{{short description|American journalist}} '''Max Gissen''' (1909 – November 14, 1984) was an American journalist known for book reviews in the magazine ''Time''.<ref name="Obit">{{cite news |title=Max Gissen, Book Editor |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/97786747/max-gissen-1909-1984/ |work=Detroit Free Press |date=November 16, 1984 |location=Detroit, MI |page=45 |accessdate=March 17, 2022 |via=Newspapers.com}} {{Open access}}</ref><ref name="Columbia">{{Cite web |date=1963 |title=Reminiscences of Max Gissen : oral history, 1963 |url=https://oralhistoryportal.library.columbia.edu/document.php?id=ldpd_4076701 |access-date=13 January 2021 |publisher=Columbia University}}</ref><ref name="NYTobit_Gissen">{{Cite news |date=15 November 1984 |title=Max Gissen, Ex-Books EditorAt Time Magazine Dies at 75 |page=B16 |work=New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1984/11/15/obituaries/max-gissen-ex-books-editorat-time-magazine-dies-at-75.html |access-date=13 January 2021}}</ref><ref name="Luce1949">{{Cite magazine |date=7 March 1949 |title=Letter from the Publisher, Mar. 7, 1949 |magazine=Time |url=https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,853614,00.html |access-date=13 January 2021}}</ref>
==Background== Max Gissen was born in Kyiv, then the Russian Empire (today, Ukraine) and came with his family to the United States. He grew up in Brattleboro, Vermont. He attended Clark University.<ref name=NYTobit_Gissen/><ref name=Luce1949/>
==Career== Gissen reviewed books in the magazine ''The New Republic'' under Edmund Wilson. During World War II, he served in the US Army as an infantry captain in Europe.<ref name=NYTobit_Gissen/><ref name=Luce1949/> In 1946, he joined ''Time'',<ref name=Luce1949/> where he interacted with Whittaker Chambers, T.S. Matthews, and publisher and co-founder Henry Luce.<ref name=Columbia/><ref name=NYTobit_Gissen/> Initially, he wrote the Press section; in 1947, he took over book reviews. He also started the Time Reading Program, a book series.<ref name=NYTobit_Gissen/> While at ''Time'', he wrote cover stories on Louis Armstrong and John P. Marquand,<ref name=Columbia/> the latter of which won public praise from publisher Henry Luce.<ref name=Luce1949/> Gissen retired in 1967.<ref name="Obit"/>
==Personal life and death== Gissen married Louise; they had a son and daughter.<ref name=NYTobit_Gissen/> Gissen died at age 75 on November 14, 1984, at his home in Weston, Connecticut.<ref name="Obit"/><ref name=NYTobit_Gissen/>
==Awards== * 1 Silver Star<ref name=NYTobit_Gissen/> * 4 Bronze Stars<ref name=NYTobit_Gissen/> * 5 Battle Stars<ref name=NYTobit_Gissen/>
==References== {{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gissen, Max}} Category:1909 births Category:1984 deaths Category:Clark University alumni Category:20th-century American journalists Category:American literary critics Category:United States Army personnel of World War II Category:Writers from Brattleboro, Vermont Category:20th-century American male writers Category:20th-century American non-fiction writers Category:20th-century American educators Category:Time (magazine) people Category:United States Army officers Category:Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United States Category:20th-century American male journalists
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