George Horace Lorimer (October 6, 1867 – October 22, 1937) was an American journalist, editor, author and publisher who worked as the editor of ''
The Saturday Evening Post
''The Saturday Evening Post'' is an American magazine, currently published six times a year. It was issued weekly under this title from 1897 until 1963, then every two weeks until 1969. From the 1920s to the 1960s, it was one of the most widely ...
'' from 1899 to 1936. During his time as editor, circulation rose from several thousand to more than one million. He published the works of some of the greatest American writers and hired the then unknown illustrator
Norman Rockwell
Norman Percevel Rockwell (February 3, 1894 – November 8, 1978) was an American painter and illustrator. His works have a broad popular appeal in the United States for their reflection of Culture of the United States, the country's culture. Roc ...
to create cover artwork. He became president of the
Curtis Publishing Company
The Curtis Publishing Company, founded in 1891 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, became one of the largest and most influential publishers in the United States during the early 20th century. The company's publications included the ''Ladies' Home Jour ...
in 1932 and served until 1936.
Early life and education
Lorimer was born on October 6, 1867
[Friedrich, Otto. ]
Decline and Fall
'. Harper and Row, 1970, p. 10 in
Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border ...
, the son of Rev.
George C. Lorimer and Belle (née Burford) Lorimer. He attended Moseley High School in
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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, subdivision_name ...
and
Yale University
Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...
.
He was convinced by one of his father's parishioners,
Philip D. Armour, to leave Yale and work in the meatpacking business in Chicago from 1887 to 1895.
[ He opened his own grocery business but it failed.] In 1892, he married Alma Ennis.
He moved to Boston and worked as a reporter before returning to school at Colby College
Colby College is a private liberal arts college in Waterville, Maine. It was founded in 1813 as the Maine Literary and Theological Institution, then renamed Waterville College after the city where it resides. The donations of Christian philant ...
to study writing.
Career
He worked as a journalist at the Boston Post
''The Boston Post'' was a daily newspaper in New England for over a hundred years before it folded in 1956. The ''Post'' was founded in November 1831 by two prominent Boston businessmen, Charles G. Greene and William Beals.
Edwin Grozier bough ...
and the Boston Herald. He was hired by Cyrus H. K. Curtis in 1897 as literary editor of ''The Saturday Evening Post
''The Saturday Evening Post'' is an American magazine, currently published six times a year. It was issued weekly under this title from 1897 until 1963, then every two weeks until 1969. From the 1920s to the 1960s, it was one of the most widely ...
''.[ In March 1899, he was promoted to acting editor and replaced William George Jordan. He became editor-in-chief and published the works of some of the greatest American writers including ]Willa Cather
Willa Sibert Cather (; born Wilella Sibert Cather; December 7, 1873 – April 24, 1947) was an American writer known for her novels of life on the Great Plains, including '' O Pioneers!'', '' The Song of the Lark'', and '' My Ántonia''. In 192 ...
, Stephen Crane
Stephen Crane (November 1, 1871 – June 5, 1900) was an American poet, novelist, and short story writer. Prolific throughout his short life, he wrote notable works in the Realist tradition as well as early examples of American Naturalism an ...
, Theodore Dreiser
Theodore Herman Albert Dreiser (; August 27, 1871 – December 28, 1945) was an American novelist and journalist of the naturalist school. His novels often featured main characters who succeeded at their objectives despite a lack of a firm mora ...
, F. Scott Fitzgerald
Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (September 24, 1896 – December 21, 1940) was an American novelist, essayist, and short story writer. He is best known for his novels depicting the flamboyance and excess of the Jazz Age—a term he popularize ...
, Ring Lardner
Ringgold Wilmer Lardner (March 6, 1885 – September 25, 1933) was an American sports columnist and short story writer best known for his satirical writings on sports, marriage, and the theatre. His contemporaries Ernest Hemingway, Virginia Wo ...
, Sinclair Lewis
Harry Sinclair Lewis (February 7, 1885 – January 10, 1951) was an American writer and playwright. In 1930, he became the first writer from the United States (and the first from the Americas) to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature, which was ...
, Jack London
John Griffith Chaney (January 12, 1876 – November 22, 1916), better known as Jack London, was an American novelist, journalist and activist. A pioneer of commercial fiction and American magazines, he was one of the first American authors to ...
and Frank Norris
Benjamin Franklin Norris Jr. (March 5, 1870 – October 25, 1902) was an American journalist and novelist during the Progressive Era, whose fiction was predominantly in the naturalist genre. His notable works include '' McTeague: A Story of San ...
. He introduced European writers such as Joseph Conrad and John Galsworthy to American audiences.[ Lorimer convinced former U.S. President ]Grover Cleveland
Stephen Grover Cleveland (March 18, 1837June 24, 1908) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 22nd and 24th president of the United States from 1885 to 1889 and from 1893 to 1897. Cleveland is the only president in American ...
to write for the Post. In 1916, Lorimer hired the then unknown illustrator Norman Rockwell
Norman Percevel Rockwell (February 3, 1894 – November 8, 1978) was an American painter and illustrator. His works have a broad popular appeal in the United States for their reflection of Culture of the United States, the country's culture. Roc ...
to create cover artwork for The Saturday Evening Post.[
One of the most popular series in the Saturday Evening Post was anonymously written by Lorimer. ''Letters from a Self-Made Merchant to his Son'' was published in the op-ed page from 1901 to 1902 and portrayed letters written from a father, John Graham, a self-made pork packer, to his son, Pierrepont, who had just enrolled at Harvard. The fictional series was a huge success and the Saturday Evening Post received over 5,000 letters in response. In 1902, the series was published as a book and became a best seller in the United States and overseas. The success of the publication lead to a sequel titled ''Old Gorgon Graham: More Letters From a Self-Made Merchant to His Son'' published in 1903.
In 1932, he became president of ]Curtis Publishing Company
The Curtis Publishing Company, founded in 1891 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, became one of the largest and most influential publishers in the United States during the early 20th century. The company's publications included the ''Ladies' Home Jour ...
.[ He remained in charge until the last day of 1936, about a year before his death from throat cancer.]
Death and legacy
He died on October 22, 1937,[ in Wyncote, Pennsylvania, and was interred at ]Laurel Hill Cemetery
Laurel Hill Cemetery is a historic rural cemetery in the East Falls neighborhood of Philadelphia. Founded in 1836, it was the second major rural cemetery in the United States after Mount Auburn Cemetery in Boston, Massachusetts.
The cemetery is ...
in Philadelphia. President Herbert Hoover
Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) was an American politician who served as the 31st president of the United States from 1929 to 1933 and a member of the Republican Party, holding office during the onset of the Gr ...
was a pallbearer at his funeral.
Lorimer had a ten-acre estate in Wyncote, Pennsylvania
Wyncote is a census-designated place (CDP) in Cheltenham Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. It borders the northwestern and northeastern section of Philadelphia. Wyncote is located 11 miles from Center City Philadelphia at the southeaster ...
named Belgrame after his two children, Belle and Grame. In 1945, the Handmaids of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
The Handmaids of the Sacred Heart of Jesus ( la, Ancillae Cordis Iesu; es, Esclavas del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús) is a Roman Catholic religious institute that was founded in Madrid, Spain, in 1877 by two sisters, María Dolores and Raphaela Mar ...
purchased the property to use as the campus of Ancillae Assumpta Academy.
Lorimer's Kings Oak farm in Abington Township, Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
, was bequested to the citizens of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania
Montgomery County is a County (United States), county in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is the List of counties in Pennsylvania, third-most populous county in Pennsylvania and the List of the most populous cou ...
and forms part of the Lorimer Park.[
His ''Letters From a Self-Made Merchant to His Son'' was the basis for the 1922 film ''A Self-made Man'' starring William Russell.]
Published works
*
Letters from a Self-Made Merchant to His Son: Being the Letters written by John Graham, Head of the House of Graham & Company, Pork-Packers in Chicago, familiarly known on 'Change as "Old Gorgon Graham," to his Son, Pierrepont, facetiously known to his intimates as "Piggy."
', Small, Maynard & Company, Boston, 1904
*
Old Gorgon Graham: More Letters from a Self-Made Merchant to His Son
', Doubleday, Page & Company, New York, 1904
*
The False Gods
', D. Appleton & Company, New York 1906
*
Jack Spurlock, Prodigal
', John Murray, London, 1908
References
Citations
Sources
*
External links
George Horace Lorimer family papers - University Libraries, Special Collections Libraries, University of Georgia
*
*
*
*
"George Horace Lorimer Quotations"
Quotation Collection.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lorimer, George Horace
1867 births
1937 deaths
19th-century American businesspeople
20th-century American businesspeople
American grocers
American magazine editors
American male journalists
American philanthropists
American publishers (people)
Boston Herald people
Burials at Laurel Hill Cemetery (Philadelphia)
Businesspeople in the meat packing industry
Colby College alumni
Deaths from throat cancer
People from Cheltenham, Pennsylvania
The Boston Post people
The Saturday Evening Post editors
Writers from Louisville, Kentucky
Yale University alumni