![Briton Hadden](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f6/Briton_Hadden.jpg)
Briton Hadden (February 18, 1898 – February 27, 1929) was the co-founder of ''
Time
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...
'' magazine with his
Yale
Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wor ...
classmate
Henry Luce. He was ''Time''s first editor and the inventor of its revolutionary writing style, known as Timestyle. Though he died at 31, he was considered one of the most influential journalists of the twenties, a master innovator and stylist, and an iconic figure of the
Jazz Age.
Early life
Born in Brooklyn, Hadden got his start in
newspaper
A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background.
Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, sports a ...
writing at Brooklyn's
Poly Prep Country Day School
Poly Prep Country Day School (commonly known as Poly Prep) is an independent, co-educational day school with two campuses in Brooklyn, New York, United States. The Middle School (5th to 8th grades) and Upper School (9th to 12th grades) are loc ...
, where he wrote for the school magazine, the ''Poly Prep'', and distributed a hand-written, underground sheet to his classmates that was called ''The Daily Glonk''. Moving to the
Hotchkiss School
The Hotchkiss School is a coeducational University-preparatory school#North America, preparatory school in Lakeville, Connecticut, United States. Hotchkiss is a member of the Eight Schools Association and Ten Schools Admissions Organization. It i ...
, he wrote for the ''Hotchkiss Record'', a weekly newspaper. After an intense competition, he was elected the chairman of the newspaper and Luce the assistant managing editor. Hadden then turned the ''Record'' from a weekly into a bi-weekly.
At Yale, Hadden was elected to the staff of the ''
Yale Daily News
The ''Yale Daily News'' is an independent student newspaper published by Yale University students in New Haven, Connecticut since January 28, 1878. It is the oldest college daily newspaper in the United States. The ''Yale Daily News'' has consis ...
'' and later served as the paper's chairman twice (1917-1918 and 1919–1920). Luce was the News' managing
editor the second time. While at Yale, he was a brother of
Delta Kappa Epsilon
Delta Kappa Epsilon (), commonly known as ''DKE'' or ''Deke'', is one of the oldest fraternities in the United States, with fifty-six active chapters and five active colonies across North America. It was founded at Yale College in 1844 by fifteen ...
(Phi chapter) and a member of
Skull and Bones
Skull and Bones, also known as The Order, Order 322 or The Brotherhood of Death, is an undergraduate senior secret student society at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. The oldest senior class society at the university, Skull and Bone ...
.
It was during a break from school, when Hadden and Luce traveled south to
Camp Jackson, South Carolina as ROTC officer candidates, that they began seriously discussing the idea of creating a magazine that would condense all the news of the week into a brief and easily readable "digest."
Career
After receiving his
bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ...
from
Yale University
Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...
in 1920, Hadden wrote for the ''
New York World
The ''New York World'' was a newspaper published in New York City from 1860 until 1931. The paper played a major role in the history of American newspapers. It was a leading national voice of the Democratic Party. From 1883 to 1911 under pub ...
'', where he was mentored by one of New York's most famous and accomplished newspaper editors,
Herbert Bayard Swope
Herbert Bayard Swope Sr. (; January 5, 1882 – June 20, 1958) was an American editor, journalist and intimate of the Algonquin Round Table. Swope spent most of his career at the ''New York World.'' He was the first and three-time recipient of t ...
. In late 1921, Hadden wrote to Luce, who had recently been let go by the ''
Chicago Daily News
The ''Chicago Daily News'' was an afternoon daily newspaper in the midwestern United States, published between 1875 and 1978 in Chicago, Illinois.
History
The ''Daily News'' was founded by Melville E. Stone, Percy Meggy, and William Dougherty ...
'', and suggested that they both go to work for the ''
Baltimore News
The ''Baltimore News-American'' was a broadsheet newspaper published in downtown Baltimore, Maryland until May 27, 1986. It had a continuous lineage (in various forms) of more than 200 years. For much of the mid-20th century, it had the largest ...
''. In Baltimore, they spent their nights working on the idea of a
news magazine
A news magazine is a typed, printed, and published magazine, radio or television program, usually published weekly, consisting of articles about current events. News magazines generally discuss stories, in greater depth than do newspapers or new ...
, which, at first, they planned to call ''Facts''.
Founding ''Time'' magazine
In 1923, Hadden and Luce co-founded ''Time'' magazine along with
Robert Livingston Johnson Robert Livingston Johnson (March 25, 1894 – January 16, 1966) was Temple University's third president (1941 to 1959) and a former vice president of Time Inc.
Early life
Johnson was born in New York City to Frank R. and Grace Bell Johnson. He ...
and another Yale classmate. Hadden and Luce served alternating years as the company's president, but Hadden was the editor for four and a half of the magazine's first six years, and was considered the "presiding genius". Johnson served as the magazine's vice president and advertising director.
In its earliest years the magazine was edited in an abandoned beer brewery, subsequently moving to Cleveland in 1925, and returning to New York in 1927. For the next year and several months, both ''Time'' and ''
The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
'' were edited at 25 W. 45th Street in Manhattan. Thus two of the major magazine editors of the 1920s—Briton Hadden and
Harold Ross
Harold Wallace Ross (November 6, 1892 – December 6, 1951) was an American journalist who co-founded ''The New Yorker'' magazine in 1925 with his wife Jane Grant, and was its editor-in-chief until his death.
Early life
Born in a prospector' ...
—worked in the same building.
Illness and death
In December 1928, Hadden became ill. He died two months later, most likely of
streptococcus viridans
The viridans streptococci are a large group of commensal streptococcal Gram-positive bacteria species that are α-hemolytic, producing a green coloration on blood agar plates (hence the name "viridans", from Latin "vĭrĭdis", green), although ...
, which had entered his bloodstream, causing
sepsis
Sepsis, formerly known as septicemia (septicaemia in British English) or blood poisoning, is a life-threatening condition that arises when the body's response to infection causes injury to its own tissues and organs. This initial stage is follo ...
and ultimately the failure of his heart. Before he died, Hadden signed a will, which left all of his stock in Time Inc. to his mother and forbade his family from selling those shares for 49 years. Within a year of Hadden's death, Luce formed a syndicate, which succeeded in gaining hold of Hadden's stock.
Legacy
Luce took Hadden's name off the masthead of ''Time'' within two weeks of his death. In the next 38 years, he delivered more than 300 speeches around the world, mentioning Hadden four times. Luce acquired control of Hadden's papers, and he kept them at Time Inc., where no one outside the company was allowed to view the papers as long as Luce lived. Throughout his life, Luce repeatedly claimed credit for Hadden's ideas in public speeches and in ''Time'' magazine.
Luce presided over the growth of the ''Time''-''
Life
Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for growth, reaction to stimuli, metabolism, energ ...
'' empire, and donated funds towards the construction of a building at 202 York Street in
New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134,02 ...
that would eventually become the ''Yale Daily News new home. The office is today called the Briton Hadden Memorial Building.
References
External links
Time Magazine biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hadden, Briton
1898 births
1929 deaths
American magazine founders
American magazine publishers (people)
Hotchkiss School alumni
Yale University alumni
Deaths from sepsis
Time (magazine) people
Poly Prep alumni