Founding Editor of People Magazine Discusses The Rise Of The Magazine, Writing, and His New Book

Landon Y. Jones (Lanny) is an author and magazine editor. His most recent book is Celebrity Nation: How America Evolved into a Culture of Fans and Followers, to be published in May 2023 by Beacon Press. His previous books are William Clark and the Shaping of the West (Hill and Wang, 2004), The Essential Lewis and Clark (Ecco/HarperCollins, 2000) and Great Expectations: America and the Baby Boom Generation (Putnam, 1980). The latter coined the phrase “baby boomer” and was nominated for the American Book Award in Nonfiction. From 1989-97, Jones was the head editor of People magazine at Time Inc., the most successful magazine in publishing history. While at People, Jones directed the editorial planning and launching of three new magazines: Who Weekly (1992), the Australian version of People; In Style (1994), the successful celebrity lifestyle monthly; and People en Espanol (1996), the first general-interest magazine published for the U.S. Hispanic market. He serves on the board of The Rita Allen Foundation, a philanthropy with a special focus on transformative ideas in their early stages. He has previously served on the boards of The Alzheimer’s Association , American Rivers, and Princeton Alumni Corps. He is a former member of the Graduate Advisory Council of the Princeton University Department of English. He and his wife Sarah live in Princeton, NJ.

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