Harold Thomas Pace Hayes (April 18, 1926 – April 5, 1989), editor of '' Esquire'' magazine from 1963 to 1973, was a main architect of the

New Journalism New Journalism is a style of news writing and journalism, developed in the 1960s and 1970s, that uses literary techniques unconventional at the time. It is characterized by a subjective perspective, a literary style reminiscent of long-form non- ...

movement.

Biography

Born April 18, 1926, in

Elkin, North Carolina Elkin is a town in Surry and Wilkes counties in the U.S. state of North Carolina, along the Yadkin River. Elkin shares its name with the surrounding township of Elkin Township. The population was 4,083 at the 2020 census. Geography Elkin is ...

, Harold Hayes earned an undergraduate degree from

Wake Forest College Wake Forest University is a private research university in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Founded in 1834, the university received its name from its original location in Wake Forest, north of Raleigh, North Carolina. The Reynolda Campus, the u ...

, worked for United Press in

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

, served in the Marines, moved to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

to work for a small magazine called ''Pageant'', and wound up in 1956 at '' Esquire'', where he battled with several other young editors, among them

Clay Felker Clay Schuette Felker (October 2, 1925 – July 1, 2008) was an American magazine editor and journalist who co-founded ''New York'' magazine in 1968. He was known for bringing numerous journalists into the profession. ''The New York Times'' wrote ...

(who went on to found '' New York'' 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'', 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 Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as Cell signaling, signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for Cell growth, growth, reaction to Stimu ...

'' magazine and later the basis for the 1988 film ''

Gorillas in the Mist ''Gorillas in the Mist'' is a 1988 American drama film directed by Michael Apted and starring Sigourney Weaver as the naturalist Dian Fossey. It tells the story of her work in Rwanda with mountain gorillas and was nominated for five Academy Aw ...

''. Hayes' personal papers are stored at the Z. Smith Reynolds Library at Wake Forest University in

Winston-Salem Winston-Salem is a city and the county seat of Forsyth County, North Carolina, United States. In the 2020 census, the population was 249,545, making it the second-largest municipality in the Piedmont Triad region, the 5th most populous city in ...

, 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 Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

, 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 Gaetano "Gay" Talese (; born February 7, 1932) is an American writer. As a journalist for ''The New York Times'' and ''Esquire'' magazine during the 1960s, Talese helped to define contemporary literary journalism and is considered, along with ...

Tom Wolfe Thomas Kennerly Wolfe Jr. (March 2, 1930 – May 14, 2018)Some sources say 1931; ''The New York Times'' and Reuters both initially reported 1931 in their obituaries before changing to 1930. See and was an American author and journalist widely ...

, Norman 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 Eugene Luther Gore Vidal (; born Eugene Louis Vidal, October 3, 1925 – July 31, 2012) was an American writer and public intellectual known for his epigrammatic wit, erudition, and patrician manner. Vidal was bisexual, and in his novels and e ...

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 Nora Ephron ( ; May 19, 1941 – June 26, 2012) was an American journalist, writer, and filmmaker. She is best known for her romantic comedy films and was nominated three times for the Writers Guild of America Award and the Academy Award for ...

. 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 wearing a Santa Claus hat,

Andy Warhol Andy Warhol (; born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director, and producer who was a leading figure in the Art movement, visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore th ...

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 Raymond Clevie Carver Jr. (May 25, 1938 – August 2, 1988) was an American short story writer and poet. He contributed to the revitalization of the American short story during the 1980s. Early life Carver was born in Clatskanie, Oregon, a mil ...

Diane Arbus Diane Arbus (; née Nemerov; March 14, 1923 – July 26, 1971
" The New York ...

contributed photographs.

Robert Benton Robert Douglas Benton (born September 29, 1932) is an American screenwriter and film director. He is best known as the writer and director of the film ''Kramer vs. Kramer'', for which he won the Academy Award for Best Director and Best Adapted S ...

and David Newman thought up the Dubious Achievement Awards (and in their spare time wrote the screenplay for the 1967 movie '' Bonnie and Clyde''). More a general-interest magazine than a

men's magazine This is a list of magazines primarily marketed to men. The list has been split into subcategories according to the target audience of the magazines. This list includes mostly mainstream magazines as well as Adult magazine, adult ones. Not include ...

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