Holiday: The Best Travel Magazine that Ever Was

by Pamela Fiori, Franck Durand (Afterword)

The first book on magazine sensation Holiday, which between 1946 and 1977 was one of the most exciting publications in the world. Renowned for its bold layouts, literary credibility, and ambitious choice of photographers and artists, Holiday portrayed the romance of travel like no other periodical.

At Holiday magazine's peak, urbane editor, Ted Patrick, and visionary art director, Frank Zachary, invited postwar America to see and read about the world. On the journey, readers joined the magazine's renowned roster of talent. Some of the most celebrated writing by Jack Kerouac, Ernest Hemingway, Graham Greene, Joan Didion, Truman Capote, Colette, and E. B. White (his piece "Here Is New York" was commissioned for Holiday in 1949) first appeared in its pages. Henri Cartier-Bresson documented a breathtaking Paris and other cities; Slim Aarons captured the glamour of travel around the world; and Al Hirschfeld and Ludwig Bemelmans contributed showstopping illustrations of places and personages.

Pamela Fiori writes about the magazine's history, giving it context during the era of the jet age, world turbulence, and the rise of Madison Avenue advertising. Holiday was a vibrant original, inspiring travel magazines that followed and leaving glorious photography and art as well as thought-provoking journalism in its wake.

270 pages, Hardcover

Published September 24, 2019

Reviews

[Grant · Rating 5 out of 5]

At first, reading a book about the United States most prolific travel magazine from the 40s, 50s, 60s, & 70s seems like a toilsome and uninteresting read. That said, ‘Holiday:The Best Travel Magazine That Ever Was’ quickly lays out an engaging argument and retrospective about why the magazine had such importance in shaping the United States postwar thirst for travel and adventure. It expertly blends its narrative with snippets of past articles from authors of the likes as E.B White or S.J. Perelman and illustrators like Al Hirschfeld and photographers George (Slim) Aarons. Furthermore, and perhaps most importantly, it also puts into context the humdrum of magazine creation (editing, style, photography, etc) and how that intertwines with meeting its readerships desires. Readers of the now revived ‘Holiday’ will appreciate Fiori’s book and its familiar feel as compared to the current magazine. To those unfamiliar to the past ‘Holiday’and now current iteration you might be lost, but an appreciation can be found nonetheless of its importance with minimal research.