Description
Collector's Note – Why This Issue Matters
October 1999 is one of the most historically significant and emotionally charged publication dates in the history of George Magazine, and this issue — with its John F. Kennedy Jr. tribute section and an American flag cover photographed by Nathaniel Goldberg — is a primary document of the publication at its most consequential single moment. Kennedy had died on July 16, 1999, when the plane he was piloting crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off Martha's Vineyard, killing him, his wife Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, and her sister Lauren Bessette. He was the founder and editor of George, the political lifestyle magazine he had launched in 1995 with the specific vision of making American politics accessible and culturally engaging to a readership that the traditional political press was not reaching. The October 1999 issue — just three months after his death — is therefore a primary document of the magazine attempting to continue without its founder, producing his tribute in the pages he had built, in the specific editorial voice he had established. The "John Kennedy: A Tribute" section on page 144, assembled from Kennedy's own words in George interviews and editorial letters alongside photographs and portraits of figures he believed represented political courage, is as close to a primary source document of his vision as the publication could produce. For collectors building an archive of George Magazine issues across its full run, this October 1999 edition is the single most historically significant entry in the catalog — the memorial issue produced by the team Kennedy trained, mourning the man who made the magazine possible.
The Campaign 2000 content that fills the rest of the issue is itself a primary source document of remarkable breadth and historical interest. Al Franken's Iowa straw poll report on page 95, Paul Begala on Gore's campaign trouble on page 68, Ann Coulter on Newt Gingrich's personal scandals on page 56, Claire Shipman on Terry McAuliffe on page 58, and Timothy Noah's Pat Buchanan profile on page 106 collectively constitute a comprehensive primary source survey of the early Campaign 2000 landscape more than a year before the Florida recount and the Supreme Court's intervention in American presidential history. The specific political personalities documented here — Gore, Bush, Forbes, Buchanan, Gingrich — are engaged at the specific biographical and political moments of October 1999 when the race's eventual outcome was still genuinely uncertain and the full field of candidates was still active. Harrison Ford and Kristin Scott Thomas's "Random Hearts" interview by Allison Adato documents the Kennedy-era George's characteristic editorial intelligence: Hollywood celebrity given genuine political and civic resonance, the stars asked where their own political passions lie alongside their discussion of the Washington-set film. Mario Sorrenti's portraits of the presidential candidates' spouses for "The First Wives Club" feature on page 134 constitute a primary visual document of the Campaign 2000 spousal landscape from one of the period's most accomplished commercial photographers. Collectors researching political and cultural magazines from 1999 will find this George issue the most emotionally and historically specific political magazine of the year.
The "100 Greatest Moments of the American Century" feature by Steve Gillon on page 114 reflects the specific late-1999 cultural preoccupation with century-summary retrospective that the approaching millennium was generating across American journalism, and its presence in the same issue as the Kennedy tribute carries a specific resonance — Kennedy's father was among the century's most consequential figures, and a George feature engaging the twentieth century's defining American moments in the months after JFK Jr.'s death carries an emotional weight that the editorial team would have understood consciously. The Nathaniel Goldberg American flag cover is the visual expression of that resonance: a patriotic symbol as the cover image for a political magazine's memorial issue to a man whose family name was inseparable from American democratic mythology. The Baby Fae cardiac surgeon retrospective by Leonard Bailey and the Al Franken comic dispatch from Iowa round out an editorial package that reflects the full range of Kennedy's George vision — serious journalism, celebrity interviews, humor, medical history, and political analysis assembled in a single issue that treated politics as the most interesting subject in American culture.
About the Publication
George Magazine was founded by John F. Kennedy Jr. and Michael Berman in September 1995 as a monthly publication that positioned politics as popular culture — its editorial approach combining celebrity profiles, serious political journalism, fashion photography, and cultural commentary addressed to a readership that the traditional political press was not reaching. Kennedy served as its editor until his death in July 1999, and the magazine ceased publication in January 2001, making its full five-year run a historically specific and now complete archive of his vision. The October 1999 issue represents George at its most historically self-aware moment: the editorial team honoring their founder's memory while continuing the political journalism project he had built, three months after his death and fourteen months before the publication's own end.
Key Highlights Inside
- "John Kennedy: A Tribute" on page 144 — a primary source document assembled from Kennedy's own words in George interviews and editorial letters, alongside photographs and portraits of figures he admired, constituting the magazine's own memorial to its founder and the most authoritative available primary record of Kennedy's editorial vision as expressed in the pages he created across four years of publication.
- "The 100 Greatest Moments of the American Century" by Steve Gillon on page 114 — a primary document of late-1999's millennium retrospective journalism culture, carrying specific emotional resonance in the context of a memorial issue for a man whose family name was among the century's most consequential American political stories.
- Campaign 2000 political landscape — Al Franken at the Iowa straw poll, Paul Begala on Gore's campaign, Ann Coulter on Gingrich, Claire Shipman on McAuliffe, and Timothy Noah on Buchanan — a comprehensive primary source survey of the early presidential race more than a year before the Florida recount, documenting each campaign's specific dynamics at the October 1999 pre-primary moment.
- Harrison Ford and Kristin Scott Thomas "Random Hearts" interview by Allison Adato on page 130, with both stars discussing their political passions — a primary document of the Kennedy-era George's characteristic editorial approach of giving celebrity coverage genuine civic resonance, published at the film's October 1999 release moment.
- "The First Wives Club" presidential candidates' spouses feature with Mario Sorrenti portraits on page 134 — a primary visual document of the Campaign 2000 spousal landscape from one of the period's most accomplished commercial photographers, constituting a primary source record of the twelve active candidacies' domestic dimensions.
- Al Franken "Franken Takes Ames" on page 95, Lauren Bush Podium feature on page 74, Leonard Bailey Baby Fae retrospective on page 52, and the Clinton-Hollywood violence investigation Letter from Hollywood — the full comic, political, medical history, and entertainment journalism range documented with the attribution specificity that makes this table of contents an unusually complete primary source of George's October 1999 editorial identity.
Condition & Rarity
George Magazine issues from October 1999 are approaching their twenty-seventh year of existence, and this specific issue carries a historical significance within the publication's complete archive that distinguishes it from all other entries in the George back-catalog. Very Good condition with only light edge wear is an honest and strong grade for a twenty-five-year-old monthly political magazine, indicating a copy that retains full structural integrity, displays cleanly, and preserves the Nathaniel Goldberg American flag cover and the full Kennedy tribute section without structural damage. The plastic protective sleeve provides ongoing archival protection for a publication whose coated cover stock benefits from protection against scuffing and oxidation. Collectors evaluating surviving examples of this issue should prioritize the completeness of the Kennedy tribute pages and the full Campaign 2000 content as the primary condition criteria most directly relevant to this issue's historical and collector significance.
Looking for More Issues Like This?
A Very Good copy of George Magazine from October 1999 with the Kennedy tribute, the American Century retrospective, and the full Campaign 2000 content is the most historically significant single issue in the publication's run — and given George's relatively short publishing life of five years, the complete archive is itself a finite and specifically collectible body of work. The full George Magazine collection at OriginalMagazines.com is the most comprehensive place to browse surviving issues from across Kennedy's editorial run and locate other significant editions from the publication's history. The 1999 magazine collection brings together issues from across that year's major publications for collectors interested in the full range of American political and cultural print journalism in the final year of the twentieth century.