Description
Collector's Note – Why This Issue Matters
The March 1966 issue of Esquire featuring Richard Nixon, John Lindsay, and William Scranton is a primary document of the Republican Party at one of the most consequential moments in its modern political history — the specific period between Nixon's 1962 California gubernatorial defeat, when he famously told the press "you won't have Nixon to kick around anymore," and his extraordinary political resurrection that would culminate in the 1968 presidential nomination. In March 1966, Nixon was widely regarded by mainstream political commentary as a finished political figure, yet he was quietly rebuilding his national standing through tireless campaigning for Republican congressional candidates across the country — a strategy that would prove decisive in the 1966 midterms and in establishing his claim to the 1968 nomination. An Esquire feature on Nixon in March 1966 documents that rehabilitation effort at its operational midpoint, capturing him in the specific phase of political reconstruction that most serious Nixon biographers identify as the foundation of his eventual return to power. For collectors building archives of Richard Nixon magazines, this March 1966 issue represents the pre-resurrection phase — rarer and more historically specific than the 1968 campaign coverage that followed.
The inclusion of John Lindsay and William Scranton alongside Nixon gives this issue a specific and layered Republican Party history dimension. John Lindsay had been elected Mayor of New York City in November 1965 — just four months before this issue — and was being positioned by some Republican moderates as a potential presidential contender representing the liberal wing of the party. William Scranton, the former Pennsylvania governor, had been the last-minute moderate challenger to Barry Goldwater at the 1964 Republican convention, mounting a campaign that failed but represented the final significant resistance of the party's Eastern establishment to its Goldwater-era rightward shift. An Esquire feature juxtaposing Nixon, Lindsay, and Scranton in March 1966 is therefore a primary document of the Republican Party's internal ideological struggle in the specific two-year period between the Goldwater catastrophe of 1964 and the 1968 nomination contest — a struggle whose outcome, with Nixon's eventual triumph, would define the party's direction for decades. Collectors focused on vintage Esquire magazines as documents of American political journalism and collectors building broader archives of 1966 magazines will find this issue occupying a historically specific position in the record of the decade's Republican politics.
About the Publication
Esquire was founded in 1933 and by March 1966 was under the editorship of Harold Hayes, whose tenure from 1961 to 1973 is now recognized as the magazine's golden era — the period in which it pioneered New Journalism, published landmark political and cultural essays, and established a reputation for serious literary and political engagement that distinguished it from every other American men's magazine of the era. Its covers under Hayes were frequently among the most politically and culturally provocative in American magazine publishing, and its editorial approach combined long-form political journalism with fiction, cultural criticism, and the kind of portrait-driven political coverage represented by this issue's confirmed subjects. Its audience was the educated, culturally engaged American male readership, and its political coverage in the mid-1960s was among the most substantive and analytically ambitious in the American magazine press.
Key Highlights Inside
- Richard Nixon — confirmed feature coverage — Documentation of Nixon in March 1966 during the specific phase of his political rehabilitation between the 1962 California defeat and the 1968 presidential campaign, capturing him at the operational midpoint of the reconstruction strategy that most Nixon biographers identify as the foundation of his eventual return to power.
- John Lindsay — confirmed feature coverage — Coverage of the newly elected New York Mayor four months into his first term, at the specific moment when he was being positioned as a potential presidential contender representing the liberal wing of the Republican Party.
- William Scranton — confirmed feature coverage — Documentation of the former Pennsylvania governor who had been the moderate challenger to Goldwater at the 1964 Republican convention, captured in the specific post-Goldwater period when the future of Republican Party moderates remained genuinely uncertain.
- March 1966 — Republican Party ideological crossroads — Published in the specific two-year window between the Goldwater catastrophe of 1964 and the 1968 nomination contest, this issue documents the Republican Party's internal struggle between its moderate Eastern establishment and its emerging conservative wing at the precise moment when that struggle's outcome was still undetermined.
- No subscription label — confirmed newsstand status — Full unobstructed cover imagery preserved without address label obstruction, the most visually significant positive condition attribute for a publication whose Harold Hayes-era covers were among the most artistically and politically significant in American magazine history.
Condition & Rarity
Good condition with minor wear throughout, no subscription label, and plastic protective covering represents a standard mid-grade assessment for a 59-year-old monthly magazine. The no-label newsstand status preserves the full cover imagery without address obstruction — a meaningful attribute given Esquire's reputation for editorially significant cover design during the Hayes era and the political weight of the three figures confirmed on or featured in this issue. Minor wear throughout on a coated-stock monthly of this age is an expected characteristic of a copy that has survived active storage across nearly six decades. The plastic protective covering indicates deliberate preservation. Good condition in a publication of this age and format implies cover color retention, page integrity without significant tanning or structural damage, and readable interior content throughout — attributes that preserve the political journalism value of the confirmed Nixon, Lindsay, and Scranton coverage for research-oriented collectors.
Looking for More Issues Like This?
Mid-1960s Esquire issues from the Harold Hayes golden era — particularly those documenting the Republican Party's internal ideological struggle in the specific post-Goldwater, pre-Nixon period as this March 1966 issue does — represent some of the most historically layered political journalism material in the publication's archive, and issues combining Nixon with his moderate Republican contemporaries from this specific phase of his rehabilitation are more historically specific than the better-known 1968 campaign coverage that followed. The dedicated Richard Nixon magazine archive at OriginalMagazines.com is the most direct resource for collectors tracing his press coverage across the full arc of his political career. The complete Esquire magazine collection and the full 1966 magazine collection are both worth exploring for other issues from the Hayes era's most politically consequential years.