Harold Thomas Pace Hayes (April 18, 1926 – April 5, 1989) was an American journalist and writer best known as an editor for ''

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 gentleman ...

'' magazine from 1963 to 1973. He was a main architect of the New Journalism movement.

Biography

Born April 18, 1926, in

Elkin, North Carolina Elkin is a town in Surry County, North Carolina, Surry and Wilkes County, North Carolina, 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, Surry Co ...

, Harold Hayes earned an undergraduate degree from Wake Forest College, worked for United Press in

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

, served in the Marines, moved to

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

to work for a small magazine called ''Pageant'', and wound up in 1956 at ''

'', where he battled with several other young editors, among them Clay Felker (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, also known as biota, refers to matter that has biological processes, such as Cell signaling, signaling and self-sustaining processes. It is defined descriptively by the capacity for homeostasis, Structure#Biological, organisation, met ...

'' magazine and later the basis for the 1988 film '' Gorillas in the Mist''. Hayes' personal papers are stored at the Z. Smith Reynolds Library at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, 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, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

, 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,

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 Nachem Malech Mailer (January 31, 1923 – November 10, 2007), known by his pen name Norman Kingsley Mailer, was an American writer, journalist and filmmaker. In a career spanning more than six decades, Mailer had 11 best-selling books, at least ...

, Michael Herr, John Sack,

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 acerbic epigrammatic wit. His novels and essays interrogated the Social norm, social and sexual ...

, William F. Buckley, Garry Wills, Gina Berriault, and Nora Ephron. His editorial risks extended into graphic innovation by publishing Carl Fischer and George Lois's iconic covers like

Sonny Liston Charles L. "Sonny" Liston ( – December 30, 1970), nicknamed "the Big Bear", was an American professional boxer who competed from 1953 to 1970. A dominant contender of his era, he became the undisputed world heavyweight champion in 1962 after k ...

wearing a Santa Claus hat, Andy Warhol disappearing in a can of Campbell's soup, and Muhammad Ali posing as St. Sebastian. Fiction editor Gordon Lish brought in stories by Raymond Carver. Diane Arbus contributed photographs. Robert Benton 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 men's magazines from around the world. These are magazines (periodical print publications) that have been published primarily for a readership of men. The list has been split into subcategories according to the target audienc ...

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