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''Saturday Review'', previously ''The Saturday Review of Literature'', was an American weekly
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 ...
established in 1924.
Norman Cousins Norman Cousins (June 24, 1915 – November 30, 1990) was an American political journalist, author, professor, and world peace advocate. Early life Cousins was born to Jewish immigrant parents Samuel Cousins and Sarah Babushkin Cousins, in West ...
was the editor from 1940 to 1971. Under Norman Cousins, it was described as "a compendium of reportage, essays and criticism about current events, education, science, travel, the arts and other topics." At its peak, ''Saturday Review'' was influential as the base of several widely read
critic A critic is a person who communicates an assessment and an opinion of various forms of creative works such as art, literature, music, cinema, theater, fashion, architecture, and food. Critics may also take as their subject social or governmen ...
s (e.g.,
Wilder Hobson Wilder Hobson (February 18, 1906 – May 1, 1964) was an American writer and editor for ''Time'' (1930s-1940s), ''Fortune'' (1940s), ''Harper's Bazaar'' (1950s), and ''Newsweek'' (1960s) magazines. He was also a competent musician (trombone), a ...
, music critic
Irving Kolodin Irving Kolodin (February 21, 1908April 29, 1988) was an American music critic and music historian. Biography Irving Kolodin was born in New York City, New York. He wrote for the ''New York Sun'' from 1932 to 1950 and for the '' Saturday Review'' ...
, and theater critics
John Mason Brown John Mason Brown (July 3, 1900 – March 16, 1969) was an American drama critic and author.Van Gelder, Lawrence (March 17, 1969). "John Mason Brown, Critic, Dead." ''The New York Times'' Life Born in Louisville, Kentucky, he graduated from Harva ...
and Henry Hewes), and was often known by its initials as ''SR''. It was never very profitable and eventually succumbed to the decline of general-interest magazines after restructuring and trying to reinvent itself more than once during the 1970s and 1980s.


History

From 1920 to 1924, ''Literary Review'' was a Saturday supplement to the ''
New York Evening Post The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates NYPost.com, the celebrity gossip site PageSix.com, and the entertainment site Decider.com. It was established i ...
''.
Henry Seidel Canby Henry Seidel Canby (September 6, 1878 – April 5, 1961) was a critic, editor, and Yale University professor. A scion of a Quaker family that arrived in Wilmington, Delaware, around 1740 and grew to regional prominence through milling and bu ...
established it as a separate publication in 1924.
Bernard DeVoto Bernard Augustine DeVoto (January 11, 1897 – November 13, 1955) was an American historian, conservationist, essayist, columnist, teacher, editor, and reviewer. He was the author of a series of Pulitzer-Prize-winning popular histories of the Ame ...
was the editor in 1936–1938. In 1950, John Barkham became book reviewer there. Until 1952, it was known as ''The Saturday Review of Literature''. The magazine was purchased by the
McCall Corporation McCall Corporation was an American publishing company that produced some popular magazines. These included ''Redbook'' for women, ''Bluebook'' for men, ''McCall's'', the '' Saturday Review'', and ''Popular Mechanics''. It also published ''Better L ...
in 1961. ''Saturday Review'' reached its maximum circulation of 660,000 under Cousins's editorship. Longtime editor Norman Cousins resigned when it was sold, along with McCall Books, to a group led by the two co-founders of ''
Psychology Today ''Psychology Today'' is an American media organization with a focus on psychology and human behavior. It began as a bimonthly magazine, which first appeared in 1967. The ''Psychology Today'' website features therapy and health professionals direct ...
'', which they had recently sold to
Boise Cascade Boise Cascade Company (), which uses the trade name Boise Cascade, is a North American manufacturer of wood products and wholesale distributor of building materials, headquartered in Boise, Idaho. with sales over $7.9 billion in 2021, it is trad ...
. They split the magazine into four separate monthlies and renamed the publishing company Saturday Review Press, but the experiment ended in insolvency two years later. Former editor Cousins purchased it and recombined the units with ''World'', a new magazine he had started in the meantime. Briefly it was called ''SR World'' before it reverted to ''Saturday Review''. Saturday Review Press was sold separately to
E. P. Dutton E. P. Dutton was an American book publishing company. It was founded as a book retailer in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1852 by Edward Payson Dutton. Since 1986, it has been an imprint of Penguin Group. Creator Edward Payson Dutton (January 4, ...
. The magazine was sold in 1977 to a group led by Carll Tucker, who sold it in 1980 to Macro Communications, the owner of the business magazine ''
Financial World ''Financial World'' was an American magazine for investors from 1902 to 1998. It was originally issued weekly, and later every two weeks. In the magazine's later years of publication, its signature issue was the "Sports Franchise Valuation Issue". ...
''. It was insolvent again in 1982 and was sold to Missouri entrepreneur Jeffrey Gluck. A new group of investors in 1984 resurrected it briefly. According to Greg Lindsay writing for ''Folio'' twenty years later, most people consider 1982 "the year ''Saturday Review'' died". ''
Penthouse Penthouse most often refers to: *Penthouse apartment, a special apartment on the top floor of a building *Penthouse (magazine), ''Penthouse'' (magazine), a British-founded men's magazine *Mechanical penthouse, a floor, typically located directly u ...
'' publisher
Bob Guccione Robert Charles Joseph Edward Sabatini Guccione ( ; December 17, 1930 – October 20, 2010) was an American photographer and publisher. He founded the adult magazine '' Penthouse'' in 1965. This was aimed at competing with Hugh Hefner's ''Playboy' ...
acquired all properties in 1987 and used the title briefly from 1993 for an online publication at
AOL AOL (stylized as Aol., formerly a company known as AOL Inc. and originally known as America Online) is an American web portal and online service provider based in New York City. It is a brand marketed by the current incarnation of Yahoo (2017â ...
.


Revival

In December 2010, business columnist for ''
The Philadelphia Inquirer ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'' is a daily newspaper headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The newspaper's circulation is the largest in both the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the Delaware Valley metropolitan region of Southeastern Pennsy ...
'' Joseph N. DiStefano reported in his
blog A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order ...
that John T. Elduff of
JTE Multimedia JTE Multimedia, LLC is a publishing company located in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania that was founded in 2007. It publishes three peer-reviewed medical journals: ''Hospital Practice'', '' Postgraduate Medicine'', and '' The Physician and Sportsmedici ...
planned to "revive" both ''
Collier's ''Collier's'' was an American general interest magazine founded in 1888 by Peter Fenelon Collier. It was launched as ''Collier's Once a Week'', then renamed in 1895 as ''Collier's Weekly: An Illustrated Journal'', shortened in 1905 to ''Collie ...
'' and ''Saturday Review'' as print and online magazines â€” mainly print, "for Americans 55 to 90". Both would "have a liberal share of attention to research" and look like they did in the 1950s. Philly.com says the blog "feeds" his newspaper column. In 2011, JTE Multimedia made use of the ''Saturday Review'' name with its Web site, ''Saturday Review–Drug Trials,'' to report on clinical drug research, focusing on inconclusive and adverse trial results. The site disappeared in 2016 with its home page essentially unchanged since its launch date.


References

{{Reflist Weekly magazines published in the United States Magazines established in 1920 Magazines disestablished in 1986 Defunct literary magazines published in the United States Men's magazines published in the United States Lifestyle magazines published in the United States Health magazines Magazines published in New York City