Dan's Papers - July 18, 2008 - Clay Felker, Editor, Visionary, 1925-2008

Clay Felker, the founder of New York Magazine, a revolutionary figure in magazine publishing and a resident of these parts, died in New York City last week.

Felker grew up in Webster Groves, Missouri, went to Duke, served in the Navy and then, in the late 1950s, became a reporter for LIFE magazine in New York City. In 1963, he founded New York Magazine as a supplement to the New York Herald Tribune newspaper. Then, when that newspaper folded, he re-launched it, along with graphic designer Milton Glaser, as a freestanding magazine. New York Magazine was revolutionary for its time, containing articles about politics, style, books and gossip, but from a completely anti-establishment point of view. Felker is considered one of the founders of what is known as "New Journalism."

An initial press run of 50,000 copies quickly leaped to nearly 400,000 within a year, all paid circulation, as the general public, eager for something controversial and unconventional, brought it into the black.

As a young man, Felker was dynamic, engaging and angry at the way things were at that time. During the 1970s, his publication published the works of such diverse writers as Richard Reeves, Gloria Steinem, Steven Brill, Ken Auletta, Gay Talese, Hunter S. Thompson, Dick Schaap, Mimi Sheraton, Tom Wolfe and Jimmy Breslin. He famously published a remarkable article by Tom Wolfe called "Radical Chic," about a fundraising party for the Black Panthers on New York's Upper East Side. Wolfe had wormed his way into the party as a reporter, but came out with this blazing story about the hypocrisy of rich whites and angry blacks sharing cocktails and caviar as they discussed donations and guns, the wealthy in their high-fashion duds and the blacks in military gear. It created a sensation.

In 1977, allegedly at Main Beach in East Hampton, Felker sold New York Magazine as a result of a hostile takeover attempt engineered by Rupert Murdoch. Three years earlier, Murdoch, in a similar maneuver, had bought the Village Voice. Reportedly, the final terms of the New York Magazine sale took place between Murdoch and Felker on Main Beach that year.

Felker continued his career editing magazines for the rest of his working life. He worked at Esquire and Ad Week, and in 1987, he and others founded Manhattan, Inc., right into the teeth of the 1987 economic downturn. Three years later, still struggling to get that magazine on its feet, he had to shut down.

Felker is survived by his wife, writer Gail Sheehy, a daughter, Mohm Sheehy, of Cambridge, MA, a stepdaughter and three step-grandchildren.