. It was known for commissioning lavish illustrations and original works of fiction. Illustrations were featured on the cover, and embedded in stories and advertising. Some "Post" illustrations became popular and continue to be reproduced, particularly works by Norman Rockwell. In 1916, Post editor George Lorimer discovered Rockwell, then an unknown, 22 year old New York artist. Lorimer promptly purchased two illustrations he would use as covers from Rockwell, and commissioned three more drawings. Rockwell's illustrations of rural America and family in a bygone era became icons. He drew for the Post until 1963, and some of his Post illustrations continue to be republished as posters or art prints. Nebraska artist John Philip Falter became known across the U.S. "as a painter of Americana with an accent of the Middle West, who "brought out some of the homeliness and humor of Middle Western town life and home life". He produced 120 covers over 25 years (1943-1968) for the Post, until the magazine began displaying photographs on its covers. Artists N.C. Wyeth, J. C. Leyendecker, and John E. Sheridan illustrated covers.

Each issue of the Post featured several short stories, and often included an installment of a story in serial form appearing in successive issues. Most of the fiction was written for mainstream tastes by popular writers, but some literary writers were featured. Many stories were illustrated. The Post published original short stories and essays by popular and talented writers of the time, including Ray Bradbury, Kay Boyle, Agatha Christie, Brian Cleeve, F. Scott Fitzgerald, C. S. Forester, Paul Gallico, Hammond Innes, Louis L'Amour, C. S. Lewis, Joseph C. Lincoln, John P. Marquand, Sax Rohmer, William Saroyan, John Steinbeck and Rex Stout. Publication in the Post launched careers and helped established artists and writers stay afloat. P. G. Wodehouse said "the wolf was always at the door" until the Post gave him his "first break" in 1915 by serialising Something New.^[1]

After the election of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Post columnist Garet Garrett became a vocal critic of the New Deal. Garrett accused the Roosevelt administration of initiating socialist strategies. After Lorimer died, Garrett became editorial writer in chief. Now Garrett's criticized the Roosevelt Administration's support of the U.K., and attempts to prepare for intervention in the World War 2. His opposition to the New Deal and U.S. participation in WW2 aroused controversy, and may have cost the Post readers and advertisers.

The Post declined in the late 1950s and 1960s. Television is blamed for causing the decline of general interest magazines because it competed for attention and advertisers. The Post had discrete problems retaining readers: the public's taste in fiction was changing, and; the Post's conservative politics and values were controversial, and favored by fewer people. Content by popular writers became difficult to obtain. The Post had to compete for the work of well known authors with magazines that offered more money and status, like Playboy Magazine. As a result, the Post published more articles on current and fashionable topics, and cut costs by using photographs for covers and advertisements instead of illustrations.

Curtis Publishing, Co. stopped publishing the Post after the company lost a landmark defamation suit involving a Post article, Curtis Publishing Co. v. Butts 388 U.S. 130 (1967)^[2], and was ordered to pay $3,060,000 in damages to the claimant. The Post article implyed that football coaches Paul "Bear" Bryant and Wally Butts conspired to fix a game between the University of Alabama and the University of Georgia. Butts sued the Post's publisher, Curtis Publishing, Co., and ultimately the Supreme Court held that Libel damages may be recoverable (in this instance against a news organization) if the injured party is a non-public official; but claimants must demonstrate a reckless lack of professional standards on the part of the organization in examining allegations for reasonable credibility.

Otto Friedrich, the magazine's last managing editor, blames the death of the Post on Curtis Publishing, Co. He argues in Decline and Fall (Harper & Row, 1970), an account of the Post's final years (1962-1969), that corporate management was unimaginative and incompetent. Friedrich acknowledges the Post faced challenges as the preferences of the American readership changed in the late 1960s, but he insists that the magazine maintained a standard of quality and was appreciated by readers.

The Post was revived as a quarterly publication in 1971^[3]. Currently, the magazine features health and medical articles for the lay reader. The Saturday Evening Post is published six times a year by the "Benjamin Franklin Literary & Medical Society", a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.

Mad Magazine satirized the Post in 1958 piece titled "The Saturday Evening Pest". The cover mimics Post article titles with "Our State Department--Do We Need It?" by Joseph and Stewart Allslop" (Joseph and Stewart Alsop), and "This Isn't Exactly What I Had in Mind" by Benjamin Franklin. The first page spoofs Norman Rockwell in a Thanksgiving scene (pipe-smoking painter "Norman Shockwell" smirks at the reader from one corner).

(from the purchase by Curtis, 1898)

• William George Jordan (1898-1899)
• George Horace Lorimer (1899-1937)
• Wesley Winans Stout (1937-1942)
• Ben Hibbs (1942-1962)
• Robert Fuoss (1962)
• Robert Sherrod (1962)
• Clay Blair, Jr. (1962-1964)
• William A. Emerson, Jr. (1965-1969)
• Beurt SerVaas (1971-1975)
• Cory SerVaas, M.D. (1975-present)

May 20, 1905. Illustrated by N. C. Wyeth

December 28, 1907. Cover by J. C. Leyendecker.

• Steve Allen wrote a song inspired by the magazine's title.

• Cyrus Curtis
• John Philip Falter
• Garet Garrett
• Ladies' Home Journal
• J. C. Leyendecker
• Norman Rockwell
• John E. Sheridan (illustrator)
• Harry Simmons

Similar magazines

• Collier's Weekly
• Reader's Digest
• Life
• Look [1]

• Saturday Evening Post website
• Saturday Evening Post illustration archive
• George Horace Lorimer