'''Daniel Longwell''' (July 11, 1899 – November 20, 1968) was an American magazine editor. He was a founder and editor of ''Life'' magazine and served as the chairman of its editor's board until 1954.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|title=Daniel Longwell, A Founder of Life – Chairman of Editors' Board Until 1954 Dies at 69|url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1968/11/22/77427429.html?pageNumber=47|access-date=2021-08-28|website=timesmachine.nytimes.com|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QUIEAAAAMBAJ&dq=daniel+Longwell+loudon+Wainwright&pg=PA8|title=Life|date=1953-01-05|publisher=Time Inc|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Smith|first=C. Zoe|date=1988-06-01|title=Germany's Kurt Korff: An Emigré's Influence on Early Life|url=https://doi.org/10.1177/107769908806500222|journal=Journalism Quarterly|language=en|volume=65|issue=2|pages=412–419|doi=10.1177/107769908806500222|s2cid=145376464|issn=0022-5533|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

== Early life and education == Longwell was born in Omaha, Nebraska. He rejected an appointment to the United States Military Academy and enrolled in Columbia University, graduating in 1922.<ref>{{Cite book|url=http://archive.org/details/ldpd_12981092_001|title=Columbia College today|date=1954|publisher=New York, N.Y. : Columbia College, Office of Alumni Affairs and Development|others=Columbia University Libraries}}</ref>

== Career == After college, Longwell worked for Doubleday and supervised publication of the works of a number of authors including Edna Ferber, Ellen Glasgow, Stephen Vincent Benét, Kenneth Roberts. He also edited a number of picture books.

In 1934, he left Doubleday and joined Time Inc. He was appointed special assistant to the magazine's managing editor, John Shaw Billings and was tasked by Henry Luce to create a "picture magazine". Longwell then headed an experimental group that drew up trial issues of the magazine that was launched as ''Life'' magazine in 1936.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|last=Haas Smith|first=Judith|url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/914218327|title=Larger Than Life The Legacy of Daniel Longwell and Mary Fraser Longwell.|date=2015|publisher=Authorhouse|isbn=978-1-5049-2116-9|oclc=914218327}}</ref> He was one of the three original editors of the magazine, along with Henry Luce and John Shaw Billings.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_kcEAAAAMBAJ&dq=daniel+longwell+life+magazine&pg=PA13|title=Life|date=1953-08-10|publisher=Time Inc|language=en}}</ref>

From 1936 to 1944, he was the executive editor of ''Life''. He served as the managing editor from 1944 to 1946, and the chairman of its board of editors until his retirement in 1954.<ref name=":0" />

From 1954 to 1956, he was the President of the American Federation of Arts, of which he had been a trustee for 5 years.<ref name=":0" /> He was also a trustee of the National Book Committee, which administered the National Book Award from 1950 to 1974.<ref name=":0" />

He retired to Neosho, Missouri, where he owned a farm that he spent time on during his boyhood.<ref name=":0" /> He is also the namesake of the Longwell Museum at Crowder College, to which he and his wife donated many works of art from their private collection.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Longwell Museum – Crowder College|url=https://www.crowder.edu/about-crowder/longwell-museum/|access-date=2021-08-28|language=en-US}}</ref> He was also credited for making Neosho the "Flowerbox City" by initiating the flowerbox program with a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|last=Hively|first=Kay|title=Good Neighbor of the Week: Smith's book is 'Larger than Life'|url=https://www.neoshodailynews.com/article/20151013/NEWS/151019642|access-date=2021-08-28|website=Neosho Daily News - Neosho, MO|language=en|archive-date=2021-08-28|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210828231118/https://www.neoshodailynews.com/article/20151013/NEWS/151019642|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=2002-04-07|title=Neosho is Flower Box City|url=https://americanprofile.com/articles/worlds-largest-flowerbox-neosho-missouri/|access-date=2021-08-28|website=American Profile|language=en-US}}</ref>

A fellow ''Life'' editor, Loudon Wainwright wrote that "Possibly more than anyone else, Longwell rates consideration as the father of LIFE."<ref>{{Cite book|last=Wainwright|first=Loudon|title=The Great American Magazine: An Inside History of LIFE|publisher=Knopf|year=1986|isbn=0394459873|location=New York|pages=106}}</ref>

== Personal life == Longwell died in Neosho, Missouri, in 1968.<ref name=":0" /> He was a member of the River Club, the Coffee House Club, the Century Association, and the Columbia University Club of New York.<ref name=":0" />

Longwell and his wife, Mary Fraser Longwell were subjects of a 2015 book ''Larger Than Life: The Legacy of Daniel Longwell and Mary Fraser Longwell''.<ref name=":1" /> The author, Judith Haas Smith, grew up on the same block where they lived after their retirement and she became close friends with the couple. Longwell eventually became her mentor. In 2010, Smith discovered that Longwell's papers were stored at Columbia University and spent the next five years reading the 89 archival boxes of correspondence kept from Longwell's 35-year career in publishing to write the biography.<ref>{{Cite web|date=July 23, 2015|title='Larger than Life' Author at Kimball |publisher=The White River Valley Herald|url=https://www.ourherald.com/articles/larger-than-life-author-at-kimball/|access-date=2021-08-28|website=www.ourherald.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Daniel Longwell papers, circa 1920-1974|url=http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/archival/collections/ldpd_4079042/|access-date=2021-08-28|website=www.columbia.edu}}</ref><ref name=":2" />

== References == <references />

{{DEFAULTSORT:Longwell, Daniel}} Category:1968 deaths Category:People from Omaha, Nebraska Category:Time (magazine) people Category:Life (magazine) people Category:American editors Category:Columbia College, Columbia University alumni