66 min listen
Terry McDonell (Editor: Sports Illustrated, Esquire, Newsweek, Rolling Stone, more)
Terry McDonell (Editor: Sports Illustrated, Esquire, Newsweek, Rolling Stone, more)
ratings:
Length:
62 minutes
Released:
Oct 27, 2023
Format:
Podcast episode
Description
Today’s guest, Terry McDonell, is the kind of editor you fear based on reputation, but would probably run through a wall for at 3am on deadline day.
As for that reputation, I’ve never worked with McDonell, but a simple Google search fills the screen with an undeviating set of impressions like these:
“he helped define American masculinity”…
“a version of manhood inspired by Hemingway”…
And “the manliest of literary men.”
And indeed, his corps of collaborators includes a rogue’s gallery of literary tough guys: Jim Harrison, Edward Abbey, Tom McGuane, George Plimpton, and Hunter Thompson.
But missing from all that testosterone, until now, has been the true hero of McDonell’s life and career, and the subject of his beautifully-crafted new memoir: Irma: The Education of a Mother’s Son.
But read his other book, The Accidental Life, and you’ll discover a true editorial savant: an engaged partner to his coworkers, whose adventurousness knows no limits.
And apparently, neither does his resume. McDonell, an ASME Editor’s Hall of Famer, has topped the masthead at more magazines than anybody we know.
As for that reputation, I’ve never worked with McDonell, but a simple Google search fills the screen with an undeviating set of impressions like these:
“he helped define American masculinity”…
“a version of manhood inspired by Hemingway”…
And “the manliest of literary men.”
And indeed, his corps of collaborators includes a rogue’s gallery of literary tough guys: Jim Harrison, Edward Abbey, Tom McGuane, George Plimpton, and Hunter Thompson.
But missing from all that testosterone, until now, has been the true hero of McDonell’s life and career, and the subject of his beautifully-crafted new memoir: Irma: The Education of a Mother’s Son.
But read his other book, The Accidental Life, and you’ll discover a true editorial savant: an engaged partner to his coworkers, whose adventurousness knows no limits.
And apparently, neither does his resume. McDonell, an ASME Editor’s Hall of Famer, has topped the masthead at more magazines than anybody we know.
Released:
Oct 27, 2023
Format:
Podcast episode
Titles in the series (55)
Kurt Andersen (Author & Editor: Spy Magazine, New York, Studio360, more): We’ve always had a thing for magazine launches. They’re filled with drama and melodrama, people behaving with passion and conviction, and people ... misbehaving. Anything to get that first issue onto the stands and into the hands of readers. Some new ventures seem to sneak in the back door. Who saw Wired or Fast Company coming? Others are to the manner born, and from the most elite print parents. But, even with that pedigree they never gain traction, never display the scrappiness and experimentation that we’ve come to expect from anything new. (You know who you are). But then, one day, along comes The Greatest Startup in the History of Magazine Startups. A magazine that dares to mercilessly, and humorously, vilify high society. The one that big time journalists pretend to ignore but were first to the newsstand each month to grab their copy. The one that created packaging conceits: Separated at Birth, Private L by Print Is Dead (Long Live Print!)