Gilbert Rogin
{{Infobox writer
| name = Gilbert Rogin
| birth_date = November 14, 1929
| birth_place = Brooklyn
| death_date = {{death date and age|2017|11|4|1929|11|14}}
| death_place = Westport, Connecticut
| occupation = Writer, editor
| alma_mater = Columbia College
| notable_works = What Happens Next?
| spouse = Jacqueline Duvoisin
}}
Gilbert Rogin (November 14, 1929–November 4, 2017) was an American journalist and author.{{cite news |last1=Genzlinger |first1=Neil |title=Gilbert Rogin, Writer and Magazine Editor, Dies at 87 |work=The New York Times |date=Nov 2, 2017 |page=A29}} He worked in a variety of roles at Time, Inc., published many short stories, and wrote three works of fiction. As a fiction writer, he has been compared to Norman Mailer, Saul Bellow, and Bernard Malamud.
Time Inc. career
Rogin worked at Sports Illustrated for more than 30 years, eventually becoming the magazine's managing editor.{{cite news |last1=Bruckner |first1=D. J. R. |title=Magazine: Behind the Scenes at Sports Illustrated |work=The New York Times |date=June 5, 1983 |page=A34}} Rogin's tenure was covered in Michael MacCambridge's The Franchise: A History of Sports Illustrated Magazine, which addressed the story that Rogin named Mary Decker the 1983 Sportswoman of the Year due to an infatuation.{{cite news |last1=Zaleski |first1=Rob |title=Peeking Behind Facade at Sports Illustrated |work=The Capital Times |date=June 22, 1998 |page=1D}} In 1984, Rogin became managing editor of Discover, another Time Inc. title.{{cite news |last1=Dougherty |first1=Philip H. |title=Advertising: Sports Illustrated |work=The New York Times |date=Oct 8, 1984 |page=D7}} Rogin was not able to revive the magazine, which was sold by Time, Inc. in 1987, although Discover won a 1986 National Magazine Award for general excellence.{{cite news |last1=Richter |first1=Paul |title=Time Will Sell Discover After 7-Year Struggle |work=Los Angeles Times |date=May 22, 1987 |page=4.1}} Rogin then worked as a corporate editor for the company.{{cite news |title=Time Reassigns 3 Editors in Magazine Realignment |work=The Wall Street Journal |date=July 28, 1987 |department=Who's News |page=1}} In 1992, Rogin helped to launch Vibe; he claimed that the test issue was the first time the word "motherfucker" appeared in a Time, Inc. title.{{cite news |last1=Mills |first1=David |title=The Corporate Hip-Hop Hope: Quincy Jones & Co.'s Black Culture Mag, Ready to Rap and Roll |work=The Washington Post |date=Sep 14, 1992 |page=D1}} There was some controversy when Rogin decided to hire Jonathan Van Meter as editor-in-chief. Van Meter, a white man, was to oversee a magazine primarily about Black music and culture. Rogin retired from Time, Inc. at the end of 1992.{{cite news |last1=Carmody |first1=Deirdre |title=Time Inc. Names New No. 2 Editor |work=The New York Times |date=Nov 17, 1992 |page=D1}} Rogin also consulted and directed for Miller Publishing, which owned Blaze, a spinoff of Vibe, and Tennis, among other titles.{{cite news |last1=McGee |first1=Celia |title=Vibe Chief Exiting for New Ventures |work=Daily News |date=May 6, 1999 |location=New York |page=73}}
Writing career
Rogin published many stories in The New Yorker, mostly in the 1960s, but was allegedly barred after the rejection of a couple of submissions.{{cite news |last1=Hawtree |first1=Christopher |title=Book review: From bon mots to buzz words: The New Yorker, 75 this year, once set the gold standard for magazines |work=The Independent |date=Apr 8, 2000 |department=Features |page=11}} John Updike deemed Rogin's stories "amazingly surreal".{{cite news |last1=Taylor |first1=Ihsan |title=Paperback Row |work=New York Times Book Review |date=Dec 5, 2010 |page=62}} Rogin's stories were acknowledged by the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1972.{{cite magazine |last1=Treadwell |first1=Sandy |title=And Now for the Good News at Time Inc. |magazine=New York |date=Jan 22, 1973 |volume=6 |issue=4 |page=42}} In a review of The Fencing Master, the Oakland Tribune opined that "on a few occasions, the prose begins to take too much delight in itself, but a great deal of the book remains an intriguing adventure in tone."{{cite news |last1=Powers |first1=Dennis |title=At the Top of the Worst Seller List |work=Oakland Tribune |date=Jun 21, 1965 |page=D21}} The New York Times considered What Happens Next? "a novel of the first importance."{{cite news |last1=Sissman |first1=L. E. |title=What Happens Next?: By Gilbert Rogin |work=The New York Times |date=Oct 31, 1971 |page=BR6}} Time wrote that "Rogin shares [John] Cheever's awareness of risk, his sense that to turn a corner of the banal may be to find oneself in a howling waste of strangeness."{{cite magazine |last1=Skow |first1=John |title=Socks Washed in Tears |magazine=Time |date=November 29, 1971 |volume=98 |issue=22 |page=87}}
Mordecai Richler, in The New York Times, noted in his review of Preparations for the Ascent that Rogin "can be exasperating, unnecessarily oblique at times, but the confusions of his novel are more than redeemed by the literary pleasure of the journey itself."{{cite news |last1=Richler |first1=Mordecai |title=A Melancholy Journey: Journey Author's Query |work=The New York Times |date=Mar 30, 1980 |page=BR2}} Frederick Exley considered Rogin to be the best writer in their age group. Rogin stopped writing fiction in 1980. In 2010, Rogin's novels were reissued as a single volume.{{cite news |last1=Lidz |first1=Frank |title=The Virtuoso of the Canorama: Gil Rogin Ran SI at Its Peak, but His Fiction Might Make Him Immortal |work=The New York Observer |date=September 21, 2010 |department=Culture}} In 2014, "12 Days Before the Mast", about a sailing competition, was listed as one of Sports Illustrated{{'}}s 60 best articles.
Bibliography
- The Fencing Master (1965)
- What Happens Next? (1971)
- Preparations for the Ascent (1980)