All Fortune magazines are SOLD!
Fortune Magazine Back Issues (1931-1943)

      Fortune is a global business magazine published by Time Inc. founded by Henry Luce in 1930. Cover price in the 30's was a steep $1.00 per issue but for that you got an oversize magazine (11.2" x 14") on creamy heavy paper plus original art on a color cover printed with a special process. This was a time when the Sunday New York Times cost only 5¢ and when business publications were little more than numbers and statistics printed in black and white. So Fortune was a huge gamble. Needless to say, it became a great success and an important leg of Luce's Time/Life media empire.
      During the Great Depression, the magazine developed a reputation for its social conscience, for Walker Evans and Margaret Bourke-White's color photographs, and for a team of writers including James Agee, Archibald MacLeish, John Kenneth Galbraith, and Alfred Kazin, hired specifically for their writing abilities. The magazine became an important leg of Luce's media empire; after the successful launch of Time in 1923 and Fortune in 1930, Luce went on to launch Life in 1936 and Sports Illustrated in 1954.

SOLD OUT: All FORTUNE magazines are SOLD,
even ones marked with prices. Covers are for reference purposes only.

Click here for listing of FORTUNE 1940-43 issues.


Click on each image for a super size image of the cover, article, or advertisement.

Fortune June 1931 June 1931       SOLD
Fortune June 1931 Reo Royale ad
Fortune August 1931 August 1931     SOLD
Fortune August 1931 Cadillac ad
June 1931   SOLD August 1931   SOLD

Fortune May 1932 May 1932       $25.95
Fortune May 1932 article
Fortune October 1932 October 1932     $25.95
Fortune Oct 1932 Chevrolet ad
Contents of the May 1932 issue include:
    • Italian Shipping -- Mussolini's Ships
    • Arturo Toscanini: A photo profile
    • If There Were No Prohibition: Beer Brewing and the Beer Business
    • Sunlight and Shadow -- The Eastman Kodak Company -- Who Runs It?
    • Inevitable Competitor -- Agfa Ansco
    • The Racing of 9,128 Horses -- A Layman's Handbook of Racing
    • Four spectacular full-color paintings of horses
    • The Wages of Labor: The Building Industry
    • Tin: Statistics, Problems, the Patinos, Cartel and Pool
    • Joseph P. Day: The man who sold the Bronx
    • Art deco cover by Constantin Alajalov
    • Regular columns: Off the Record, Faces of the Month
Contents of the October 1932 issue include:
    • The Common Cold: Science, Business, Doctors
    • Gasoline Business: Shell and the 6 Major Refiners
    • Hogs in July: The Forgotten Animal
    • Franklin & Eleanor Roosevelt's Fortune
    • The Marble of Vermont
    • Whaling: Captain Ahab in Modern Dress
    • The Whale in Art
    • U.S. Supreme Court: First photograph of Court in session
    • Champion Paper: Competition not Cartel
    • Hanover Square: Commodity Trading Center + 4 full-page drawings
    • A Primer of Slum Clearance
    • Art deco cover by A. C. Webb
    • Regular columns: Off the Record, Faces of the Month

Fortune December 1932 December 1932     SOLD
Fortune Dec 1932 MGM ad
Fortune February 1934 February 1934     $28.95
Fortune Feb 1934 wine article
December 1932 issue SOLD
Contents of the February 1934 issue (142 pages) include:
    • Federal Housing Projects: Advanced Socialism
    • Father Coughlin on the Radio
    • Industrial Designers: Feats and Failures
    • The Wines of the U.S. -- Can Wine Become a National Habit?
    • U. S. Rubber I: The Corporate State
    • U. S. Rubber II: Sumatra
    • U. S. Rubber III: Lastex
    • Palace of a Raja: 1934 Style
    • A Socialist State Under the U.S. Constitution?
    • Quinine: A Powerful, Profitable Dutch Monopoly
    • Art deco cover by Arnold Hall
    • Regular columns: Off the Record, Faces of the Month

Fortune March 1936 March 1936       $23.95
Fortune March 1936 Lucky Strike ad
Fortune July 1936 July 1936       $24.95
Fortune July 1936 Pabst beer ad
Contents of the March 1936 issue (208 pages) include:
    • U.S. Steel Corp: A Critical Analysis of the World's Biggest Industrial Enterprise
    • Appendix: Major Subsidiaries of U.S. Steel
    • Plastic: A New, Tough, Primary Material for Industry and the Arts
    • The Alf Landon Boom: Challenger to Roosevelt?
    • The Taxpayer Takes Up Farming
    • Autogiro: Rebirth Into a Practical Machine?
    • Manhattan Night Life (12-page photo portfolio by Aikins and R.H. Hoffmann)
    • Philip Morris & Co.: Competitor to the Big Four?
    • Art deco cover by John O'Hara Cosgrave II (Owner's name on cover)
    • Regular columns: Off the Record, Faces of the Month
Contents of the July 1936 issue (164 pages) include:
    • John D. Rockefeller, Jr.: Donations to Religion, Education, Science, the Arts, Letters, Preservation of Nature
    • California Fruit Growers: Cooperation at a Profit
    • Constitution of the United States: A Primer for Beginners
    • Yellow Truck & Coach (and Taxis)
    • Columbia Summer Session: Teach in Winter, Learn in Summer
    • Portfolio of Modern Tapestries (8 full-color pages)
    • Quartery Survey: Depression v. New Deal, Roosevelt Popularity
    • The Twin Cities: Follow-up
    • Art deco cover by Antonio Petruccelli (Owner's name on cover)
    • Regular columns: Off the Record, Unfinished Business, Faces of the Month

Fortune August 1936 August 1936       SOLD
Fortune August 1936 Camel cigarettes ad
Fortune September 1936 September 1936     $24.95
Fortune September 1936 Lucky Strike cigarettes ad
August 1936 issue SOLD
Contents of the September 1936 (Special Issue on Japan) include:
    • Japan's Rising Sun: Complete Obscurity to World Radiance
    • Who Runs the Empire? (The Oligarchy)
    • The Gentlemen of Japan: A New Aristocracy
    • Industry & Commerce: Men, Yen, and Machines
    • History of Japan: 2,600 years (with charts and screen paintings)
    • Profits and Competition: The Proof of the Pudding
    • Citizen-Subjects: Wages, Education, Manners, More
    • Farmers: Doing Without
    • Thought Control: Ideas, Conquest, Censorship
    • Five Japans: Coal & Iron, People, Arable Land, Cities, Rock & Metal (Color maps)     • (Owner's name written on cover)

Fortune November 1936 November 1936     $24.95
Fortune November 1936 Camel cigarettes ad
Fortune December 1936 December 1936     $24.95
Fortune December 1936 Lincoln car ad
Contents of the November 1936 issue include:
    • Newport News Shipbuilding and The Huntington Dynasty
    • A Portfolio of New Deal Reconstruction (article, photos and maps)
    • Beech-Nut Packing: More Products Than You Think
    • Making of a Pipe, 2-pg color photo by Arthur Gerlach
    • The Robinson-Patman Act: Anti-Trust Amendments and Supplements
    • Tires: Better Quality, Lower Sales, Price Wars, Union Problems
    • M.I.T.—Fountainhead of Applied Science and Engineering
    • The Richest 23 U.S. Women all with $25 million or more
    • Reader's Digest: Publishing Success With No Advertisingh
    • Art deco cover by Ernest Hamlin Baker (Owner's name on cover)
    • Regular columns: Off the Record, Faces of the Month
Contents of the December 1936 issue include:
    • Anaconda Copper: Size, Shape, Pattern, Problems
    • Copper: World Commodity (with Chart of Consumption and Prices)
    • American Tobacco Company: Biggest of the Big Three
    • Dolls—Made in America (Color photo feature)
    • Van Sweringen: Controls More Railroad Mileage Than Anyone Else
    • The Virgin Mary: A Portfolio of Paintings
    • Gas Masks: Britain's 30 million. Price: $2 to $20. Value: dubious.
    • Silver Fox Farming: $50 million in the U.S. Alone
    • Archaeology: Where? How? Who Pays? (16 pages: article & photos)
    • Rockefeller Center: Reputation, Redemption, Reality
    • Art deco greetings cover by Erik Nitsche (Owner's name on cover)
    • Regular columns: Off the Record, Faces of the Month

Fortune January 1937 January 1937     SOLD
Fortune January 1937 back cover
Fortune February 1937 February 1937     SOLD
Fortune February 1937 back cover
January 1937 issue SOLD
February 1937 issue SOLD

Fortune March 1937 March 1937       SOLD
Fortune March 1937 back cover
Fortune April 1937 April 1937       SOLD
Fortune April 1937 back cover
March 1937 issue SOLD April 1937 issue SOLD

Fortune May 1937 May 1937       SOLD
Fortune May 1937 back cover
Fortune June 1937 June '37, No covers, $14.95
Fortune June 1937 ad
May 1937 issue SOLD Contents of the June 1937 issue include:
    • Wall Street: A Tour of the Canyon Itself
    • Labor Governors: Frank Murphy of Mich, George Earle of Penna
    • Background of War: The Popular Front in France
    • The Benevolent St. Joe: Lead, Zinc, and Gold
    • Smoke: Pollution, More than Half Comes from Households
    • American Design: an 8-page Color Portfolio
    • Prices: Fixed or Free. A Debate by Gen Hugh Johnson (US NRA) and Paul Hollister (Macy's)
    • Canada Dry Ginger Ale
    • The Bee Business: More Fun Than Money
    • Columns: Off the Record, Faces of the Month, Fortune's Wheel

Fortune July 1937 July 1937       SOLD
Fortune July 1937 back cover
Fortune August 1937 August 1937       SOLD
Fortune August 1937 back cover
July 1937 issue SOLD August 1937 issue SOLD

Fortune September 1937 September 1937     SOLD
Fortune September 1937 back cover
Fortune October 1937 October 1937     $24.95
Fortune October 1937 back cover
September 1937 issue SOLD Contents of the October 1937 issue include:
    • Gulf Oil: Corporation, People, 2-pg Color Map, South America, Judge Stone and the Law
    • Farm Income: $10 Billion Cash!
    • Ambassador Joseph Edward Davies in Moscow
    • Unemployment in 1937: Skilled Jobs Begging for Men; Unskilled Men Begging for Jobs
    • Fortune Quarterly Survey: Roosevelt's standing, WPA Strikes, the C.I.O., Henry Ford, Westward Migration, Daily Press, Foreign Countries
    • Economics of Paper
    • Foreign Portraits: Rulers and Pretenders, 8 stunning full-page color photos
    • Hormel Meatpacking
    • Art deco cover by Paolo Garretto (Owner's name on cover)
    • Columns: Off the Record, Faces of the Month, Fortune's Wheel

Fortune November 1937 November 1937     SOLD
Fortune November 1937 back cover
Fortune December 1937 December 1937     SOLD
Fortune December 1937 back cover
November 1937 issue SOLD December 1937 issue SOLD

Click here for listing of FORTUNE 1940-43 issues.

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