Life (stylized asLIFE) is an American magazine originally launched in 1883 as a weekly publication. In 1972, it transitioned to publishing "special" issues before running as a monthly from 1978 to 2000. Since then,Life has transitioned to irregularly publishing "special" issues.

Life

Cover of the issue from September 21, 1911
Editor	George Cary Eggleston
Former editors	Robert E. Sherwood
Categories	Humor, general interest
Frequency	Weekly
Publisher	Clair Maxwell (1921–1942)
Total circulation (1920)	250,000
First issue	January 4, 1883; 142 years ago (1883-01-04) November 18, 2008; 16 years ago (2008-11-18) (online supplement)
Final issue	2000 (2000) (print)
Country	United States
Based in	New York City, U.S.
Language	English
Website	www.life.com
ISSN	0024-3019

Originally published from 1883 to 1936 as a general-interest andhumour publication, it featured contributions from many important writers, illustrators and cartoonists of its time, includingCharles Dana Gibson^[1] andNorman Rockwell. In 1936,Henry Luce purchased the magazine, and the publication was relaunched to become the first all-photographic American news magazine. Its role in the history of photojournalism is considered one of its most important contributions to the world of publishing.^[2][3][4]

From 1936 to the 1960s,Life was a wide-ranging general-interest magazine known for itsphotojournalism.^[5] During this period, it was one of the most popular magazines in the United States, with its circulation regularly reaching a quarter of the U.S. population.^[6]

Life was founded on January 4, 1883, in aNew York City artist's studio at 1155Broadway, as a partnership betweenJohn Ames Mitchell andAndrew Miller. Mitchell held a 75% interest in the magazine, with the remaining 25% held by Miller; both retained their holdings until their deaths.^[7] Miller served as secretary-treasurer of the magazine and managed the business side of the operation. Mitchell, a 37-year-old illustrator who used a $10,000 inheritance to invest in the weekly magazine, served as its publisher. He also created the firstLife name-plate withcupids as mascots, and later drew its masthead of a knight leveling his lance at the posterior of a fleeing devil. He took advantage of a new printing process using zinc-coated plates, which improved the reproduction of his illustrations and artwork. This edge helped becauseLife faced stiff competition from the best-selling humor magazinesJudge andPuck, which were already established and successful.Edward Sandford Martin was brought on asLife's first literary editor; the recentHarvard University graduate was a founder of theHarvard Lampoon.

The motto of the first issue ofLife was: "While there's Life, there's hope."^[8] The new magazine set forth its principles and policies to its readers:

We wish to have some fun in this paper...We shall try to domesticate as much as possible of the casual cheerfulness that is drifting about in an unfriendly world...We shall have something to say about religion, about politics, fashion, society, literature, the stage, the stock exchange, and the police station, and we will speak out what is in our mind as fairly, as truthfully, and as decently as we know how.^[8]

The magazine was a success and soon attracted the industry's leading contributors,^[9] of which the most important wasCharles Dana Gibson. Three years after the magazine was founded, theMassachusetts native first soldLife a drawing for $4: a dog outside his kennel howling at the Moon. Encouraged by a publisher, also an artist, Gibson was joined atLife by illustratorsPalmer Cox, creator of theBrownie,A. B. Frost,Oliver Herford, andE. W. Kemble.Life's literary roster includedJohn Kendrick Bangs,James Whitcomb Riley, andBrander Matthews.

Mitchell was accused ofanti-Semitism at a time of high rates of immigration of Eastern EuropeanJews to New York. When the magazine blamed the theatrical team ofKlaw & Erlanger forChicago'sIroquois Theater Fire in 1903, many people complained.Life's drama critic,James Stetson Metcalfe, was barred from the 47 Manhattan theatres controlled by theTheatrical Syndicate.Life published caricatures of Jews with large noses.

Several individuals would publish their first major works inLife. In 1908,Robert Ripley published his first cartoon inLife, 20 years before hisBelieve It or Not! fame.Norman Rockwell's first cover forLife magazine,Tain't You, was published on May 10, 1917. His paintings were featured onLife's cover 28 times between 1917 and 1924.Rea Irvin, the first art director ofThe New Yorker and creator of the character "Eustace Tilley", began his career by drawing covers forLife.

This version ofLife took sides in politics and international affairs, and published pro-American editorials. AfterGermany attackedBelgium in 1914, Mitchell and Gibson undertook a campaign to push the U.S. into the war. Gibson drew theKaiser as a bloody madman, insultingUncle Sam, sneering at crippled soldiers, and shootingRed Cross nurses.

Following Mitchell's death in 1918, Gibson bought the magazine for $1 million. A little more than three years after purchasingLife, Gibson quit and turned the property over to publisherClair Maxwell and treasurer Henry Richter.

In 1920, Gibson had selected formerVanity Fair stafferRobert E. Sherwood as editor. Sherwood, aWorld War I veteran and member of theAlgonquin Round Table, tried to inject sophisticated humor onto the pages.Life publishedIvy League jokes, cartoons,flapper sayings and all-burlesque issues. Beginning in 1920, it undertook a crusade againstProhibition. It also tapped the humorous writings ofFrank Sullivan,Robert Benchley,Dorothy Parker,Franklin Pierce Adams andCorey Ford. Among the illustrators and cartoonists wereRalph Barton,Percy Crosby,Don Herold,Ellison Hoover,H. T. Webster,Art Young andJohn Held, Jr.

Life had 250,000 readers in 1920,^{[citation needed]} but as theJazz Age rolled into theGreat Depression, the magazine lost money and subscribers. By the time editorGeorge Eggleston took over,Life had switched from publishing weekly to monthly. Maxwell and Eggleston went to work revamping its editorial style to meet the times, which resulted in improved readership. However,Life had passed its prime and was sliding toward financial ruin.The New Yorker, debuting in February 1925, copied many of the features and styles ofLife, and recruited staff from that magazine's editorial and art departments.^{[original research?]} Another blow toLife's circulation came from raunchy humor periodicals such asBallyhoo andHooey, which ran what can be termed "outhouse" gags. In 1933,Esquire joinedLife's competitors. In its final years,Life struggled to make a profit.

Announcing the end ofLife, Maxwell stated: "We cannot claim, like Mr.Gene Tunney, that we resigned our championship undefeated in our prime. But at least we hope to retire gracefully from a world still friendly."^{[citation needed]}

ForLife's final issue in its original format, then-80-year-old Edward Sandford Martin was recalled from editorial retirement to compose its obituary. He wrote:

ThatLife should be passing into the hands of new owners and directors is of the liveliest interest to the sole survivor of the little group that saw it born in January 1883 ... As for me, I wish it all good fortune; grace, mercy and peace and usefulness to a distracted world that does not know which way to turn nor what will happen to it next. A wonderful time for a new voice to make a noise that needs to be heard!^[8]

In 1936, publisherHenry Luce purchasedLife magazine forUS$92,000 ($2.08 million in 2024) because he wanted the name for his company,Time Inc., to use. Time Inc. soldLife's subscription list, features, andgoodwill^{[clarification needed]} toJudge. Convinced that pictures could tell a story instead of just illustrating text, Luce launched the newLife on November 23, 1936, withJohn Shaw Billings andDaniel Longwell as founding editors.^[10][11] The third magazine published by Luce, afterTime in 1923 andFortune in 1930,Life developed as the definitive photo magazine in the U.S., giving as much space and importance to images as to words. The first issue of this version ofLife, which sold for ten cents (worth $2.27 in 2024), had five pages of Alfred Eisenstaedt's photographs.

In planning the weekly news magazine, Luce circulated a confidential prospectus^[12] within Time Inc. in 1936, which described his vision for the newLife magazine, and what he viewed as its unique purpose.Life magazine was to be the first publication with a focus on photographs that enabled the American public:

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; the women that men love and many children; to see and take pleasure in seeing; to see and be amazed; to see and be instructed...

—Prospectus for a New Magazine^[13][14]

Luce's first issue cover depicted theFort Peck Dam inMontana, aWorks Progress Administration project, photographed byMargaret Bourke-White.^[15]

The format ofLife in 1936 was a success: the text was condensed into captions for 50 pages of photographs. The magazine was printed on heavilycoated paper and cost readers only a dime ($2.27 in 2024). The magazine's circulation was beyond the company's predictions, going from 380,000 copies of the first issue to more than one million a week four months later.^[16] It soon challengedThe Saturday Evening Post, then the largest-circulation weekly in the country. The magazine's success stimulated many imitators, such asLook, which was founded a year later in 1937 and ran until 1971.^{[citation needed]}

Luce movedLife into its own building at 19 West 31st Street, aBeaux-Arts building constructed in 1894. LaterLife moved its editorial offices to 9Rockefeller Plaza.^{[citation needed]}

A co-founder of the newLife magazine, Longwell served as managing editor from 1944 to 1946, and as chairman of the board of editors until his retirement in 1954.^[10] He was credited for publishingWinston Churchill'sThe Second World War andErnest Hemingway'sThe Old Man and the Sea.^[17][18][19]

Luce also selectedEdward Kramer Thompson, astringer forTime, as assistant picture editor in 1937. From 1949 to 1961, Thompson was the managing editor, and served as editor-in-chief for nearly a decade until his retirement in 1970. His influence was significant during the magazine's heyday, which was roughly from 1936 until the mid-1960s. Thompson was known for the free rein he gave his editors, particularly a "trio of formidable and colorful women:Sally Kirkland, fashion editor; Mary Letherbee, movie editor; andMary Hamman, modern living editor."^[20]

When the U.S. enteredWorld War II in 1941,Life covered the war closely. By 1944, seven of the 40Time andLife war correspondents were women: AmericansMary Welsh Hemingway,Margaret Bourke-White, Lael Tucker, Peggy Durdin,Shelley Smith Mydans, and Annalee Jacoby, as well as Englishwoman Jacqueline Saix (Saix's name is often omitted from the list, but she and Welsh were the only women listed as part of the magazine's team in aTimes's publisher's letter from May 8, 1944).^[21]

Life backed the war effort each week. In July 1942, it launched its first art contest for soldiers, which drew more than 1,500 entries submitted by all ranks. Judges sorted out the best and awarded $1,000 in prizes.Life picked 16 for reproduction in the magazine. TheNational Gallery in Washington, D.C. agreed to put 117 entries on exhibition that summer.Life, also supported the military's efforts to use artists to document the war. When Congress forbade the armed forces from using government money to fund artists in the field,Life privatized the programs, hiring many of the artists being let go by theDepartment of War (which would later become theDepartment of Defense). On December 7, 1960,Life managers donated many of the works by such artists to the Department of War and its art programs, such as theUnited States Army Art Program.^[22]

Each week during World War II, the magazine brought photographs of the war to Americans, with photographers from all theaters of war. The magazine was imitated in enemypropaganda using contrasting images ofLife andDeath.^[23]

In August 1942, writing about labor and racial unrest inDetroit,Life warned that "the morale situation is perhaps the worst in the U.S. ... It is time for the rest of the country to sit up and take notice. For Detroit can either blow upHitler or it can blow up the U.S."^[24] MayorEdward Jeffries was outraged: "I'll match Detroit's patriotism against any other city's in the country. The whole story inLife is scurrilous ... I'd just call it ayellow magazine and let it go at that."^[25] The article was considered so dangerous to the war effort that it wascensored from copies of the magazine sold outside North America.^[26]

In July 1943, the magazine hired war photographerRobert Capa to cover the Sicilian and Italian campaigns. A veteran ofCollier's magazine, Capa accompanied the first wave of theD-Day invasion inNormandy, France, on June 6, 1944, and returned with only a handful of images, many of them out of focus. The magazine wrote in the captions that the photos were fuzzy because Capa's hands were shaking. Capa denied this and claimed that the darkroom had ruined his negatives. Later he poked fun atLife by titling his war memoirSlightly Out of Focus (1947). In 1954, Capa was killed after stepping on alandmine while covering theFirst Indochina War.Life photographer Bob Landry also went in with the first wave at D-Day, "butall of Landry's film was lost, and his shoes to boot."^[27]

In a notable mistake, in its final edition just before the1948 U.S. presidential election, the magazine printed a large photo showing U.S. presidential candidateThomas E. Dewey and his staff riding across the harbor ofSan Francisco,California, entitled "Our Next President Rides by Ferryboat overSan Francisco Bay". Incumbent PresidentHarry S. Truman won the election;^[28] Dewey was expected to win the election, and this mistakewas also made by theChicago Tribune.^{[citation needed]}

On May 10, 1950, the council of ministers inCairo bannedLife from Egypt forever. All issues on sale were confiscated. No reason was given, but Egyptian officials expressed indignation over the magazine's April 10 story aboutKing Farouk of Egypt, entitled the "Problem King of Egypt". The government considered it insulting to the country.^[29]

In the 1950s,Life earned a measure of respect by commissioning work from top authors.^{[citation needed]} After its publication ofErnest Hemingway'sThe Old Man and the Sea in 1952, the magazine contracted with the author for a 4,000-word piece on bullfighting. Hemingway sent the editors a 10,000-word article, following his last visit to Spain to cover a series of contests between two topmatadors in 1959. The article was republished in 1985 as the novellaThe Dangerous Summer.^[30]

In February 1953, just a few weeks after leaving office, President Harry S. Truman announced thatLife magazine would handle all rights to his memoirs. Truman said it was his belief that by 1954 he would be able to speak more fully on subjects pertaining to the role his administration played in world affairs. Truman observed thatLife editors had presented other memoirs with great dignity; he added thatLife had also made the best offer.^{[citation needed]}

Beginning in 1953, a Spanish-language edition was published, titledLife en español. It had a circulation of over 300,000 in Latin America.

For his 1955Museum of Modern Art traveling exhibitionThe Family of Man, which was to be seen by nine million visitors worldwide, curatorEdward Steichen relied heavily on photographs fromLife: 111 of the 503 pictures shown, constituting more than 20% as counted byAbigail Solomon-Godeau.^[31] His assistantWayne Miller entered the magazine's archive in late 1953, and spent an estimated nine months there. He searched through 3.5 million images, most in the form of original negatives (only in the last years of the war did the picture department start to print contact sheets of all assignments), and submitted many that had not been published in the magazine to Steichen for selection.^[32]

In November 1954, actressDorothy Dandridge became the first African-American woman to be featured on the cover of the magazine.^{[citation needed]}

In 1957,R. Gordon Wasson, a vice president atJ. P. Morgan, published an article inLife extolling the virtues ofmagic mushrooms.^[33] This promptedAlbert Hofmann to isolatepsilocybin in 1958 for distribution bySandoz alongsideLSD in the U.S., further raising interest in LSD in the mass media.^[34] Following Wasson's report,Timothy Leary visited Mexico to try out the mushrooms, which were used in traditional religious rituals.^{[citation needed]}

Life's motto became^[35] "To see Life; to see the world." The magazine produced manypopular science serials, such asThe World We Live In andThe Epic of Man in the early 1950s. The magazine continued to showcase the work of notable illustrators such asAlton S. Tobey, whose contributions included the cover for a 1958 series of articles on the history of the Russian Revolution.^{[citation needed]}

As the 1950s drew to a close and television became more popular, the magazine was losing readers. In May 1959,Life announced plans to reduce its regular news-stand price from 25 cents a copy to 20. With the increase in television sales and viewership, interest in news magazines was waning, andLife had to try to create a new form.^{[citation needed]}

In the 1960s, the magazine was filled with color photos of movie stars, PresidentJohn F. Kennedy and his family, thewar in Vietnam, and theApollo program. Typical of the magazine's editorial focus was a long 1964 feature on actressElizabeth Taylor and her relationship with actorRichard Burton. JournalistRichard Meryman traveled with Taylor toNew York,California, andParis.Life ran a 6,000-word first-person article on the screen star.^{[citation needed]}

"I'm not a 'sex queen' or a 'sex symbol,' " Taylor said. "I don't think I want to be one. Sex symbol kind of suggests bathrooms in hotels or something. I do know I'm a movie star and I like being a woman, and I think sex is absolutely gorgeous. But as far as a sex goddess, I don't worry myself that way... Richard is a very sexy man. He's got that sort of jungle essence that one can sense... When we look at each other, it's like our eyes have fingers and they grab ahold.... I think I ended up being the scarlet woman because of my rather puritanical upbringing and beliefs. I couldn't just have a romance. It had to be a marriage."^[36]

In the 1960s, the magazine printed photographs byGordon Parks. "The camera is my weapon against the things I dislike about the universe and how I show the beautiful things about the universe," Parks recalled in 2000. "I didn't care about Life magazine. I cared about the people," he said.^[37]

Paul Welch'sLife article "Homosexuality in America", published in June 1964, marked the first time a national mainstream publication reported on gay issues.Life's photographer was referred to the gayleather bar in San Francisco which called theTool Box for the article byHal Call, who had long worked to dispel the myth that all gay men were effeminate. The article opened with a two-page spread of the mural of life-size leathermen in the bar, painted byChuck Arnett in 1962.^[38][39] The article described San Francisco as "The Gay Capital of America", and inspired many gay leathermen to move there.^[40]

On March 25, 1966,Life featured a cover story on the drugLSD. The drug had attracted attention among the counterculture and was not yet criminalized.^[41]

In March 1967,Life won the 1967National Magazine Award, chosen by theColumbia University Graduate School of Journalism.^{[citation needed]}Despite the industry's accolades and its coverage of theU.S. mission to the Moon in 1969, the magazine continued to lose circulation. In January 1971, Time Inc. announced its decision to reduce the magazine's circulation from 8.5 million to 7 million in an effort to offset shrinking advertising revenues. The following year,Life cut its circulation further to 5.5 million beginning with the issue from January 14, 1972. The magazine was reportedly not losing money, but its costs were rising faster than its profits.Life lost credibility with many readers when it supported authorClifford Irving, whose fraudulent autobiography ofHoward Hughes was revealed as ahoax in January 1972. The magazine had purchased serialization rights to Irving's manuscript.^{[citation needed]}

Industry figures showed that some 96% ofLife's circulation went to mail subscribers, with only 4% coming from the more profitable newsstand sales. Gary Valk was publisher when, on December 8, 1972, the magazine announced it would cease publication by the end of the year and lay off hundreds of staff.^{[citation needed]} The weeklyLife magazine published its last issue on December 29, 1972.^[42]

From 1972 to 1978, Time Inc. published tenLife Special Reports on such themes as "The Spirit of Israel", "Remarkable American Women" and "The Year in Pictures". With a minimum of promotion, these issues sold between 500,000 and 1 million copies at cover prices of up to $2.^{[citation needed]}

Beginning in October 1978,Life was published as a monthly publication with a new logo; although it remained a familiar red rectangle with the white type, the new version was larger, the lettering was closer together and the box surrounding it was smaller.

Life continued for the next 22 years as general-interest, news features magazine. In 1986, it marked its 50th anniversary under the Time Inc. umbrella with a special issue showing every cover since 1936, which included issues published during the six-year hiatus in the 1970s.

The circulation in this era hovered around 1.5 million. The cover price in 1986 was $2.50 (equivalent to $7.17 in 2024). The publisher was Charles Whittingham; the editor was Philip Kunhardt.

In 1991,Life sent correspondents to the firstGulf War and published special issues of coverage. Four issues of this weekly,Life in Time of War, were published during the war.

Life's online presence began in the 1990s^[43] as part of the Pathfinder.com network. The standalone Life.com site was launched on March 31, 2009, and closed on January 30, 2012. Life.com was developed by Andrew Blau and Bill Shapiro, the same team who launched the weekly newspaper supplement. While the archive ofLife, known as the Life Picture Collection, was substantial, they searched for a partner who could provide significant contemporary photography. They approachedGetty Images, the world's largest licensor of photography. The site offered millions of photographs fromLife and Getty Images' combined collections.^[44] On the 50th anniversary of the nightMarilyn Monroe sang "Happy Birthday" toJohn F. Kennedy, Life.com presented Bill Ray's iconic portrait of the actress, along with other rare photos.

Life.com later became a redirect to a small photo channel on Time.com. Life.com also maintainsTumblr^[45] andTwitter^[46] accounts and a presence onInstagram.

The magazine struggled financially and, in February 1993,Life announced the magazine would be printed in a smaller format starting with its July issue, which reintroduced the originalLife logo.

Life reduced advertising prices by 34%^[when?] in a bid to attract more advertisers. In July 1993, the magazine reduced its circulation guarantee for advertisers by 12%, from 1.7 million to 1.5 million copies. The publishers in this era were Nora McAniff and Edward McCarrick, andDaniel Okrent was the editor.Life now used the smaller size used by its longtime Time Inc. sister publication,Fortune.

In 1999, the magazine, despite its financial troubles, still made news by compiling lists to round out the 20th century.Life editors ranked their "Most Important Events of the Millennium" and a list of the "100 Most Important People of the Millennium"; however, this list was criticized for focusing on the West.Thomas Edison's number one ranking was challenged since critics believed that other inventions, such as theinternal combustion engine, the automobile, and electricity-making machines, had greater effects on society than Edison's. The top 100 list was also criticized for mixing world-famous names, such asIsaac Newton,Albert Einstein,Louis Pasteur, andLeonardo da Vinci, with figures largely unknown outside of the United States (18 Americans compared to 13 Italian and French, and 11 English).^{[citation needed]}

In March 2000, Time Inc. announced it would cease regular publication ofLife with the May issue.

"It's a sad day for us here,"Don Logan, chairman and chief executive of Time Inc., told CNN.com. "It was still in the black," he said, noting thatLife was increasingly spending more to maintain its monthly circulation level of approximately 1.5 million. "Life was a general interest magazine and since its reincarnation, it had always struggled to find its identity, to find its position in the marketplace."^[47]

The magazine's last issue featured a human interest story. Its first issue under Henry Luce in 1936 featured a baby named George Story, with the headline "Life Begins"; the magazine had published updates about the course of Story's life over the years, as he married, had children, and pursued a career as a journalist. AfterTime announced its pending closure in March, Story happened to die of heart failure on April 4, 2000. The last issue ofLife was titled "A Life Ends", featuring his story and how it had intertwined with the magazine's history.^[48]

ForLife subscribers, remaining subscriptions were honored with other Time Inc. magazines, such asTime. In January 2001, these subscribers received a specialLife-sized format of "The Year in Pictures" edition ofTime magazine; it was aLife issue disguised under aTime logo on the front. Newsstand copies of this edition were published under theLife imprint.

While citing poor advertising sales and a difficult climate for selling magazine subscriptions, Time Inc. executives said a key reason for closingLife magazine was to divert resources to the company's other magazine launches that year, such asReal Simple. Later that year, its owner,Time Warner, struck a deal with theTribune Company forTimes Mirror magazines, which includedGolf, Ski, Skiing, Field & Stream andYachting.AOL andTime Warner announced a $184 billion merger, the largest corporate merger in history, which was finalized in January 2001.^[49]

In 2001, Time Warner began publishing special newsstand "megazine" issues ofLife on topics such as theSeptember 11 attacks and theHoly Land. These issues, which were printed on thicker paper, were more like softcover books than magazines.^{[clarification needed]}

Beginning in October 2004,Life was revived for a second time. It resumed weekly publication as a free supplement to U.S. newspapers, competing for the first time with the two industry heavyweights,Parade andUSA Weekend. At its launch, it was distributed with more than 60 newspapers with a combined circulation of approximately 12 million. Among the newspapers to carryLife were theWashington Post,New York Daily News,Los Angeles Times,Chicago Tribune,Denver Post, andSt. Louis Post-Dispatch. Time Inc. made deals with several major newspaper publishers to carry theLife supplement, includingKnight Ridder andthe McClatchy Company. The launch ofLife as a weekly newspaper supplement was conceived by Andrew Blau, who served as the President ofLife.Bill Shapiro was the founding editor of the weekly supplement.

This version ofLife retained its trademark logo but sported a new cover motto, "America's Weekend Magazine." It measured 9½ x 11½ inches and was printed on glossy paper in full color. On September 15, 2006,Life was 19 pages of editorial content. The editorial content contained one full-page photo, of actressJulia Louis-Dreyfus, and one three-page, seven-photo essay, ofKaiju Big Battel. On March 24, 2007, Time Inc. announced that it would fold the magazine by April 20, although it would keep the web site.^[50][51]

On November 18, 2008,Google began hosting an archive of the magazine's photographs, as part of a joint effort withLife.^[52] Many images in this archive had never been published in the magazine.^[53] The archive, consisting of over six million photographs, is also available throughGoogle Cultural Institute, allowing for users to create collections, and is accessible throughGoogle image search. The full archive of the issues of the main run (1936–1972) is available throughGoogle Book Search.^[54]

Special editions ofLife are published on notable occasions, such as aBob Dylan edition on the occasion of his winning theNobel Prize in Literature in 2016,Paul at 75 when Paul McCartney turned 75 in 2017, and"Life" Explores: The Roaring '20s in 2020.^[55]

Life is currently owned byDotdash Meredith,^[56] which owns most formerTime Inc. andMeredith Corporation assets.^[57]

In 2024, it was announced that Bedford Media (owned byKarlie Kloss andJoshua Kushner) would be reviving the magazine in an agreement with Dotdash Meredith.^[58]

• The 2013 filmThe Secret Life of Walter Mitty, starringBen Stiller andKristen Wiig, portraysLife as it transitioned from printed material toward having only an online presence.^[59]

Notable contributors have included:

• John Kendrick Bangs, editor and writer
• Dominic Behan, writer
• Edward K. Thompson, managing editor (1949–1961) and editor (1961–1970)

Photojournalists:

Film critics:

• Brad Darrach
• Wheeler Winston Dixon

Fashion:

• Howell Conant, fashion photographer
• Clay Felker, sportswriter, founder ofNew York magazine
• Sally Kirkland, editor, fashion

Photographers:

• John Florea
• Henry Grossman
• Philippe Halsman
• Dorothea Lange
• Nina Leen
• Mark Shaw
• Edward Steichen, portraits
• André Weinfeld, portraits

Illustrators:

Writers:

• Normand Poirier
• Ronald B. Scott
• Thomas Thompson, writer and editor

• List of defunct American periodicals

• Bissonette, Devan L. (2009). "Between Silence and Self-Interest".Journalism History.35 (2):62–71.doi:10.1080/00947679.2009.12062786.S2CID 140850931.
• Centanni, Rebecca (2011). "Advertising inLife Magazine and the Encouragement of Suburban Ideals".Advertising & Society Review.12 (3).doi:10.1353/asr.2011.0022.S2CID 154297703.
• Doss, Erika, ed. (2001).Looking at Life Magazine. Smithsonian Institution Press.ISBN 978-1-56098-989-9. — A collection of essays.
• Grady, John (2007)."Advertising images as social indicators: Depictions of blacks inLIFE magazine, 1936–2000"(PDF).Visual Studies.22 (3):211–239.doi:10.1080/14725860701657134.S2CID 35722845.
• Keller, Emily (1996).Margaret Bourke-White: A Photographer's Life. Twenty-First Century Books.ISBN 978-0-8225-4916-1.
• Lester, Paul; Smith, Ron (1990)."African-American Photo Coverage inLife,Newsweek andTime, 1937–1988"(PDF).Journalism Quarterly.67:128–136.doi:10.1177/107769909006700119.S2CID 145442771.
• Moore, Gerald (2016).Life Story: The Education of an American Journalist. University of New Mexico Press.ISBN 978-0-8263-5677-2.
• Vials, Chris (2006). "The Popular Front in the American Century:Life Magazine, Margaret Bourke-White, and Consumer Realism, 1936–1941".American Periodicals.16 (1):74–102.doi:10.1353/amp.2006.0009.JSTOR 20770947.S2CID 144607109.
• Wainwright, Loudon (1986).The Great American Magazine: An inside history of Life. Random House Inc.ISBN 978-0-394-45987-5.
• Webb, Sheila M. (2016). "CreatingLife : "America's Most Potent Editorial Force"".Journalism & Communication Monographs.18 (2):55–108.doi:10.1177/1522637916639393.S2CID 147872092. — Evolution of photojournalism, centered on the magazine.
• Webb, Sheila (2012). "The Consumer-Citizen:Life Magazine's Construction of a Middle-Class Lifestyle Through Consumption Scenarios".Studies in Popular Culture.34 (2):23–47.JSTOR 23416397.
• Webb, Sheila (2010). "Art Commentary for the Middlebrow: Promoting Modernism & Modern Art through Popular Culture—HowLife Magazine Brought "The New" into Middle-Class Homes".American Journalism.27 (3):115–150.doi:10.1080/08821127.2010.10678155.S2CID 152990744.
• Webb, Sheila (2006). "A Pictorial Myth in the Pages ofLife: Small-Town America as the Ideal Place".Studies in Popular Culture.28 (3):35–58.JSTOR 23416170.

• Life website
• Life archives (1883–1936) atHathiTrust (B&W scans with colored illustrations and cover, 1929-1936 issues are search-only)
• Life archives (1936–1972) atGoogle Books (Colored scans)