“For a somber, conservative Ivy Leaguer with grand ideas and no experience, it would be a blessing to work for a gifted writer from a humble background with a taste for the bizarre. But the combination didn’t take. Luce thought Hecht’s work was insignificant if not spurious. Hecht thought Luce lacked instincts; he was liable to bring in stories about lemonade stands and traffic jams. “This fellow is much too naive,” Hecht told Smith. The columnist recommended that Luce be fired. Instead the editor transferred Luce to the city room and gave him a job as a reporter. “I’m fired, Hurrah,” Luce wrote his parents. “Yes, inside of ten days, I’ve lost my first job, and got another.” Wilner, Isaiah. The Man Time Forgot: A Tale of Genius, Betrayal, and the Creation of Time Magazine (Kindle Locations 1357-1362). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition. ”
