''Ken'' was a short-lived illustrated
magazine
A magazine is a periodical publication, generally published on a regular schedule (often weekly or monthly), containing a variety of content. They are generally financed by advertising, purchase price, prepaid subscriptions, or by a combinatio ...
first issued on April 7, 1938. It was a controversial,
political
Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that studies ...
, large format magazine with full page photo spreads, published every two weeks on Thursdays.
It contained both articles and stories.
History and profile
''Ken'' was founded in March 1938 by publisher
David A. Smart
David Archibald Smart (October 4, 1892 – October 15, 1952), co-founder of '' Esquire'' magazine, and, with his brother Alfred Smart (1895–1951), co-publisher of '' Esquire'' and ''Coronet''.
Biography
He was born in 1892 to Mary Aronson (born ...
and editor
Arnold Gingrich
Arnold W. Gingrich (December 5, 1903 – July 9, 1976) was the editor of, and, along with publisher David A. Smart and Henry L. Jackson, co-founder of ''Esquire'' magazine. Among his other projects was the political/newsmagazine ''Ken''.
Influenc ...
, who earlier had founded ''
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 ...
''.
Initial publication was delayed due to difficulties in assembling an editorial team.
Jay Allen
Jay Cooke Allen Jr. (Seattle, 7 July 1900 Carmel, 20 December 1972) was an American journalist. He worked mostly for the ''Chicago Tribune'', though his contributions appeared also in many other US newspapers, especially between the mid-1920s and ...
was the first editor hired, and he began to assemble a staff drawing heavily from the political left. Smart and Gingrich found his work unsatisfactory and quickly fired Allen and most of his new men, replacing him with
George Seldes
Henry George Seldes ( ; November 16, 1890 – July 2, 1995) was an American investigative journalist, foreign correspondent, editor, author, and media critic best known for the publication of the newsletter ''In Fact'' from 1940 to 1950. He was ...
; but as Seldes's left-wing views provoked unrest from potential advertisers, he was soon downgraded although not fired. Smart and Gingrich then took more direct editorial control and launched the magazine with contributors including Seldes,
Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. His economical and understated style—which he termed the iceberg theory—had a strong influence on 20th-century fic ...
,
John Spivak,
Raymond Gram Swing
Raymond Gram Swing (March 25, 1887 – December 22, 1968) was an American print and broadcast journalist. He was one of the most influential news commentators of his era, heard by people worldwide as a leading American voice from Britain durin ...
,
Manuel Komroff
Manuel Komroff (September 7, 1890 – 10 December 1974) was an American playwright, screenwriter, novelist, editor and translator. He was born in New York where he began his working life as a journalist. He also spent some time in Russia dur ...
, critic
Burton Rascoe, and sportswriter
Herb Graffis
Herbert Butler Graffis (May 31, 1893 – February 13, 1989) was an American golf writer and administrator. In recognition of his efforts to promote the sport, he was elected to the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1977.
Life and career
Graffis was ...
.
[ ]Sam Berman
Sam Berman (July 27, 1907 – August 11, 1995) was an American caricaturist of the 1940s and 1950s.
Berman was in high school when he began drawing cartoons for the ''Hartford Courant''. He went to New York to study art and then landed a positio ...
contributed caricatures, and David Low cartoons. ''Microbe Hunters'' author Paul de Kruif Paul Henry de Kruif (, rhyming with "life") (1890–1971) was an American microbiologist and author of Dutch descent. Publishing as Paul de Kruif, he is most noted for his 1926 book, ''Microbe Hunters''. This book was not only a bestseller for a le ...
had been brought on as an editor, but was not able to devote full-time to the project.[ Seldes's memoir ''Witness to a Century'' says that Seldes, de Kruif, and Hemingway were like-minded writers and editors (]progressive
Progressive may refer to:
Politics
* Progressivism, a political philosophy in support of social reform
** Progressivism in the United States, the political philosophy in the American context
* Progressive realism, an American foreign policy par ...
, republican
Republican can refer to:
Political ideology
* An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law.
** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...
, anti-fascist
Anti-fascism is a political movement in opposition to fascist ideologies, groups and individuals. Beginning in European countries in the 1920s, it was at its most significant shortly before and during World War II, where the Axis powers were ...
) who were invited to co-edit the new magazine. Seldes's view was that ''Ken'' failed when its owners abandoned the publication's planned editorial independence
Editorial independence is the freedom of editors to make decisions without interference from the owners of a publication. Editorial independence is tested, for instance, if a newspaper runs articles that may be unpopular with its advertising clien ...
to fall in line with advertiser pressure to suppress unflattering investigative reportage such as consumer advocacy
Consumer organizations are advocacy groups that seek to protect people from corporate abuse like unsafe products, predatory lending, false advertising, astroturfing and pollution.
Consumer Organizations may operate via protests, litigation, campa ...
and republican
Republican can refer to:
Political ideology
* An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law.
** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...
critique of fascism
Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, ultra-nationalist political ideology and movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and political and cultural liberalism, a belief in natural social hierarchy an ...
, including the Hitler and Mussolini regimes' fight against the republic in the Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, lin ...
. Seldes quotes de Kruif and Hemingway as resigning angrily when this shift happened. The context of the 1930s as laid out by Seldes was an American press beholden to big business through advertising revenue and the threat of loss thereof, in an era when non-communist progressivism
Progressivism holds that it is possible to improve human societies through political action. As a political movement, progressivism seeks to advance the human condition through social reform based on purported advancements in science, tec ...
including democratic republic
A democratic republic is a form of government operating on principles adopted from a republic and a democracy. As a cross between two exceedingly similar systems, democratic republics may function on principles shared by both republics and democrac ...
anism and trade union
A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ( ...
s was being red-baited by big business favorably disposed to fascism and Nazism as supposedly necessary counters to the Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks (russian: Большевики́, from большинство́ ''bol'shinstvó'', 'majority'),; derived from ''bol'shinstvó'' (большинство́), "majority", literally meaning "one of the majority". also known in English ...
menace. In short, it was an era when the nominally free press was actually beholden to rich corporate interests whose quest for sufficient anti-communism
Anti-communism is political and ideological opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 October Revolution in the Russian Empire, and it reached global dimensions during the Cold War, when the United States and the ...
left them too cozy with right-wing authoritarianism—and who did not tolerate honesty in consumer advocacy because it was bad for sales. This was an era when even reportage on something as fundamental as the link between tobacco and cancer was suppressed by publication owners because it threatened their tobacco advertising revenue, and in which "the Spanish government was red-baited to death."
Some of the politicians with photo layouts in the magazine included Presidents Calvin Coolidge
Calvin Coolidge (born John Calvin Coolidge Jr.; ; July 4, 1872January 5, 1933) was the 30th president of the United States from 1923 to 1929. Born in Vermont, Coolidge was a History of the Republican Party (United States), Republican lawyer ...
, 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 ...
, Warren Harding
Warren Gamaliel Harding (November 2, 1865 – August 2, 1923) was the 29th president of the United States, serving from 1921 until his death in 1923. A member of the Republican Party, he was one of the most popular sitting U.S. presidents. ...
, Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...
and as well as many prominent people in the German politics of the era.[
The publication was investigated in 1938 by the ]House Un-American Activities Committee
The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA), popularly dubbed the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), was an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives, created in 1938 to investigate alleged disloy ...
for being Communist leaning. However, its editor Arnold Gingrich
Arnold W. Gingrich (December 5, 1903 – July 9, 1976) was the editor of, and, along with publisher David A. Smart and Henry L. Jackson, co-founder of ''Esquire'' magazine. Among his other projects was the political/newsmagazine ''Ken''.
Influenc ...
denied that the publication had any political slant. Seldes maintained throughout his life that "To these people McCarthyites_.html" ;"title="McCarthyism.html" ;"title=".e, people like the House Un-American Activities Committee under Dies and later the McCarthyism">McCarthyites ">McCarthyism.html" ;"title=".e, people like the House Un-American Activities Committee under Dies and later the McCarthyism">McCarthyites 'one step left of center' meant 'leftist,' and 'leftist' meant 'red,' and 'red' of course meant 'Communist'" (despite that when Seldes was cleared by McCarthy, the press did not report it).
''Ken'' ceased publication in the summer of 1939. Seldes stated that caving in to corporate advertiser pressure did not work, as not many ads were sold even afterward.
Ernest Hemingway's involvement
The first fourteen issues of ''Ken'' featured articles by Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. His economical and understated style—which he termed the iceberg theory—had a strong influence on 20th-century fic ...
on the Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, lin ...
. In the first issue, of which his article begins on page 36, it is revealed in a caption that Hemingway was initially contracted and announced to be an editor of ''Ken'', but had thus far taken no part in the editing of the magazine, nor in the formation of its policies. The caption goes on to reveal "If he sees eye to eye with us on ''Ken'', we would like to have him as an editor. If not, he will remain as a contributor until he is fired or quits." The disclaimer was written at Hemingway's insistence, as he felt that ''Kens politics might be "liberal-phoney" [that is, pseudo-progressive rather than progressive] and did not wish to be too closely associated with it.[
]
References
{{Reflist
External links
Articles from ''Ken''
Cover art gallery
Biweekly magazines published in the United States
Defunct political magazines published in the United States
Magazines established in 1938
Magazines disestablished in 1939