Tweet

The Prince of Publishing: The Early Years of Henry R. Luce

Article Overview: “I became a journalist to come as close as possible to the heart of the world.”

The Prince of Publishing: The Early Years of Henry R. Luce

“I became a journalist to come as close as possible to the heart of the world.”

Throughout his 40 year career, Henry R. Luce built one of the largest and most influential publishing houses in the world. Although many might not know him by name, it is estimated that today, one in every five Americans looks at a Luce periodical during a given week. Called “the giant of twentieth-century American journalism” by Current Biography, Luce revolutionized both an industry and a nation.

Henry Robinson Luce was born on April 3, 1898 in Tengchow, China. He was the first of four children born to Reverend Dr. Henry Winters Luce and Elizabeth Root Luce. His father was a poor but well-connected clergyman for the Presbyterian Church, while his mother worked for the Young Women’s Christian Association. Luce was a serious boy who spent his free time writing sermons. His first language was in fact Chinese.

When he was ten years old, Luce was sent to the British China Inland Mission Chefoo School, a boarding school on the Shandong coast of China. Independent from a young age, Luce traveled to Europe by himself at 14. At 15, Luce won a scholarship that would take him overseas to America.

Luce enrolled in the Hotchkiss School in Lakeville, Connecticut. He excelled academically despite maintaining a busy extracurricular schedule. When Luce was not in school or waiting tables at a local restaurant, he kept himself busy as the editor-in-chief of Hotchkiss Literary Monthly, his school’s periodical.

It was while working at the newspaper that Luce would form one of the most important relationships of his life. The paper’s managing editor was the young Briton Hadden, with whom Luce quickly struck up an effective working relationship. “Somehow, despite the greatest differences in temperaments and even in interests, somehow we had to work together,” recalls Luce. “We were an organization. At the center of our lives — our job, our function — at that point everything we had belonged to each other.”

After graduation, both Hadden and Luce enrolled in Yale University, where Luce became a member of Skull and Bones. There, the two continued to work together at the Yale Daily News. They both also entered Yale’s Reserve Officers Training Corps, rising to the rank of second lieutenant. But it was the nights spent at Camp Jackson in South Carolina that would prove the most fruitful. It was there that the two young men spent their time discussing journalism into the wee hours of the night. Both saw a need for a new kind of newspaper, a paper that would help inform what they saw as a misinformed public.

In 1920, Luce received his degree and was voted “most brilliant” of his graduating class. He went off to Oxford University to study history, but did not last long there. After just one year, Luce dropped out of school and returned to Chicago to reunite with Hadden. Together, the two began to formulate plans to create their own weekly news magazine.

Related Articles
  Lesson #2: Commitments Never Come Without a Cost
  Lesson #5: Curiosity Never Killed the Cat
  The Time of His Life: How Luce Built a Publishing Empire
  Lesson #4: Stop Chasing a Lost Cause
  The Time Has Come: Luce Launches His First Magazine

Article Tags: american journalism, boarding school, briton hadden, chefoo, clergyman, dr henry, elizabeth root, first language, heart of the world, henry robinson, hotchkiss school, lakeville connecticut, local restaurant, old luce, presbyterian church, publishing houses, reverend dr, shandong, temperaments, waiting tables



Related Forum Posts
Re: YOU CANNOT AND SHOULD NOT DO IT ALONE - Hello, Yinka: A spammer posted a comment here, bumping this topic to the top again, but I had to delete the spammer's post and ban the person. However, the topic is still relevant, so let's discuss it. I like the quote from Henry Ford, posted earlier: "If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself." ~ Henry Ford
Re: YOU CANNOT AND SHOULD NOT DO IT ALONE - [quote="GT Bulmer":1tttnqa3]Hello, Yinka: A spammer posted a comment here, bumping this topic to the top again, but I had to delete the spammer's post and ban the person. However, the topic is still relevant, so let's discuss it. I like the quote from Henry Ford, posted earlier: "If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself." ~ Henry Ford[/quote:1tttnqa3] In Africa we have a saying that " People are my clothes, without them I am naked" So you cannot do anything alone. You just need support of people around you
Re: Social Media Marketing - Corporate Vs. Small Business - Hi Jeff, A technique that I consider to be "Social Media Marketing" would be when a brand creates a profile on Facebook and then begins adding people they found in related groups as "friends". For instance, Prince Tennis requested to become friends with me because they saw that I had joined a Facebook group supporting their products. By adding me and other consumers as friends on their Facebook profile, Prince Tennis is able to market directly to its target audience. I've also seen record labels do the same for their music artists.
You Can Start From Some Where! - I have always found stories like these interesting. When you can see and understand that many famous, successful people like these usually start off in places worse than we're at. It think they brings our goals a little closer and makes them more tangible... * Dan Akroyd was a mail sorter for Canada's national postal service. * Jennifer Aniston was both a telemarketer and waitress before hitting it big. * Halle Berry worked at Higbee's Department store in the children's department. * Sandra Bullock worked as a bartender. * Before his big break, country singer Kenny Chesney worked as a valet attendant, telemarketer and mail sorter. * Chubby Checker plucked chickens at a poultry market named Henry Colt's. * Before Nirvana, the late Kurt Cobain worked as a janitor for Lemons Janitorial Service. * Diddy was an intern at Uptown Records where he did grunt work like washing cars & fetching coffee. * Bill Cosby shined shoes and sold produce when he was young. * Simon Cowell started out as a mail room clerk for EMI Music Publishing where his father worked. * Michael Dell washed dishes at a Chinese restaurant for $2.30 per hour. * Danny DeVito was a formally trained hair stylist before his break on Taxi. * Michael Douglas once worked as a gas station attendant. * Tom Hanks once worked as a hotel bellman and carried bags for a number of celebs. Sometimes it can be easy to forget that everyone starts at the bottom... * So what does this have to do with your business? You can add to the list!
Profile S?ichir? Honda next? - How about a profile on the "Japanese Henry Ford" and founder/former President of Honda Motor Co. Ltd, S?ichir? Honda?


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

2011 Global Brand Trends Letter

Ten Steps to Go from Idea to E-book for Sale

Five Ways to Show Honest Appreciation

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.