Description
Collector's Note – Why This Issue Matters
The May 31, 2001 issue of George Magazine is the publication's final number — the Farewell Issue that brought to a close one of the most distinctive and culturally ambitious political magazines in American history. George had been founded by John F. Kennedy Jr. in 1995 with the premise that politics and popular culture were the same story, and for nearly six years it had pursued that premise with wit, visual sophistication, and a genuine editorial conviction that set it apart from every other political publication of its era. Kennedy's death in a plane crash in July 1999 had left the magazine without its founder and driving force, and after nearly two years of attempting to continue under new editorial direction, the decision was made to close. The May 2001 Farewell Issue therefore serves a dual commemorative function: it is both a tribute to John F. Kennedy Jr. personally and a final accounting of what the magazine he created had meant and accomplished.
The timing of the Farewell Issue — nearly two years after Kennedy's death — gives it a particular emotional quality distinct from the immediate grief of the post-crash coverage. By May 2001, the acute shock had passed, and the issue had the retrospective distance to assess Kennedy's legacy as a journalist, editor, and cultural innovator with some measure of considered judgment. The magazine he had built had outlived him by twenty-two months, continuing to publish under the institutional momentum he had created. The Farewell Issue represents the final resolution of that extended postscript — the closing of a chapter that his death had opened. For collectors focused on George Magazine's complete publishing history, this is the essential concluding document: without it, any archive of the magazine is incomplete.
The broader context of May 2001 adds additional historical resonance. The issue appeared just months before September 11, 2001 — an event that would transform American political culture in ways that made George's particular vision of politics-as-celebrity seem, in retrospect, the product of a specific and now-past era of American life. The magazine's closure in the spring of 2001, just before that transformation, gives the Farewell Issue a quality of historical closure that even its editors could not have anticipated. It is, in the fullest sense, the end of something. The 2001 magazine archive at OriginalMagazines.com documents the broader American print landscape of this threshold year, and the George Farewell Issue is one of its most emotionally resonant documents.
About the Publication
George Magazine was founded by John F. Kennedy Jr. and Michael Berman in 1995 and published by Hachette Filipacchi Media until this final issue in 2001. It occupied a genuinely original editorial position as a glossy monthly that treated politics through the visual and narrative conventions of celebrity media — its founding premise being that the line between political life and popular culture was artificial and increasingly untenable. Kennedy's death in July 1999 left the magazine without its founding editor and primary creative force, and the publication continued under new leadership for nearly two years before the decision was made to close. The Farewell Issue of May 2001 is the final document of a publication whose brief but distinctive run produced some of the most visually and editorially inventive political journalism of the 1990s.
Key Highlights Inside
- Farewell tribute to John F. Kennedy Jr. — the magazine's founder, editor, and primary creative force, whose death in July 1999 set in motion the chain of events that led to the publication's closure.
- Retrospective assessment of George Magazine's six-year run — documenting the publication's most significant covers, interviews, and editorial achievements as a final accounting of what the magazine had accomplished.
- The final issue of a publication that had genuinely changed how American media thought about the relationship between politics and popular culture — a closing document of an editorial experiment that succeeded on its own terms even if it could not survive the loss of its founder.
Note: Specific interior articles and features are unconfirmed for this issue beyond the commemorative Farewell framing. The above reflects what is verifiable from the listing description, publication context, and the well-documented circumstances of the magazine's closure.
Condition & Rarity
Graded Very Good with minor edge wear — a strong preservation outcome for a magazine now more than twenty years old. The condition note regarding the address label warrants careful attention: the listing describes the original label as covered by a removable label that can be peeled off without damage, which means the underlying cover surface has not been directly labeled. Whether the original subscriber label beneath is present and how it affects the cover presentation should be confirmed from the listing photographs before collector evaluation. Edge wear consistent with age does not affect the readability of the interior content or the visual presentation of the cover. The Farewell Issue of George was produced as a commemorative closing number, and its print run and distribution circumstances were distinct from regular issues — it attracted collectors from the moment of publication as the final document of a publication with a significant cultural following, and surviving copies in Very Good condition represent the standard serious collectors apply to this specific issue.
Looking for More Issues Like This?
The George Magazine Farewell Issue is the essential closing piece of the publication's archive — without it, no collection of the magazine is truly complete. The full George Magazine collection at OriginalMagazines.com is the best place to explore available issues across the magazine's remarkable six-year run. For collectors building a broader documentary archive of American political and media culture in this threshold year, the complete 2001 magazine archive offers a wide range of titles from the last months before the world changed.