Peter Fenelon Collier
Peter
Fenelon Collier was born in Myshall, County Carlow,
Ireland on 12th December 1849. He emigrated to Dayton,
Ohio, when he was seventeen years old. After attending
St. Mary's Seminary for four years he worked for Sadler
and Company, a publisher of schoolbooks. With $300 he
saved as a salesman he formed his own company producing
books for the Roman Catholic market.
Collier decided to move into the magazine
market and in April 1888 he founded Collier's Once a
Week. It was advertised as a magazine of "fiction, fact,
sensation, wit, humour, news". By 1892 it had a
circulation of over 250,000 and was one of largest
selling magazines in the United States.
In 1895 its name was changed to Collier's
Weekly: An Illustrated Journal. The magazine now
concentrating on news and became a leading exponent of
the half-tone news picture. To fully exploit this new
technology, Collier recruited James H. Hare, one of the
pioneers of photo-journalism.
Norman
Hapgood became editor of Collier's Weekly in 1903. He
developed a reputation of employing the country's
leading writers. In May, 1906, he commissioned Jack
London to report on the San Francisco earthquake. As
well as London's account there were sixteen pages of
pictures.
Under Hapgood's guidance, Collier's
Weekly became involved in what became known as
muckraking journalism. The most important of these
writers who contributed to the journal during this
period included Ida Tarbell, C. P. Connolly and Ray
Stannard Baker. Campaigns instigated by Norman Hapgood
involved the direct election of senators, reform of the
child labour laws, slum clearance and votes for women.
In April 1905, an article by Upton Sinclair, Is Chicago
Meat Clean, helped to persuade the Senate to pass the
Pure Food and Drugs Act (1906) and the Meat Inspection
Act (1906).
Peter Collier died on 24th April, 1909
and his son, Robert Joseph Collier, took over Collier's
Weekly. When Norman Hapgood left for Harper's Weekly in
1912. Robert became the new editor. Circulation
continued to grow and by 1917 circulation had reached a
million.
Robert Joseph Collier died on 9th
November, 1918. In his will he left the magazine to
three of his friends, Samuel Orace Dunn, Harry Payne
Whitney and Francis P. Garvan.
- Sources - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Fenelon_Collier
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