Henry Luce | |
|---|---|
 Luce in 1954 | |
| Born | Henry Robinson Luce (1898-04-03)April 3, 1898 Tengchow, China |
| Died | February 28, 1967(1967-02-28) (aged 68) Phoenix, Arizona, U.S. |
| Alma mater | Yale University |
| Occupation(s) | Publisher, journalist |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 3 |
| Parent | Henry W. Luce |
Henry Robinson Luce (April 3, 1898 – February 28, 1967) was an American magazine publisher who foundedTime,Life,Fortune, andSports Illustrated. He built one of the first multimedia corporations, combining print, radio, and newsreels, and promoted the idea of the "American Century", envisioning the United States as a global leader.[1]
Luce was born inTengchow, Shandong, China, nowPenglai, on April 3, 1898, the son of Elizabeth Root Luce andHenry Winters Luce, who was aPresbyterian missionary.[1]
At 15, he was sent to the U.S. to attend theHotchkiss 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, studying Greek, Latin, French, and German, and already knowing Chinese. He edited theHotchkiss Literary Monthly.[2] There, he first metBriton Hadden; they became best friends.[1]
Hotchkiss was a feeder prep school forYale University. After a summer spent working on a Springfield newspaper, Luce matriculated in the fall of 1916. He was the top freshman academically, but grades did not confer as much prestige as a staff role on theYale Daily News. Only four freshmen were chosen by theNews; they included Luce and Hadden.[3] When the U.S. enteredWorld War I in 1917, a third of the students joined the army; the rest, including Luce, joined theReserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) and attended class in uniform.
Luce also joined Alpha Delta Phi, 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 theNews, 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.
In January 1919, Luce and Hadden returned to Yale University as juniors. In May 1919, they were both tapped into the prestigiousSkull and Bones secret society. Luce tried, but failed, to win aRhodes Scholarship to theUniversity of Oxford, but he was admitted to the university and paid his way. He spent the year travelling Europe, observing the post-World War I scene closely. He returned to the United States to take a newspaper job inChicago as a junior reporter.[4]
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 withRobert Livingston Johnson and another Yale classmate to formTime Inc.[5]
Luce, who remained editor-in-chief of all his publications until 1964, was also an influential figure in theRepublican Party.[6] Supported by editor-in-chiefT. S. Matthews, he appointedWhittaker Chambers as acting Foreign News editor in 1944, despite Chambers' well-known feuds with reporters in the field.[7] In 1941, he authored an editorial forLife titled "The American Century", in which he articulated his vision for the role of U.S. foreign policy for the remainder of the 20th century.[6]
An instrumental figure behind the so-called "China Lobby", he played a large role in steering American foreign policy and popular sentiment in favor ofKuomintang leaderChiang Kai-shek and his wife,Soong Mei-ling, in their war against the Japanese. (The Chiangs appeared in the cover ofTime eleven times between 1927 and 1955.)[8] In a 1965 diary entry, British publisherCecil Harmsworth King recorded a dinner with Luce, noting that although Luce was "getting old and deaf," he remained a formidable personality. King reported that Luce praised the progress made inTaiwan and expressed contempt for thePeople's Republic of China, observing that its steel production was only 10 million tons a year, roughly the tonnage the United States used for ash-cans.[9]
Luce was a member of theRobert E. Wood'sAmerican Security Council and served on its "Cold War Victory Advisory Committee".[10]
Luce met his first wife, Lila Hotz, while he was studying atYale University in 1919.[11] They married in 1923 and had two children, Peter Paul and Henry Luce III, before divorcing in 1935.[11]
In 1935, he married his second wife,Clare Boothe Luce, who had an 11-year-old daughter, Ann Clare Brokaw, whom he raised as his own. Ann Clare died in a car accident when she was 19.
Luce died of acoronary occlusion on February 28, 1967 inPhoenix, Arizona. He was 68.[12] At his death, he was said to be worth $100 million in Time Inc. stock.[13] Most of his fortune went to the Henry Luce Foundation.[11]
He was honored by theUnited States Postal Service with a 32¢Great Americans series (1980–2000) postage stamp.[14] Luce was inducted into the Junior Achievement U.S. Business Hall of Fame.[15]
The Henry Luce Foundation, Inc. is a private, nonprofit organization incorporated inNew York. It was established in 1936 by Henry Luce in his thirties. His son Henry III served as its chairman and chief executive for many years.[11][16]
