20 Facts About Henry Luce

Henry Robinson Luce was an American magazine magnate who founded Time, Life, Fortune, and Sports Illustrated magazines.

Henry Luce has been called "the most influential private citizen in the America of his day".

Henry Luce launched and closely supervised a stable of magazines that transformed journalism and the reading habits of millions of Americans.

Henry Luce envisaged that the United States would achieve world hegemony, and in 1941 he declared the 20th century would be the "American Century".

Luce was born in Tengchow, Shandong, China, now Penglai, on April 3,1898, the son of Elizabeth Root Luce and Henry Winters Luce, who was a Presbyterian missionary.

Henry Luce was subsidized by an elderly Chicago heiress, Nancy Fowler McCormick, who favored sons of missionaries.

Henry Luce was especially strong in languages, studying Greek, Latin, French, and German, and already knowing Chinese.

Henry Luce was the top freshman academically, but grades did not confer as much prestige as a staff role on the Yale Daily News.

Henry Luce's grades remained top-level, and every spare hour was devoted to newspaper work.

Henry Luce instead became managing editor and the two worked closely together and started planning their future.

Henry Luce tried, but failed, to win a Rhodes Scholarship to the University of Oxford, but he was admitted to the university and paid his way.

Henry Luce spent the year travelling Europe, observing the post-World War I scene closely.

Henry Luce returned to the United States to take a newspaper job in Chicago as a junior reporter.

Henry Luce, who remained editor-in-chief of all his publications until 1964, maintained a position as an influential member of the Republican Party.

Henry Luce authored an editorial for Life in 1941, titled "The American Century", in which he defined the role of US foreign policy for the remainder of the 20th century.

Henry Luce met his first wife, Lila Hotz, while he was studying at Yale University in 1919.

In 1935, he married his second wife, Clare Boothe Henry Luce, who had an 11-year-old daughter, Ann Clare Brokaw, whom he raised as his own.

Henry Luce died of a coronary occlusion on February 28,1967 in Phoenix, Arizona.

Henry Luce was inducted into the Junior Achievement US Business Hall of Fame.

The Henry Luce Foundation, Inc is a private, nonprofit organization incorporated in New York.