Horace Greeley is credited with the aphorism that “It is the man and
not the machine, the editor and not the newspaper, that brings about
the smooth running of the first and the popularity of the second.”
George Howard Lorimer, editor-in-chief of the Saturday Evening Post,
furnishes an excellent illustration of the verity of Greeley’s
assertion. Under his management, the Post has, during the past few
years, attained a popularity which was forbidden to it before he took
charge of its affairs. The Post was founded by Benjamin Franklin,
and it is the policy of Mr. Lorimer to retain somewhat of the quaint
features of its earlier issues, but he weds them to modern methods.
By means of this policy he has succeeded in galvanizing a moribund
publication into active and prosperous life. Mr. Lorimer was born in
Louisville, Kentucky, October 6, 1868, and is the son of the Rev. Dr.
George and Belle (Burford) Lorimer. He was educated at the Moseley high
school in Chicago, and took courses at Colby and Yale universities. In
1893 he married Alma Viola, daughter of Judge Alfred Ennis, of Chicago.
Mr. Lorimer has, through the medium of the Saturday Evening Post,
proven that literary matter of a helpful and elevating nature can be
made as attractive to the average reader as so-called “popular fiction.”