I read the first edition of this book, I guess more than 20 years ago now. I was dazzled immediately, in the very first inning, by both the prose and the great photos. The most amazing thing (to me anyway)is Nemec's historical report. Somehow even though he's writing the more recent chapters more than 10 years apart you'd never know it. You'd think of him as a 19th century guy from what else he's written, but his 1990's chapter flows with the same spark and flavor as his first chapter on the early years written way back when. Most of the other pieces hold up very well too, especially the one on DiMaggio and Richter's look at Montreal baseball before the Expos. Let's all hope this crew is still around in another decade to do another update.

Henry Luce, the cofounder of Time Magazine, decided to launch Fortune after the market crash in 1929. He priced it at a dollar a copy (about ten dollars in today's currency value), and set out to make it the best possible magazine.

In the publisher's eyes (as taken from an advertising brochure), American business "has importance -- even majesty -- so the magazine . . . will look and feel important -- even majestic." " . . . [E]very page will be a work of art." Luce went on to say, "[T]he new magazine will be as beautiful as exists in the United States. If possible, the undisputed most beautiful."

Early staff members often later became famous poets and authors (such as Archibald MacLeish and James Agee) who worked just enough to earn a living, and then went back to their poetry. Luce found it easier to teach poets about business than to teach those who knew about business how to write.

The essays contain many rewarding stories. One of the best is how Thomas Maitland Cleland designed the first cover by sketching it upside down on a tablecloth in a speakeasy for the editor, Parker Lloyd-Smith. The original tablecloth, complete with drawing, is still mountained in the Time-Life building.

Some of the famous cover artists included Diego Rivera and Fernande Leger. In those days, the cover was independent of the stories in the issue. The cover was simply to attract attention and to encourage thought. If you remember early Saturday Evening Post covers by Norman Rockwell, you will get the idea.

By 1948, the vision changed. Luce wanted Fortune professionalized. The new concept was for "a magazine with a mission . . . to assist in the successful development of American business enterprise at home and abroad." By 1950, the artful covers were gone.

Now I must admit here that I found the covers displayed to be primarily of interest as reflecting social attitudes toward business. So I found these images to be like Monet's Gare St. Lazare, except without the appeal of Monet's technique. Frankly, the art did not move me or appeal to me except for one Leger cover. Perhaps the art will speak more to you. I graded the book down one star accordingly.

A value to me in this book was stopping to think about how much business has changed in the last 71 years, since Fortune was founded. That was "before Social Security, . . . the sitdown strikes of the thirties, . . . the creation of the SEC." " . . . [D]isclosure requirements for public companies were virtually nonexistent." As a result, companies didn't tell anybody anything. So it was a pretty bold idea to write about business. Contrast that with out information overload of data about every possible business and economic angle. What a difference!

How much time do you spend obtaining business information now? How can that be reduced while increasing your effectiveness? Perhaps, like the Fortune art, you can get an overview that will connect with what needs to be done . . . and found a great American business in the process like Fortune Magazine did.

When was the last time a bunch of 20-somethings started a new business that featured art and majesty, as Luce and his colleagues did? Aren't we overdue for some quality again?

Take in the big picture!

Fortune magazine, for many years, had the luxury of using eye-catching graphics on its covers unrelated to the contents inside. This rather unusual arrangement was because most copies were on subscription to the folks who ran the nation's business and any newsstand sales were a bonus. The fact that it did not have to use its cover to compete with other magazines for sales allowed the various Art Editors to go for great illustrations from the leading graphic artists of the day.

All the covers from the first issue in February 1930 to December 1950 are shown in this lovely designed and printed book, either one to a page or four to a page (I felt the four to a page ones could have been a little bigger) and each year starts on a page with a few news items and some stats about business. The magazine's owner Henry Luce chose Tom Cleland to art edit the first issue and he came up with a rather ugly format for the covers, a double frame devise, the logo was in one and the illustration in another, I think this heavy framing design rather spoils the early covers and fortunately by 1942 it was dropped.

Daniel Okrent explains in his short introduction that cover artists were chosen for their creativity, some of the best graphic artists commissioned included Fred Ludekens, Erik Nitsche, A M Cassandre, Joseph Binder, George Gusti, John Atherton and Lester Beal. Although artists from the fine arts were also used, such as Ben Shahn, Fernand Leger, Charles Sheeler and Diego Rivera I don't think these covers work as well because their work is not suited to the constraints of commercial graphics.

By 1950 Fortune, now a very successful business monthly and making Henry Luce even richer, changed its editorial focus into a magazine that Luce said should "...assist in the successful development of American business enterprise at home and abroad." Covers now had to work harder as other business weeklies and monthlies all competed for the CEO's time and the luxury of a stunning cover image for its own sake had gone. This lovely book shows you the best of Fortune covers.

Fortune: The Art Of Covering Business is a compendium of cover art drawn from past issues of Fortune magazine in celebration of its 70th anniversary. These covers are reproduced in full color and span the magazine from 1930 to 1950. Informatively enhanced with a Foreword by John Huey and an Historical Essay by Daniel Okrent, Fortune: The Art Of Covering Business is a welcome celebration drawing from a spectrum of artistic talents who provided visual symbols of America's burgeoning industrial society on the cover of one of the nation's most influential and prestigious magazines.

A couple of things I was not thrilled about: 1. He mainly talked about the Milwaukee Brewers significantly more than the Baltimore Orioles. 2. He talked way too much about the management issue of the Brewers (how they were relocated, payroll). Other than that it's a fun book to read but there needed to be more baseball discussion rather than discussion of topics that isn't really baseball at the core.

True fans will really enjoy this book, an inning by inning look at a mid-1982 Brewers-Orioles game with frequent digressions on topics like scouting, the abolition of the reserve clause, the shifting balance of power between hitters and pitchers, etc. I agree with one other reviewer that the coverage tipped more heavily toward the Brewers organization and more 'in-depth' background on the Orioles could have been included. In some instances, of necessity perhaps, there was repetition from chapter to chapter and the author was overly fond of the word 'egregious.' Reading Okrent's afterword (dated January of 2000) made me wish that he might write another book, a kind of 9 Innings Redux. The afterward brings up so many important and interesting aspects of the game today, from the inability of many teams to compete (we need revenue sharing!), to the surge in home runs in the late 90's, to the gorgeous new retro parks that have gone up....I cast my vote to have him profile a 21st century contest (maybe in the National League this time) and give us another look at the very best game there is.

This is my favorite baseball book. It's about the game and all the layers that go into it. You can do this with any sport, but I love baseball and Okrent dissects both pitch counts and player histories with care. I remember these players, but I've never rooted for either team and I still think that this book is fascinating. I often think of this book as I go to ballgames and strike up conversations with fellow fans about not only the situations of the game in front of us, but how this game connects to so many other games in the past.

Life Magazine's photography editors chose well, and the imagery is effective still. Some, but not all, of the world's best photographers - through the early 1960's - are in this book. This is a comparatively small (8 x 10 and under 150 pages) assemblage of great black and white photos and brief quotations, mostly one and two-liners, relevant to various modes of transporatation. Like the original Life, you look at the fantastic pictures first, and read second. Whether or not you agree with Daniel Okrent in the Introduction that "photographers like things that move," these are great, varied pictures. Commuters on the New Haven Railroad, Nov. 22, 1963 (headlines: "President Shot Dead"), German men assembling electric toy trains in 1931, Irving Schild's photo of a bicyclist who is carrying an impossibly tall stack of newspapers in Mexico City, construction workers pouring out of the QE II at the end of the work day (John Loengard, 1968). Drive-ins, airshows, the open road (with the cumulus clouds that Life's editors loved). Many, many more.

The feeling is less nostalgic than archival. And this time around, all photographers are identified. Great photos. Transportation buffs and at least several dads and grandfathers I can think of would enjoy this book a lot.

This book does a great job of telling stories about Yankees, Red Socks, and the Yankees.

This book has a lot of history and, unfortunately, a lot of actual quotes (profanity and all)! Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the book, I just can't let my son read it.

There was more listed in the book about Steinbrenner's early years as the Yankees' owner than the decade of the Big Red Machine and the oldest professional baseball team combined. I admit that I am a Reds' fan.

This is not a bad book: It's just very sluggisly paced without much style. In the hands of real sportswriters it could have been a gas. The authors are far too reverential: Cooperstown to them is some kind of holy shrine, and anyone with even a smidgen of skepticism is an Unbeliever. Hey, it's already late 1998. Why write like it's 1958?

Here is a treasury of great stories from the game of baseball. Collected and ordered from the 1800's down to today. You see some of the great characters from the game, and a look back to simpler times. Some very amusing stories are sure to keep you interested.