Hugh M. Hefner (1926–2017)
Author of Playboy: 50 Years: The Cartoons
About the Author
Hugh Marston Hefner was born in Chicago, Illinois on April 9, 1926. After serving in the Army, he attended the University of Illinois, where he edited the humor magazine and started a photo feature called Co-ed of the Month. Before creating Playboy magazine, he worked for the personnel department show more of a cardboard-box manufacturer, wrote advertising copy for a department store and for Esquire magazine, and was the circulation promotion manager for Children's Activities. The first issue of Playboy was published in 1953. Hefner's company branched into movie, cable and digital production, sold its own line of clothing and jewelry, and opened clubs, resorts and casinos. He appeared on several television shows including Playboy's Penthouse, Playboy After Dark, and The Girls Next Door. He edited several Playboy books including The Century of Sex. He died on September 27, 2017 at the age of 91. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Image credit: Photo by Alan Light, 1979 (Cropped/Wikipedia & Flickr)
Series
Works by Hugh M. Hefner
The Playboy philosophy 8 copies
The Best From Playboy 4 copies
Playboy Annual 2 copies
The celluloid closet 2 copies
The Playboy Reader 1 copy
Playboy - 1976 1 copy
Playboy's Holiday Album 1 copy
Playboy - 1971 September 1 copy
Playboy - 1972 September 1 copy
Playboy - 1975 April 1 copy
Playboy August 1972 1 copy
Playboy June 1973 1 copy
May 1971 Playboy John Wayne interview - 12 pages New York Bunnies - Vargas Girl Pictorial (1900) 1 copy
July 1983 Playboy Magazine 1 copy
Third Playboy Annual 1 copy
Associated Works
Saturday Night Live: The Complete Third Season 1977-1978 (1977) — Other Contributor, some editions — 18 copies
Sex at 24 Frames Per Second [2003 Documentary Film] — Self — 2 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Legal name
- Hefner, Hugh Marston
- Birthdate
- 1926-04-09
- Date of death
- 2017-09-27
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- Chicago, Illinois, USA
- Place of death
- Los Angeles, California, USA
Members
Reviews
Awards
You May Also Like
Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 265
- Also by
- 60
- Members
- 902
- Popularity
- #28,436
- Rating
- 3.9
- Reviews
- 4
- ISBNs
- 30
- Languages
- 4
I think you can read this anthology in a few ways. You can read it as a piece of nostalgia, as a look back at how the magazine was great, and not just for the pictorials. They did feature some of the great writers of the late part of the 20th century. Some of the pieces were better than others, and that is the only reason I gave it three stars. I liked it, but I did not "really like it." There were some misses, but I am sure for other readers, the pieces I did not like others might like. So give it a try anyways. You can also read this book as a sort of small literary history or time capsule. As I mentioned, some great writers and thinkers are featured here. I think you can also read it as a piece of popular culture, as a reflection of its time. I did find interesting some of the things the writers addressed and were concerned about. Some things were curious little details, for example, William Buckley writing about reading and defining what makes someone smart mentioned that, in 1983 or so, he had not really heard of Michael Jackson. Reading that detail today is an interesting experience.
There may be a few pieces that show age, but there are also a few that are pretty timeless, some even relevant still today. The best part of this book is that you can browse through it, find items of interest, and read those. Leaf through it, read a little bit now, a little bit later. It does lend itself to be a bedside reader (may also work for bathroom reading, and I do mean that in a good way).
The only other small nitpicks I had with the book were the way the table of contents was organized and a lack of some small note of information to preface the pieces. The table of contents is organized by major topics, instead of in the order that the pieces appear in the book. Personally, I would have preferred to know what came in what order. Two, in anthologies like this I tend to like a small preface to the pieces, something like, "this piece was published in the X year issue of Playboy" and maybe a bit about an author or something like that. Only way I could tell when a piece was written was either by references the authors made in their piece or by looking at the copyright page if I got curious. Most of the time I could guess ok (on classical things, like that piece by Boccaccio I obviously had an idea when it was originally written). Anyhow, those are the small things.
Overall, this is a pretty good book to pass the time. If you need some reading material, and you need something that you can read with ease, something you can pick up and drop and pick up again, then this is the book for you. And if you have never read the magazine, it may give you an appreciation for it, especially for what it used to be.
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