The Saturday Evening Post
1903 cover of The Saturday Evening Post: Otto von Bismarck illustrated by George Gibbs
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| Frequency | Bimonthly |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Curtis Publishing Company |
| Total circulation (December 2012) |
355,537 |
| First issue | August 4, 1821 |
| Company | Saturday Evening Post Society |
| Country | United States |
| Based in | Indianapolis |
| Language | English |
| Website | saturdayeveningpost |
| ISSN | 0048-9239 |
The Saturday Evening Post is a bimonthly American magazine. It was published weekly under this title from 1897 until 1963, then biweekly until 1969. In the 1920s to the 1960s, it was one of the most widely circulated and influential magazines for the American middle class, with fiction, non-fiction, cartoons and features that reached millions of homes every week. The magazine declined in readership through the 1960s, and in 1969 The Saturday Evening Post folded for two years before being revived as a quarterly publication in 1971. It now appears six times a year.
The magazine was redesigned in 2013.
The Saturday Evening Post was founded in 1821 and grew to become the most widely circulated weekly magazine in America. The magazine gained prominent status under the leadership of its longtime editor George Horace Lorimer (1899–1937). The editors claimed it had historical roots in Benjamin Franklin, The Pennsylvania Gazette which was first published in 1728 by Samuel Keimer and sold to Franklin in 1729. It discontinued publication in 1800.
The Saturday Evening Post published current event articles, editorials, human interest pieces, humor, illustrations, a letter column, poetry (with contributions submitted by readers), single-panel gag cartoons (including Hazel by Ted Key) and stories by the leading writers of the time. It was known for commissioning lavish illustrations and original works of fiction. Illustrations were featured on the cover and embedded in stories and advertising. Some Post illustrations became popular and continue to be reproduced as posters or prints, especially those by Norman Rockwell.
Curtis Publishing Co. stopped publishing the Post in 1969 after the company lost a landmark defamation suit and was ordered to pay over $3 million in damages. The Post was revived in 1971 as a limited circulation quarterly publication. As of the late 2000s, The Saturday Evening Post is published six times a year by the Saturday Evening Post Society, which purchased the magazine in 1982.
In 1916, Saturday Evening Post editor George Horace Lorimer discovered Norman Rockwell, then an unknown 22-year-old New York artist. Lorimer promptly purchased two illustrations from Rockwell, using them as covers, and commissioned three more drawings. Rockwell's illustrations of the American family and rural life of a bygone era became icons. During his 50-year career with the Post, Rockwell painted more than 300 covers.
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Wikipedia