# Max Gissen

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{{short description|American journalist}}
'''Max Gissen''' (1909 – November 14, 1984) was an American journalist known for book reviews in the magazine ''[Time](/source/Time_(magazine))''.<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](/source/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](/source/Kyiv), then the Russian Empire (today, Ukraine) and came with his family to the United States.  He grew up in [Brattleboro, Vermont](/source/Brattleboro%2C_Vermont).  He attended [Clark University](/source/Clark_University).<ref name=NYTobit_Gissen/><ref name=Luce1949/>

==Career==
Gissen reviewed books in the magazine ''[The New Republic](/source/The_New_Republic)'' under [Edmund Wilson](/source/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](/source/Whittaker_Chambers), [T.S. Matthews](/source/T.S._Matthews), and publisher and co-founder [Henry Luce](/source/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](/source/Time_Reading_Program), a book series.<ref name=NYTobit_Gissen/> While at ''Time'', he wrote cover stories on [Louis Armstrong](/source/Louis_Armstrong) and [John P. Marquand](/source/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](/source/Weston%2C_Connecticut).<ref name="Obit"/><ref name=NYTobit_Gissen/>

==Awards==
* 1 [Silver Star](/source/Silver_Star)<ref name=NYTobit_Gissen/>
* 4 [Bronze Star](/source/Bronze_Star)s<ref name=NYTobit_Gissen/>
* 5 [Battle Stars](/source/Service_star)<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

{{US-journalist-1900s-stub}}

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