Henry Robinson Luce also known as “Father Time” made his billions through publishing in America. He was born on 3rd April 1898 in Penglai City in China and was educated in numerous different Chinese boarding schools and English boarding schools such as the China Inland Mission Chefoo School which he attended at the age of ten. When he was fourteen he went to Europe by himself and a year later he went to America where he attended the Hotchkiss School in Connecticut.
After he had completed school he began working as the editor-in-chief for the Hotchkiss Literary Monthly. He then went to Yale College which is where he met his lifelong work partner Briton Hadden. They worked together for the Yale Daily News, Hadden working as the chairman while he worked as the managing editor. He graduated in 1920 and was voted as “most brilliant” in his class. He then decided to do a year at Oxford University studying history and at the same time worked for the Chicago Daily News as a cub reporter. During this year he was apart from Hadden but they reunited again in 1921 where they worked together at The Baltimore News.
In 1922, at the age of 23, they both left their jobs and went on to form Time Inc. later that year. They aimed to raise $100,000 but only managed to get together $86,000, however this was enough for them to release the original issue of Time on 3rd March 1923. The idea of Time magazine was supposed to have first come to the pair during their time at Yale. They worked together on the magazine alternating the labels secretary-treasurer and president each year, while Hadden serving as editor –in-chief permanently and he worked as the business manager. In 1929 Hadden died unexpectedly so Luce filled his position.
In February 1930 Luce created Fortune, a business magazine. In 1936 he founded Life magazine, in 1952 he started House and Home and in 1954 he launched Sports Illustrated. Time Inc. grew to become the biggest and most highly esteemed magazine publisher on the globe. Luce stayed serving as editor-in-chief for all his magazines and newspapers up until 1964. He had two children with Lila Hotz, his first wife. In 1935 he married his second wife Clare Boothe Luce.
He died on February 28th 1967 with the majority of his money being left to the Henry Luce Foundation.