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The Man from Essence: Creating a Magazine for Black Women
by Edward Lewis with Audrey Edwards, foreword by Camille O.
Cosby
c.2014, Atria
$25.00 / $29.99 Canada
311 pages
By Terri Schlichenmeyer
The Truth Contributor
It’s never been done before.
It’s never been done, it’s never been tried. Maybe it’s
never been thought of, either, but that hasn’t stopped you.
Once a valid idea pops into your head, it’s not long before
the idea becomes more.
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You’ve been around long enough to know, however, that the
road to success can be paved with spikes and nothing ever
happens smoothly. In The Man from Essence by
Edward Lewis (with Audrey Edwards), you’ll see that that
phenomenon crosses all industries.
By age 28, Edward Lewis had already endured his share of
awkwardness: he’d lost a football scholarship at one college
and had flunked out of law school at another. He was,
however, able to find and keep a good job at a major bank in
Manhattan , which led to an opportunity that would
“transform” his life.
The vice president of a New York investment firm invited a
‘bunch of… young bloods” to a think-tank meeting, promising
them financing if they came up with a business idea that
would work. One of the attendees mentioned that his mother
always dreamed of a magazine specifically for “Negro” women
and, offhandedly, the investment VP paired him and two
others with Lewis, who knew “something about finance.”
Eager to own their own business, the four men – Clarence
Smith, Jonathan Blount, Cecil Hollingsworth, and Lewis - set
up a partnership in March, 1969, and began looking for an
editor for their new magazine, even though they “knew a
little more than zip about Negro women and the
consumer market…they comprised.”
There was, of course, a learning curve – including a
disastrous almost-name of the magazine, staffing problems
and many wars of words – but in the spring of 1970,
Essence magazine debuted. Despite an initial problem
with funding, a revolving editorial door, plenty of
in-fighting, lawsuits, ousting of partners, and
“out-of-control behavior,” the magazine thrives with a
readership that today “remains ever faithful.” And of the
original four partners, Lewis was the “last man standing”
when Essence Communications Inc. was sold to Time Warner in
2008.
This story of a magazine as told by The Man from Essence
is a good one. It’s filled with advice, insight, and
hot-button gossip, but that’s not all. It also includes
stories about people who probably won’t like those stories
told.
Indeed, author Edward Lewis (with Audrey Edwards) leaves
nothing unsaid in this business memoir and I found that
completely irresistible. Here, readers learn a bit of
background on what it takes to launch a successful magazine
– what to do and definitely what not to do – and we
get a behind-the-scenes taste of a business like this. Along
the way, Lewis gives us a sense of the times and attitudes
in which this iconic magazine was launched and incubated,
which is both entertaining and informative.
That makes this book a nice surprise, and not just for fans
of the magazine. If you’re up for an advice-dispensing
business biography that also dishes dirt, in fact, The
Man from Essence is a book to try. |
