Arnold Gingrich
Encyclopedia
Arnold Gingrich was the editor of, and, along with publisher David A. Smart
, co-founder of Esquire
magazine. He created the magazine in 1933 and remained its editor until 1961. Among his other projects was the political/newsmagazine Ken.
Gingrich was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan
of Mennonite parents in 1903 and attended the University of Michigan
. He published such authors as Ernest Hemingway
, William Faulkner
, John Steinbeck
, Thomas Wolfe
, John Dos Passos
, Garry Wills
, Truman Capote
, and Norman Mailer
. He was also one of the few magazine editors to publish F. Scott Fitzgerald
regularly in the late 1930s, including Fitzgerald's The Pat Hobby Stories
. Gingrich also published stories by Jack Woodford
, whom he befriended when they worked together at an advertising agency in the 1920s. He wrote the introduction to Woodford's famous book on writing and publishing Trial and Error
.
The magazine’s name Esquire was selected after Gingrich received a letter that was addressed to "Arnold Gingrich, Esq." The magazine he created set the template for future men's magazines; for example, Playboy
, a variation, namely Esquire with nude photographs (Esquire had famously published a series of "Varga Girl
" paintings and other "cheesecake" imagery since its founding).
His autobiography, Toys Of A Lifetime, with illustrations by Leslie Saalburg, was published by Alfred A. Knopf
in 1966. It has long been out of print. In it, he recounts his experience with cars (he owned several notable Bentley
s), including a classic R-series and S-series "Countryman
" (obtained through the late J.S. Inskip in Manhattan
), as well as an early Volkswagen
, transatlantic liners (including the Normandie
), French hotels, Dunhill
pipes and Balkan Sobranie tobacco, clothes and all manner of other possessions and accommodations.
He died in 1976 in Ridgewood, New Jersey
.
and contributed much to the literature of the sport. More a reflection on the fishing life than a how-to manual, though it does contain practical advice on light tackle fly fishing, and a useful bibliography. American Trout Fishing is the trade press edition of the Gordon Garland, a compilation of stories and history about American Trout fishing and is dedicated to Theodore Gordon
. Noted fly fishing authors, including Lee Wulff, Roderick Haig-Brown
, Ernie Schwiebert
, Dana Lamb, Joe Brooks and many others, contributed to this work. Listed as one of the modern "classics" of angling in the University of New Hampshire Library Milne Angling Collection. In The Fishing In Print, Gingrich surveys the major pieces of classic and modern fly fishing literature up through the 1950s. It is an excellent read to get a better understanding of the evolution of the various styles of fly fishing—wet, nymphs, dry, etc. as originally written about by the likes of Halford, Skues
, Gordon and Jennings along with many others.
David A. Smart
David A. Smart , co-founder of Esquire magazine, and , with his brother Alfred Smart , co-publisher of Esquire and Coronet.-Birth:...
, co-founder of Esquire
Esquire (magazine)
Esquire is a men's magazine, published in the U.S. by the Hearst Corporation. Founded in 1932, it flourished during the Great Depression under the guidance of founder and editor Arnold Gingrich.-History:...
magazine. He created the magazine in 1933 and remained its editor until 1961. Among his other projects was the political/newsmagazine Ken.
Gingrich was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan
Grand Rapids, Michigan
Grand Rapids is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. The city is located on the Grand River about 40 miles east of Lake Michigan. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 188,040. In 2010, the Grand Rapids metropolitan area had a population of 774,160 and a combined statistical area, Grand...
of Mennonite parents in 1903 and attended the University of Michigan
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...
. He published such authors as Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Miller Hemingway was an American author and journalist. His economic and understated style had a strong influence on 20th-century fiction, while his life of adventure and his public image influenced later generations. Hemingway produced most of his work between the mid-1920s and the...
, William Faulkner
William Faulkner
William Cuthbert Faulkner was an American writer from Oxford, Mississippi. Faulkner worked in a variety of media; he wrote novels, short stories, a play, poetry, essays and screenplays during his career...
, John Steinbeck
John Steinbeck
John Ernst Steinbeck, Jr. was an American writer. He is widely known for the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden and the novella Of Mice and Men...
, Thomas Wolfe
Thomas Wolfe
Thomas Clayton Wolfe was a major American novelist of the early 20th century.Wolfe wrote four lengthy novels, plus many short stories, dramatic works and novellas. He is known for mixing highly original, poetic, rhapsodic, and impressionistic prose with autobiographical writing...
, John Dos Passos
John Dos Passos
John Roderigo Dos Passos was an American novelist and artist.-Early life:Born in Chicago, Illinois, Dos Passos was the illegitimate son of John Randolph Dos Passos , a distinguished lawyer of Madeiran Portuguese descent, and Lucy Addison Sprigg Madison of Petersburg, Virginia. The elder Dos Passos...
, Garry Wills
Garry Wills
Garry Wills is a Pulitzer Prize-winning and prolific author, journalist, and historian, specializing in American politics, American political history and ideology and the Roman Catholic Church. Classically trained at a Jesuit high school and two universities, he is proficient in Greek and Latin...
, Truman Capote
Truman Capote
Truman Streckfus Persons , known as Truman Capote , was an American author, many of whose short stories, novels, plays, and nonfiction are recognized literary classics, including the novella Breakfast at Tiffany's and the true crime novel In Cold Blood , which he labeled a "nonfiction novel." At...
, and Norman Mailer
Norman Mailer
Norman Kingsley Mailer was an American novelist, journalist, essayist, poet, playwright, screenwriter, and film director.Along with Truman Capote, Joan Didion, Hunter S...
. He was also one of the few magazine editors to publish F. Scott Fitzgerald
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was an American author of novels and short stories, whose works are the paradigm writings of the Jazz Age, a term he coined himself. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century. Fitzgerald is considered a member of the "Lost...
regularly in the late 1930s, including Fitzgerald's The Pat Hobby Stories
The Pat Hobby Stories
The Pat Hobby Stories are a collection of 17 short stories written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, first published by Arnold Gingrich of Esquire magazine between January 1940 and May 1941, and later collected in one volume in 1962...
. Gingrich also published stories by Jack Woodford
Jack Woodford
Jack Woodford was a successful pulp novelist and non-fiction author of the 1930s and 1940s. He wrote unique books on writing and getting published...
, whom he befriended when they worked together at an advertising agency in the 1920s. He wrote the introduction to Woodford's famous book on writing and publishing Trial and Error
Trial and Error (book)
Trial and Error is Jack Woodford's book on writing and the publishing industry. The book focuses on writing and editing and describes the behind-the-scenes machinations that result in the final publication of writing....
.
The magazine’s name Esquire was selected after Gingrich received a letter that was addressed to "Arnold Gingrich, Esq." The magazine he created set the template for future men's magazines; for example, Playboy
Playboy
Playboy is an American men's magazine that features photographs of nude women as well as journalism and fiction. It was founded in Chicago in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. The magazine has grown into Playboy Enterprises, Inc., with...
, a variation, namely Esquire with nude photographs (Esquire had famously published a series of "Varga Girl
Alberto Vargas
Alberto Vargas was a noted Peruvian painter of pin-up girls. He is often considered one of the most famous of the pin-up artists...
" paintings and other "cheesecake" imagery since its founding).
His autobiography, Toys Of A Lifetime, with illustrations by Leslie Saalburg, was published by Alfred A. Knopf
Alfred A. Knopf
Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. is a New York publishing house, founded by Alfred A. Knopf, Sr. in 1915. It was acquired by Random House in 1960 and is now part of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group at Random House. The publishing house is known for its borzoi trademark , which was designed by co-founder...
in 1966. It has long been out of print. In it, he recounts his experience with cars (he owned several notable Bentley
Bentley
Bentley Motors Limited is a British manufacturer of automobiles founded on 18 January 1919 by Walter Owen Bentley known as W.O. Bentley or just "W O". Bentley had been previously known for his range of rotary aero-engines in World War I, the most famous being the Bentley BR1 as used in later...
s), including a classic R-series and S-series "Countryman
Countryman
- Personnel :*Craig Allen – Art Direction, Design*Sweet Pea Atkinson – Vocals*Dan Bosworth – Guitar*Sir Harry Bowens – Vocals*Kim Buie – Executive Producer*Santa Davis – Drums*Richard Feldman – Guitar, Producer, Engineer, Mixing*Pam Hall – Vocals...
" (obtained through the late J.S. Inskip in Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
), as well as an early Volkswagen
Volkswagen
Volkswagen is a German automobile manufacturer and is the original and biggest-selling marque of the Volkswagen Group, which now also owns the Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, SEAT, and Škoda marques and the truck manufacturer Scania.Volkswagen means "people's car" in German, where it is...
, transatlantic liners (including the Normandie
SS Normandie
SS Normandie was an ocean liner built in Saint-Nazaire, France for the French Line Compagnie Générale Transatlantique. She entered service in 1935 as the largest and fastest passenger ship afloat; she is still the most powerful steam turbo-electric-propelled passenger ship ever built.Her novel...
), French hotels, Dunhill
Dunhill
Dunhill may refer to:* Alfred Dunhill, a luxury goods company owned by Richemont* Dunhill * Dunhill , a brand of cigarettes made by British American Tobacco* Dunhill Records, a record label* ABC Dunhill Records, a record label...
pipes and Balkan Sobranie tobacco, clothes and all manner of other possessions and accommodations.
He died in 1976 in Ridgewood, New Jersey
Ridgewood, New Jersey
Ridgewood is a village in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the village population was 24,958. Ridgewood is an affluent suburban bedroom community of New York City, located approximately northwest of Midtown Manhattan.The Village of Ridgewood was...
.
Contributions to angling literature
Gingrich was an avid fly fishermanFly fishing
Fly fishing is an angling method in which an artificial 'fly' is used to catch fish. The fly is cast using a fly rod, reel, and specialized weighted line. Casting a nearly weightless fly or 'lure' requires casting techniques significantly different from other forms of casting...
and contributed much to the literature of the sport. More a reflection on the fishing life than a how-to manual, though it does contain practical advice on light tackle fly fishing, and a useful bibliography. American Trout Fishing is the trade press edition of the Gordon Garland, a compilation of stories and history about American Trout fishing and is dedicated to Theodore Gordon
Theodore Gordon
Theodore Gordon, a consumptive hermit, was a writer who fished the Catskill region of New York State in the late 19th century through the early 20th century. He wrote articles for the Fishing Gazette from 1890 on and published works in Forest and Stream from 1903, sometimes under the pseudonym...
. Noted fly fishing authors, including Lee Wulff, Roderick Haig-Brown
Roderick Haig-Brown
Roderick Haig-Brown was a Canadian writer and conservationist.-Early life:Born in Lancing, Sussex, England his father, Alan Haig-Brown, was a teacher and a prolific writer who published hundreds of articles and poems on sports, the military and educational issues in various periodicals...
, Ernie Schwiebert
Ernest Schwiebert
Ernest George Schwiebert, Ph.D. was born in Chicago on June 5, 1931. An architect by profession, Ernest "Ernie" Schwiebert was a renowned angler and angling author...
, Dana Lamb, Joe Brooks and many others, contributed to this work. Listed as one of the modern "classics" of angling in the University of New Hampshire Library Milne Angling Collection. In The Fishing In Print, Gingrich surveys the major pieces of classic and modern fly fishing literature up through the 1950s. It is an excellent read to get a better understanding of the evolution of the various styles of fly fishing—wet, nymphs, dry, etc. as originally written about by the likes of Halford, Skues
George Edward MacKenzie Skues
George Edward MacKenzie Skues, usually known as G. E. M. Skues , was a British lawyer, author and fly fisherman most noted for the invention of modern-day nymph fishing and the controversy it caused with the Chalk stream dry fly doctrine developed by Frederic M. Halford...
, Gordon and Jennings along with many others.