Harold Thomas Pace Hayes (April 18, 1926 – April 5, 1989), editor of ''

Esquire Esquire (, ; abbreviated Esq.) is usually a courtesy title. In the United Kingdom, ''esquire'' historically was a title of respect accorded to men of higher social rank, particularly members of the landed gentry above the rank of gentlema ...

'' magazine from 1963 to 1973, was a main architect of the New Journalism movement.

Biography

Born April 18, 1926, in Elkin, North Carolina, Harold Hayes earned an undergraduate degree from Wake Forest College, worked for United Press in Atlanta, served in the Marines, moved to New York City to work for a small magazine called ''Pageant'', and wound up in 1956 at ''

'', where he battled with several other young editors, among them Clay Felker (who went on to found ''

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

'' magazine), for the job of top editor. Hayes won that contest, becoming first managing editor and then, on October 1, 1963, editor. After Hayes left ''Esquire'' in 1973, he hosted a public television interview program, worked briefly as an editorial producer for (and, with Robert Hughes, the first cohost of) ''

20/20 Visual acuity (VA) commonly refers to the clarity of vision, but technically rates an examinee's ability to recognize small details with precision. Visual acuity is dependent on optical and neural factors, i.e. (1) the sharpness of the retinal ...

'', became editorial director of CBS magazines and then editor of ''California'' magazine. He wrote three books on Africa -- ''The Last Place on Earth'', ''Three Levels of Time'', and ''The Dark Romance of Dian Fossey'', the last developed from a November 1986 essay in '' Life'' magazine and later the basis for the 1988 film '' Gorillas in the Mist''. Hayes' personal papers are stored at the Z. Smith Reynolds Library at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The papers include correspondence with many of the famous writers Hayes worked with throughout his career.

Death

He died in 1989 in Los Angeles, California, 13 days before his 63rd birthday, leaving a widow, Judy Kessler Hayes (he was divorced from his first wife, Susan Hayes), a daughter, Carrie O'Brien, and a son, Thomas.

Work

As an editor, Hayes appreciated bold writing and points of view, favoring writers with a flair for ferreting out the spirit of the time—writers like Gay Talese, Tom Wolfe,

Norman Mailer Nachem Malech Mailer (January 31, 1923 – November 10, 2007), known by his pen name Norman Kingsley Mailer, was an American novelist, journalist, essayist, playwright, activist, filmmaker and actor. In a career spanning over six decades, Mailer ...

Michael Herr Michael David Herr (April 13, 1940 – June 23, 2016) was an American writer and war correspondent, known as the author of '' Dispatches'' (1977), a memoir of his time as a correspondent for ''Esquire'' (1967–1969) during the Vietnam War. The ...

John Sack John Sack (March 24, 1930 – March 27, 2004) was an American literary journalism, literary journalist and war correspondent. He was the only journalist to cover List of wars involving the United States, each American war over half a century. B ...

, Gore Vidal,

William F. Buckley William Frank Buckley Jr. (born William Francis Buckley; November 24, 1925 – February 27, 2008) was an American public intellectual, conservative author and political commentator. In 1955, he founded ''National Review'', the magazine that stim ...

Garry Wills Garry Wills (born May 22, 1934) is an American author, journalist, political philosopher, and historian, specializing in American history, politics, and religion, especially the history of the Catholic Church. He won a Pulitzer Prize for Genera ...

Gina Berriault Gina Berriault (January 1, 1926 – July 15, 1999), was an American novelist and short story writer. Biography Berriault was born in Long Beach, California, to Russian-Jewish immigrant parents. Her father was a freelance writer and Berriault took ...

, and Nora Ephron. His editorial risks extended into graphic innovation by publishing

George Lois George Lois (June 26, 1931 – November 18, 2022) was an American art director, designer, and author. Lois was perhaps best known for over 92 covers he designed for ''Esquire'' magazine from 1962 to 1973. Background Lois was born in New Yor ...

's iconic covers like

Sonny Liston Charles L. "Sonny" Liston ( 1930 – December 30, 1970) was an American professional boxer who competed from 1953 to 1970. A dominant contender of his era, he became the world heavyweight champion in 1962 after knocking out Floyd Patterson i ...

wearing a Santa Claus hat, Andy Warhol disappearing in a can of Campbell's soup, and Muhammad Ali posing as St. Sebastian. Fiction editor

Gordon Lish Gordon Lish (born February 11, 1934 in Hewlett, New York) is an American writer. As a literary editor, he championed many American authors, particularly Raymond Carver, Barry Hannah, Amy Hempel, Rick Bass, and Richard Ford. He is the father of t ...

brought in stories by Raymond Carver. Diane Arbus contributed photographs. Robert Benton and David Newman thought up the Dubious Achievement Awards (and in their spare time wrote the screenplay for the 1967 movie ''

Bonnie and Clyde Bonnie Elizabeth Parker (October 1, 1910May 23, 1934) and Clyde Chestnut (Champion) Barrow (March 24, 1909May 23, 1934) were an American criminal couple who traveled the Central United States with their gang during the Great Depression. The co ...

''). More a general-interest magazine than a men's magazine then, ''Esquire'' was "a big, unruly book, its contents unbound by formulaic notions of what belonged there," Carol Polsgrove wrote in ''It Wasn't Pretty, Folks, But Didn't We Have Fun?'' (1995),Carol Polsgrove, ''It Wasn't Pretty, Folks, But Didn't We Have Fun? Esquire in the Sixties'', New York: W.W. Norton, 1995. her history of the Hayes era at ''Esquire''. Hayes edited an anthology of Esquire's best writing of the 1960s called ''Smiling Through the Apocalypse'', which was published in 1971. In 2013, his son Tom produced and directed a documentary about his father, similarly titled ''Smiling Through the Apocalypse: Esquire in the 60s'', featuring interviews with many of the surviving writers under Harold Hayes' tutelage. The 97' film is available on iTunes and Amazon.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hayes, Harold American magazine editors American male journalists 1989 deaths 1926 births 20th-century American non-fiction writers Wake Forest University alumni 20th-century American male writers Presidents of the American Society of Magazine Editors