Joseph Jacobs Thorndike (July 29, 1913 – November 22, 2005) was an American editor and writer.
[Richard F. Snow](_blank)
"Mister Thorndike," ''American Heritage'', February/March 2006. He was Managing Editor of
''Life'' for three years in the late 1940s, and a co-founder of ''
American Heritage'' and ''
Horizon'' magazines.
Biography
Thorndike was born and raised in
Peabody, Massachusetts, a small town north of
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
. His father was a stockbroker, his mother a teacher. Thorndike was a straight A student at Peabody High,
valedictorian
Valedictorian is an academic title for the highest-performing student of a graduating class of an academic institution.
The valedictorian is commonly determined by a numerical formula, generally an academic institution's grade point average (GPA ...
of his class, and a writer for two school magazines.
At
Harvard ('34) he majored in Economics, but spent much of his time at ''
The Harvard Crimson
''The Harvard Crimson'' is the student newspaper of Harvard University and was founded in 1873. Run entirely by Harvard College undergraduates, it served for many years as the only daily newspaper in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Beginning in the f ...
'', rising to Managing Editor his junior year, and to President his senior year.
In June 1934, he started work at
''Time'' magazine, writing people, miscellany and education articles. He was asked by
Henry Luce to join a group planning a new picture magazine, and when ''Life'' debuted in 1936, Thorndike, though only 23, was an associate editor of the magazine.. His immediate boss at ''Life'' was John Shaw Billings, the first Managing Editor. Billings kept a diary in which, according to
Loudon Wainwright's book ''The Great American Magazine: An Inside History of Life'', he called Thorndike "a mulish young Yankee," and "a stubborn little New England cuss". Wainwright himself called Thorndike "a handsome, bright, reserved, efficient fellow...ambitious, proud, marked from the start for bigger things."
[Wainwright, Loudon (1986). ''The Great American Magazine: An Inside History of Life''. New York: Knopf. p. 111. ]
In 1946, as ''Life''
's circulation topped five million, Thorndike became the magazine's third Managing Editor, a position he held for three years. Toward the end of his stay, disagreements grew between him and Luce. ''Life'', in late 1948, had published a "''Life'' Goes To A Party" story about an uninhibited dance party in
Hawaii
Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only state ...
, including photos of scantily-dressed partygoers. Luce's reaction was to subject the Managing Editor to more supervision, which Thorndike resisted. The dispute came to a head in August, 1949, after Luce circulated a memoir proposing an "Editor-in-Chief's Committee" that would decide on all future articles for the magazine. Thorndike read it, packed his briefcase and resigned.
In 1950, Thorndike and another refugee from ''Life'', Oliver Jensen, formed a small publishing company, Picture Press. They put out a book of cowboy photos by ''Life'' photographer Leonard McCombe, and a lavish picture book for
Ford Motor Company
Ford Motor Company (commonly known as Ford) is an American multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, United States. It was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. The company sells automobi ...
, ''Ford at Fifty''. James Parton, whom Thorndike had known at the ''Crimson'', joined them in 1952 to create Thorndike Jensen & Parton, and in 1954 they took over a small history publication named ''
American Heritage''. They enlarged it, turned it into a hardcover, profusely illustrated bimonthly with no advertisements, and hired popular
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...
historian
Bruce Catton
Charles Bruce Catton (October 9, 1899 – August 28, 1978) was an American historian and journalist, known best for his books concerning the American Civil War. Known as a narrative historian, Catton specialized in popular history, featuring in ...
as editor and writer.
Circulation at ''American Heritage'' rose to over 300,000.
David McCullough
David Gaub McCullough (; July 7, 1933 – August 7, 2022) was an American popular historian. He was a two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. In 2006, he was given the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States ...
, author of the bestsellers ''Truman'' and ''John Adams'', and writer and editor for the magazine, later said that it was "the best place I ever worked as an employee... They were receptive to new ideas, with very high editorial standards, high accuracy, and quality writing... You felt like you were cast in a hit show with great people."
A second magazine, ''
Horizon'', followed in 1958, and over the next three decades the company published dozens of illustrated books on history, art and architecture. Thorndike wrote two of them: ''The Magnificent Builders And Their Dream Houses'' (1978), and ''The Very Rich: A History of Wealth'' (1985).
American Heritage sold to
McGraw-Hill
McGraw Hill is an American educational publishing company and one of the "big three" educational publishers that publishes educational content, software, and services for pre-K through postgraduate education. The company also publishes refere ...
in 1970, to private investor Samuel Pryor Reed of New York City in 1976, to
Forbes
''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also r ...
in 1986, and to an independent publisher,
Edwin S. Grosvenor, in 2007.
In his early seventies, Thorndike served for two years as head of The ''
American Heritage Dictionary
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, p ...
'' Usage Panel, a group of writers and scholars who are polled on acceptable
English usage
Linguistic prescription, or prescriptive grammar, is the establishment of rules defining preferred usage of language. These rules may address such linguistic aspects as spelling, pronunciation, vocabulary, syntax, and semantics. Sometimes infor ...
.
In 1993 Thorndike published his last book, ''The Coast: A Journey Down the Atlantic Shore'', which ''
Kirkus Reviews'' described as "an effective combination of eyeball observation, rich history, and sad acknowledgment of how poorly we have used still another national resource."
Thorndike was married twice: to Virginia Lemont in 1940, with whom he had two sons,
John
John is a common English name and surname:
* John (given name)
* John (surname)
John may also refer to:
New Testament
Works
* Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John
* First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John
* Secon ...
and Alan, and to Margery Darrell in 1964, with whom he had a son, Joe. For twenty-eight years until she died in 2004, Thorndike had a close relationship with his "great and good friend" Jane Allport.
Thorndike died in 2005 of complications from
Alzheimer's and congestive heart failure. He is buried in the Island Pond Cemetery in
Harwich, Massachusetts
Harwich ( ) is a New England town on Cape Cod, in Barnstable County in the state of Massachusetts in the United States. At the 2020 census it had a population of 13,440. Harwich experiences a seasonal increase to roughly 37,000. The town is a ...
.
Books
* ''The Magnificent Builders and Their Dream Houses'' - Hardcover: 352 pages, American Heritage Publishing Co. (1978),
* ''The Very Rich: A History of Wealth'' - Hardcover: 344 pages, American Heritage Publishing Co. (1985), .
* ''The Coast: A Journey Down the Atlantic Shore'' - Hardcover: 227 pages, St. Martin's Press (1993),
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thorndike, Joseph
American magazine editors
American male journalists
1913 births
2005 deaths
The Harvard Crimson people