Henry Robinson Luce (April 3, 1898 – February 28, 1967) was an American magazine magnate who founded ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and event (philosophy), events that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various me ...

'', ''

Life Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for growth, reaction to stimuli, metabolism, energy ...

'', ''

Fortune Fortune may refer to: General * Fortuna or Fortune, the Roman goddess of luck * Luck * Wealth * Fortune, a prediction made in fortune-telling * Fortune, in a fortune cookie Arts and entertainment Film and television * ''The Fortune'' (1931 film) ...

'', and ''

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence tw ...

'' magazine. He has been called "the most influential private citizen in the America of his day". Born in

Shandong Shandong ( , ; ; Chinese postal romanization, alternately romanized as Shantung) is a coastal Provinces of China, province of the China, People's Republic of China and is part of the East China region. Shandong has played a major role in His ...

, China, to

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their n ...

parents, Luce moved to the US at the age of 15 and later attended

Yale College Yale College is the undergraduate college of Yale University. Founded in 1701, it is the original school of the university. Although other Yale schools were founded as early as 1810, all of Yale was officially known as Yale College until 1887, ...

. He launched and closely supervised a stable of magazines that transformed journalism and the reading habits of millions of Americans. ''Time'' summarized and interpreted the week's news; ''Life'' was a picture magazine of politics, culture, and society that dominated American visual perceptions in the era before television; ''Fortune'' reported on national and international business; and ''

'' explored the world of sports. Counting his radio projects and newsreels, Luce created the first multimedia corporation. He envisaged that the United States would achieve world hegemony, and in 1941 he declared the 20th century would be the "

American Century The American Century is a characterization of the period since the middle of the 20th century as being largely dominated by the United States in political, economic, and cultural terms. It is comparable to the description of the period 1815–1 ...

Early life

Luce was born in Tengchow (now Penglai),

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

, on April 3, 1898, the son of Elizabeth Root Luce and Henry Winters Luce, who was a

missionary.

Education

At 15, he was sent to the US to attend the Hotchkiss School in Connecticut, where he tried hard to overcome his stuttering. As a scholarship student he was isolated from the upper-class boys. He was subsidized by an elderly Chicago heiress, Nancy Fowler McCormick, who favored sons of missionaries. Applying himself to study, Luce quickly became the top student. He was especially strong in languages—he studied Greek, Latin, French and German—and already knew Chinese. He edited the ''Hotchkiss Literary Monthly''. There, he first met Briton Hadden; they became best friends. Hotchkiss was a feeder prep school for Yale. After a summer working on a Springfield newspaper, Luce matriculated in New Haven in fall 1916. He was the top freshman academically, but grades did not confer as much prestige as a staff role on the ''Yale Daily News''. Only four freshmen were chosen by the ''News''; they included Luce and Hadden. When the U.S. entered the World War in 1917, a third of the students joined the army; the rest including Luce, joined ROTC and attended class in uniform. Luce also joined Alpha Delta, a minor fraternity. His grades remained top-level, and every spare hour was devoted to newspaper work. Luce and Hadden were the two outstanding journalists; when the vote came in January 1918 for chairmanship of the ''News'' Hadden beat Luce by one vote. Luce instead became managing editor and the two worked closely together and started planning their future. Meanwhile, the Army assigned them as ROTC leaders to train new recruits. The war ended before either was commissioned. They returned to campus in January 1919 as juniors. In May they were both tapped for the highly prestigious secret society Skull and Bones. He tried but failed to get a Rhodes scholarship to Oxford, but he was admitted and paid his way. He spent the year travelling Europe, observing the postwar scene closely. He returned to the United States to take a newspaper job in Chicago as a junior reporter.

Magazines

Nightly discussions of the concept of a news magazine led Luce and Hadden, both age 23, to quit their jobs in 1922. Later that same year, they partnered with Robert Livingston Johnson and another Yale classmate to form Time Inc. Luce, supported by Editor-in-Chief

T. S. Matthews Thomas Stanley Matthews (January 16, 1901 – January 4, 1991) was an American magazine editor, journalist, and writer. He served as editor of ''Time'' magazine from 1949 to 1953. Background Thomas Stanley Matthews was born on January 16, 1901 ...

, appointed

Whittaker Chambers Whittaker Chambers (born Jay Vivian Chambers; April 1, 1901 – July 9, 1961) was an American writer-editor, who, after early years as a Workers Party of America, Communist Party member (1925) and Soviet Union, Soviet spy (1932–1938), defe ...

as acting Foreign News editor in 1944, despite the feuds that Chambers had with reporters in the field. Luce, who remained editor-in-chief of all his publications until 1964, maintained a position as an influential member of the

Republican Party Republican Party is a name used by many political parties around the world, though the term most commonly refers to the United States' Republican Party. Republican Party may also refer to: Africa * Republican Party (Liberia) *Republican Party ...

."Henry R. Luce: End of a Pilgrimage"
''

''. March 10, 1967 An instrumental figure behind the so-called "

China Lobby In American politics, the China lobby consisted of advocacy groups calling for American support for the Republic of China during the period from the 1930s until US recognition of the People's Republic of China in 1979, and then calling for cl ...

", he played a large role in steering American foreign policy and popular sentiment in favor of

Kuomintang The Kuomintang (KMT), also referred to as the Guomindang (GMD), the Nationalist Party of China (NPC) or the Chinese Nationalist Party (CNP), is a major political party in the Republic of China, initially on the Chinese mainland and in Ta ...

leader Chiang Kai-shek and his wife, Soong Mei-ling, in their war against the Japanese. (The Chiangs appeared in the cover of ''Time'' eleven times between 1927 and 1955.) Luce penned a famous editorial in ''Life'' magazine in 1941, called " The American Century", which defined the role of U.S. foreign policy for the remainder of the 20th century (and perhaps beyond). He died in Phoenix, Arizona in 1967. At his death, he was said to be worth $100 million in Time Inc. stock. Most of his fortune went to the Henry Luce Foundation, where his son Henry III served as chairman and chief executive for many years.

Family

Luce met his first wife, Lila Hotz, while he was studying at

Yale Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wor ...

in 1919. They married in 1923 and had two children, Peter Paul and Henry Luce III, before divorcing in 1935.

Recognition

He was honored by the

United States Postal Service The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or Postal Service, is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for providing postal service in the ...

with a 32¢ Great Americans series (1980–2000) postage stamp. Luce was inducted into the Junior Achievement U.S. Business Hall of Fame.

References

External links

John Foster Dulles and Clare Boothe Luce link (pdf format)

The Henry Luce Foundation

Luce Center for American Art at the Brooklyn Museum – Visible Storage and Study Center
* Whitman, Alden

''The New York Times'', March 1, 1967.

*
Henry R. Luce Papers
at th
New-York Historical Society
{{DEFAULTSORT:Luce, Henry 1898 births 1967 deaths Alumni of the University of Oxford American anti-communists American magazine founders American magazine publishers (people) American mass media owners American Presbyterians Businesspeople from Yantai Children of American missionaries in China Connecticut Republicans Hotchkiss School alumni New Right (United States) People from Penglai, Shandong People from Ridgefield, Connecticut Skull and Bones Society Time (magazine) people Yale University alumni