{{Infobox writer | name = Gilbert Rogin | birth_date = November 14, 1929 | birth_place = Brooklyn | death_date = {{death date and age|2017|11|4|1929|11|14}} | death_place = Westport, Connecticut | occupation = Writer, editor | alma_mater = Columbia College | notable_works = ''What Happens Next?'' | spouse = Jacqueline Duvoisin }} '''Gilbert Rogin''' (November 14, 1929–November 4, 2017) was an American journalist and author.<ref name="NY">{{cite news |last1=Genzlinger |first1=Neil |title=Gilbert Rogin, Writer and Magazine Editor, Dies at 87 |work=The New York Times |date=Nov 2, 2017 |page=A29}}</ref> He worked in a variety of roles at Time, Inc., published many short stories, and wrote three works of fiction. As a fiction writer, he has been compared to Norman Mailer, Saul Bellow, and Bernard Malamud.<ref name=NY/>
==Time Inc. career== Rogin worked at ''Sports Illustrated'' for more than 30 years, eventually becoming the magazine's managing editor.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Bruckner |first1=D. J. R. |title=Magazine: Behind the Scenes at Sports Illustrated |work=The New York Times |date=June 5, 1983 |page=A34}}</ref> Rogin's tenure was covered in Michael MacCambridge's ''The Franchise: A History of Sports Illustrated Magazine'', which addressed the story that Rogin named Mary Decker the 1983 Sportswoman of the Year due to an infatuation.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Zaleski |first1=Rob |title=Peeking Behind Facade at Sports Illustrated |work=The Capital Times |date=June 22, 1998 |page=1D}}</ref> In 1984, Rogin became managing editor of ''Discover'', another Time Inc. title.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Dougherty |first1=Philip H. |title=Advertising: Sports Illustrated |work=The New York Times |date=Oct 8, 1984 |page=D7}}</ref> Rogin was not able to revive the magazine, which was sold by Time, Inc. in 1987, although ''Discover'' won a 1986 National Magazine Award for general excellence.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Richter |first1=Paul |title=Time Will Sell Discover After 7-Year Struggle |work=Los Angeles Times |date=May 22, 1987 |page=4.1}}</ref><ref name=NY/> Rogin then worked as a corporate editor for the company.<ref>{{cite news |title=Time Reassigns 3 Editors in Magazine Realignment |work=The Wall Street Journal |date=July 28, 1987 |department=Who's News |page=1}}</ref> In 1992, Rogin helped to launch ''Vibe''; he claimed that the test issue was the first time the word "motherfucker" appeared in a Time, Inc. title.<ref name=WP>{{cite news |last1=Mills |first1=David |title=The Corporate Hip-Hop Hope: Quincy Jones & Co.'s Black Culture Mag, Ready to Rap and Roll |work=The Washington Post |date=Sep 14, 1992 |page=D1}}</ref> There was some controversy when Rogin decided to hire Jonathan Van Meter as editor-in-chief. Van Meter, a white man, was to oversee a magazine primarily about Black music and culture.<ref name=WP/> Rogin retired from Time, Inc. at the end of 1992.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Carmody |first1=Deirdre |title=Time Inc. Names New No. 2 Editor |work=The New York Times |date=Nov 17, 1992 |page=D1}}</ref> Rogin also consulted and directed for Miller Publishing, which owned ''Blaze'', a spinoff of ''Vibe'', and ''Tennis'', among other titles.<ref>{{cite news |last1=McGee |first1=Celia |title=Vibe Chief Exiting for New Ventures |work=Daily News |date=May 6, 1999 |location=New York |page=73}}</ref>
==Writing career== Rogin published many stories in ''The New Yorker'', mostly in the 1960s, but was allegedly barred after the rejection of a couple of submissions.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Hawtree |first1=Christopher |title=Book review: From bon mots to buzz words: The New Yorker, 75 this year, once set the gold standard for magazines |work=The Independent |date=Apr 8, 2000 |department=Features |page=11}}</ref> John Updike deemed Rogin's stories "amazingly surreal".<ref>{{cite news |last1=Taylor |first1=Ihsan |title=Paperback Row |work=New York Times Book Review |date=Dec 5, 2010 |page=62}}</ref> Rogin's stories were acknowledged by the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1972.<ref>{{cite magazine |last1=Treadwell |first1=Sandy |title=And Now for the Good News at Time Inc. |magazine=New York |date=Jan 22, 1973 |volume=6 |issue=4 |page=42}}</ref> In a review of ''The Fencing Master'', the ''Oakland Tribune'' opined that "on a few occasions, the prose begins to take too much delight in itself, but a great deal of the book remains an intriguing adventure in tone."<ref>{{cite news |last1=Powers |first1=Dennis |title=At the Top of the Worst Seller List |work=Oakland Tribune |date=Jun 21, 1965 |page=D21}}</ref> ''The New York Times'' considered ''What Happens Next?'' "a novel of the first importance."<ref>{{cite news |last1=Sissman |first1=L. E. |title=What Happens Next?: By Gilbert Rogin |work=The New York Times |date=Oct 31, 1971 |page=BR6}}</ref> ''Time'' wrote that "Rogin shares [John] Cheever's awareness of risk, his sense that to turn a corner of the banal may be to find oneself in a howling waste of strangeness."<ref>{{cite magazine |last1=Skow |first1=John |title=Socks Washed in Tears |magazine=Time |date=November 29, 1971 |volume=98 |issue=22 |page=87}}</ref>
Mordecai Richler, in ''The New York Times'', noted in his review of ''Preparations for the Ascent'' that Rogin "can be exasperating, unnecessarily oblique at times, but the confusions of his novel are more than redeemed by the literary pleasure of the journey itself."<ref>{{cite news |last1=Richler |first1=Mordecai |title=A Melancholy Journey: Journey Author's Query |work=The New York Times |date=Mar 30, 1980 |page=BR2}}</ref> Frederick Exley considered Rogin to be the best writer in their age group.<ref name=NYO/> Rogin stopped writing fiction in 1980.<ref name=NY/> In 2010, Rogin's novels were reissued as a single volume.<ref name="NYO">{{cite news |last1=Lidz |first1=Frank |title=The Virtuoso of the Canorama: Gil Rogin Ran SI at Its Peak, but His Fiction Might Make Him Immortal |work=The New York Observer |date=September 21, 2010 |department=Culture}}</ref> In 2014, "12 Days Before the Mast", about a sailing competition, was listed as one of ''Sports Illustrated''{{'}}s 60 best articles.<ref name=NY/>
==Bibliography== ===Fiction=== *''The Fencing Master and Other Stories'' (1965) *''What Happens Next?'' (1971) *''Preparations for the Ascent'' (1980)
===Stories=== All stories published in ''The New Yorker'' except as noted.
{| class="wikitable" |+ |- ! Title !! Publication !! Collected in |- | "To the Warm Islands" || ''Discovery'' 5 (1955) || - |- | "Ernest Observes" || October 26, 1963 || rowspan=14| ''The Fencing Master and Other Stories'' |- | "Fielding's Progress" || November 30, 1963 |- | "A Description of a Presumption" || January 18, 1964 |- | "Anna Banana"<br>aka "Night Talk" || ''Vogue'' (October 15, 1964) |- | "Judging Keller" || March 14, 1964 |- | "1109 Klingenstein" || April 18, 1964 |- | "Hello! Goodbye! I Love You!"<br>aka "Wolf Whistle" || ''Vogue'' (August 1, 1964) |- | "A Blessed Day" || ''Mademoiselle'' (September 1964) |- | "Chico King, Popular Singer" || ''Esquire'' (October 1964) |- | "At the Sea-Vue Arms" || October 24, 1964 |- | "Them Apples" || December 19, 1964 |- | "Lesser Married" || February 27, 1965 |- | "At the Tepid Baths" || rowspan=2|''The Fencing Master and Other Stories'' (1965) |- | "The Fencing Master" |- | "A Short Novel" || January 1, 1966 || rowspan=20| from ''What Happens Next?'' |- | "The Indoor Bird Watcher" || April 2, 1966 |- | "The Players" || April 30, 1966 |- | "An Uncompleted Investigation" || July 9, 1966 |- | "An Uncompleted Investigation, Furthered and Annotated" || March 4, 1967 |- | "Cheering Up Charley" || January 27, 1968 |- | "The Something of the World" || March 2, 1968 |- | "Two Men of Affairs" || May 25, 1968 |- | "What John McGraw Said" || ''The Reporter'' (June 13, 1968) |- | "What We See Before Us" || July 6, 1968 |- | "Solving the World's Problems" || July 27, 1968 |- | "Time and Effort" || April 19, 1969 |- | "You Say What I Feel" || July 12, 1969 |- | "To the Fjord Country" || September 20, 1969 |- | "How It Turns Out" || November 15, 1969 |- | "Space Ant" || ''Cosmopolitan'' (July 1970) |- | "Taking Stock" || August 2, 1970 |- | "The Regulars" || November 7, 1970 |- | "The Spanish House" || May 15, 1971 |- | "Address to the Orgiasts" || June 5, 1971 |- | "La-Dah-Dah-Dah-Dum" || December 18, 1971 || rowspan=8| from ''Preparations for the Ascent'' |- | "Facing Reality" || September 2, 1972 |- | "The Sans Souci Launderama" || April 28, 1973 |- | "Night Thoughts" || September 2, 1974 |- | "Splitting Up" || September 1, 1975 |- | "Near Darkness" || May 3, 1976 |- | "The Hard Parts" || November 20, 1978 |- | "In the Abyss" || ''Harper's'' (July 1979) |- |}
==References== {{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rogin, Gilbert}} Category:1929 births Category:2017 deaths Category:American magazine editors Category:American fiction writers