November 23: First Issue of LIFE Magazine (1936)
Prayer Idea
Pray that magazine publishers would seek to share information that is helpful, worthwhile, and true.
History Note
Henry Luce was born in China in 1898. His parents were Presbyterian missionaries and educators. Henry spent most of his childhood in China.
After editing the school paper during high school and at Yale, Luce became a leader in the publishing industry. Henry Luce and Briton Hadden launched Time magazine in 1923. After Hadden’s sudden death in 1929, Luce took the lead at Time Inc., where he remained editor in chief until 1964.
Luce’s company launched the magazine Fortune in 1930, just after the Great Depression began. His company started LIFE magazine in 1936, House & Home in 1952, and Sports Illustrated in 1954.
LIFE was a weekly magazine featuring photojournalistic essays about a wide variety of topics. Luce described his vision for the publication in these words:
To see life; to see the world; to eyewitness great events; to watch the faces of the poor and the gestures of the proud; to see strange things—machines, armies, multitudes, shadows in the jungle and on the moon; to see man’s work—his paintings, towers and discoveries; to see things thousands of miles away, things hidden behind walls and within rooms, things dangerous to come to . . . to see and be amazed; to see and be instructed . . .
LIFE was an immediate success. It eventually reached a circulation of 8 million copies. It was published weekly until 1972. After a few years of releasing special issues only, it was revived as a monthly magazine from 1978 to 2000.
This image shows copies of LIFE magazine for sale at an antique mall in West Virginia. Photo by Blunder Busster / Shutterstock.com.
Learn More
This video shows pages from a 1958 issue of LIFE.
Please Note: There is an advertisement for cigarettes.
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