The Best American Magazine Writing 2000

Influential magazine publisher, editor, and journalist Clay Felker was born in Webster Groves, Missouri on October 2, 1925. Both of his parents worked as editors. Felker graduated from Duke University in 1951, after having served in the Navy during World War II.

For six years Felker was a reporter for Life magazine, and he also worked at Sports Illustrated, The Herald Tribune, and many other publications. In 1968 he founded New York Magazine. Felker popularized the novelistic techniques associated with the New Journalism of the late 1960s, which sought to provide emotional details rather than only facts. He was also known for his elitist attitude and focus on the trendy, sophisticated aspects of Manhattan life. Felker resigned from New York following the 1976 hostile takeover by Rupert Murdoch.

Felker was the editor and publisher of Esquire until 1981. In 1994 he began lecturing at the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley. Felker was married three times, to Leslie Blatt, Pamela Tiffin, and Gail Sheehy, and had two stepdaughters.

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