


My first job was as an
intern for McGraw Hill Publishing Co., then located at
the famous light blue skyscraper designed by Raymond Hood
in the 1930s (which is now mostly vacant). For six months,
I shuttled around the company's 30-odd magazines, ending
up at the biggest and best of them, Business Week,
where I became a staff writer, covering whatever
interested me. After I wrote an article about the book
business, paperback division, I was lured away by New
American Library, publishers of Signet and Mentor
paperback books, and appointed Director of Public
Relations. A few years later, I became an account
executive at a public relations agency. My chief account
was Carter-Wallace Drugs, which had just brought a
sensational new pharmaceutical product to market: Miltown,
the world's first tranquilizer. I think I still have some
in an old bottle someplace.





Public relations was
lucrative (a variation of "lucre," often
modified by the word "filthy"), but journalism
kept calling to me. I gave up singing the praises of
Miltown and became associate editor of Chain Store
Magazine, a Lebhar-Friedman publication. A few years
later, I became an editor at the Research Institute of
America, a Kiplinger-like publisher of business
newsletters. I spent five years as editor-in-chief of Tomorrow
magazine, which explored developing technologies. I also
wrote for several other RIA newsletters, including the
flagship publication, the Research Institute Report,
which covered Washington, Wall Street and other
information centers of interest to business and industry.
At the same time, I began writing magazine articles,
freelance. By the mid-1970s, I was ready to give up my
regular job for a freelance career. Since 1974, I've been
on my own.


More about me ...When I Was a Nine-to-Fiver...Personal Stuff...Things
That Fascinate Me...How Others Rate My Work...Gathering
Dust in My Closet...The 15 Commandments of Good
Writing...Notable People I've Met ..How to
Hire Me...Professional References