Outsider, Insider: An Unlikely Success Story

Born in Naples to expatriate parents, Andrew Heiskell, former Chairman of The New York Public Library, spent a nomadic childhood in a series of European hotels. He did not go to school until he was 10 years old, and never graduated from college. He knew nothing about America when he arrived here at age 20 at the height of the Depression. Nevertheless, only 10 years later he became publisher of Life, the most successful new magazine in the United States. For 20 years, he was the chairman of Time, Inc., and during that time he invented People, the most successful magazine in the history of publishing. For 14 years he was married to Madeleine Carroll, the most glamorous movie star of her time. In 1965 he married Marian Sulzberger, whose family owns The New York Times. He became a prominent figure in the nonprofit world, playing leadership roles at Harvard, the Urban Coalition, the Enterprise Foundation, and many other organizations, in addition to The New York Public Library.