Description
Collector's Note – Why This Issue Matters
The September 1957 issue of Playboy Magazine, featuring Jacquelyn Prescott as the Playmate of the Month with her centerfold intact, is a primary document of the magazine during one of its most historically significant periods — the formative late-1950s years when Hugh Hefner was actively constructing the editorial identity that would make Playboy the most culturally influential men's magazine in American history. By September 1957, the magazine had been in publication for less than four years, and each issue from this period represents a specific moment in the ongoing refinement of the editorial formula that would define the publication's peak impact in the following decade. What makes this specific September 1957 issue particularly notable is the confirmed table of editorial content: a short story by Al Morgan and, significantly, an opinion piece by John Steinbeck. Steinbeck had won the Pulitzer Prize in 1940 for The Grapes of Wrath and would win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1962 — his contribution to a September 1957 Playboy is not the contribution of a fringe or pulp writer but of one of the most respected American literary figures of the twentieth century. Playboy's ability to attract Steinbeck in 1957 reflects the magazine's deliberate editorial strategy of positioning itself as a legitimate literary and cultural venue rather than merely a men's entertainment publication, and Steinbeck's "Open Season on Guests" is a primary document of that strategy succeeding at its highest level. For collectors building archives around Playboy's complete publishing history, issues with confirmed major literary contributors from the late-1950s foundational period are among the most historically significant entries in the entire archive.
The September 1957 cultural context gives this issue additional historical weight. The late 1950s were a period of significant tension between official American cultural conservatism and the various intellectual and countercultural currents challenging it. Steinbeck's presence in the pages of a magazine that was explicitly challenging the era's sexual conservatism is itself a cultural statement — his willingness to contribute to Playboy in 1957 signaled that the publication's literary ambitions were being recognized and taken seriously by the American literary establishment, rather than dismissed as a transparent attempt to launder pornographic content with intellectual respectability. That distinction matters for how we understand early Playboy's cultural position, and it makes the September 1957 issue with its Steinbeck contribution a primary document of the magazine's cultural legitimation in process. The confirmed intact centerfold featuring Jacquelyn Prescott adds the completeness that transforms this literary document into a fully preserved archival issue rather than a stripped or damaged survivor. Collectors researching American popular culture and literary publishing from 1957 will find this issue a richly layered primary source that operates simultaneously as literary history, publishing history, and cultural history.
John Steinbeck's specific contribution — "Open Season on Guests" — is identified as an opinion piece, which is consistent with Steinbeck's engagement throughout his career with direct social and cultural commentary alongside his fiction. That a Nobel Prize-caliber American writer was contributing opinion journalism to Playboy in September 1957 is a detail that researchers in American literary history, publishing history, and the cultural history of the late 1950s have consistently found significant, and surviving issues of this specific Playboy are primary documents of that contribution in its original published form.
About the Publication
Playboy Magazine was founded by Hugh Hefner in Chicago in December 1953 and grew over the following decades into the highest-circulation men's magazine in the United States. The magazine's editorial formula combined celebrity and lifestyle photography — including its signature monthly Playmate centerfold — with serious long-form journalism, fiction from major literary figures, cultural commentary, and celebrity interviews. By September 1957, Playboy was less than four years into its publishing history and was in the active developmental period when its literary and editorial ambitions were being most explicitly and self-consciously constructed — attracting contributors like John Steinbeck was a deliberate editorial strategy that distinguished Playboy from its competitors and established the cultural positioning that would eventually make it one of the most widely read publications in American history. The early issues' smaller print runs, combined with nearly seven decades of attrition, give 1957 Playbills a proportionally greater rarity within the complete archive than their historical significance alone would suggest.
Key Highlights Inside
- John Steinbeck's opinion piece "Open Season on Guests" is the most historically significant editorial feature of this issue — a contribution from one of America's most respected literary figures, future Nobel Prize laureate, and author of The Grapes of Wrath, whose willingness to contribute to Playboy in September 1957 is a primary document of the magazine's literary legitimation in its early formative period.
- Al Morgan's short story "The Prince and the Gladiator" confirms the fictional content of this issue — consistent with Playboy's deliberate strategy of positioning itself as a legitimate literary venue alongside its lifestyle and photography content, a strategy that the Steinbeck contribution demonstrates operating at its highest level of success in this specific issue.
- Jacquelyn Prescott is the confirmed Playmate of the Month for September 1957, with the original centerfold confirmed as fully intact and attached — the most significant condition factor for collectors of early Playboy, as 1950s centerfolds in complete, attached condition are among the most consequential surviving attributes of any issue from this period of the magazine's history.
- As a September 1957 issue, this publication dates from less than four years into the magazine's publishing history — placing it in the formative period when Hefner's editorial vision was most actively under construction, giving this issue a qualitatively distinct historical character from later entries in the archive.
- The confirmed water damage noted in the listing is the primary condition factor requiring careful evaluation from the provided photographs — water damage in a late-1950s Playboy can range from minor tide lines on exterior pages to more significant warping, staining, or ink bleeding, and its specific extent and location relative to the centerfold and Steinbeck contribution are the most consequential condition considerations for this issue's collector and research value.
Condition & Rarity
Surviving copies of this issue present in Good condition with confirmed water damage — a condition profile that collectors must evaluate carefully and specifically from the provided photographs before acquisition. The water damage is the most consequential condition factor and takes precedence over the general Good grade designation: the extent of the damage, its location relative to the Steinbeck piece, the Jacquelyn Prescott centerfold, and the cover imagery are all critical considerations that only direct visual evaluation from the listing photographs can adequately address. The confirmed intact and attached centerfold remains a meaningful positive attribute even in the presence of water damage — its preservation in attached condition is the defining collector-grade characteristic for any Playboy issue, and the centerfold's specific condition within the water damage context should be evaluated from the photographs. The confirmed absence of a mailing label indicates newsstand origin, preserving the cover's original presentation. The plastic protective covering provides appropriate stabilization for a publication in this condition, helping to prevent further deterioration during handling and storage. For collectors whose primary interest is the literary and historical significance of the Steinbeck contribution, the water damage's specific impact on those pages is the most critical condition determination — researchers and literary history collectors may find the issue's documentary value intact regardless of cosmetic damage, depending on the damage's specific location.
Looking for More Issues Like This?
Playboy issues from the late 1950s with confirmed major literary contributors and intact centerfolds are among the most historically significant entries in the complete archive — and this September 1957 issue with a John Steinbeck opinion piece represents the intersection of literary history, publishing history, and Playboy collecting at its most specific and most consequential. The Playboy collection at OriginalMagazines.com is the most comprehensive place to browse available issues across the publication's complete publishing history, from its earliest formative years through its decades of peak cultural influence. For collectors building a broader picture of American literary and popular culture publishing in 1957, the 1957 magazines collection offers a wide cross-section of titles that together capture the full range of that year's American print culture.