Life magazine, the inspiration for "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty," is being revived again

The iconic magazine Life, a chronicler of 20th-century America known for its visual storytelling, is being revived and will return next month in print as a quarterly, despite challenging business conditions. The New York Times reports, according to UNN.

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"Nearly two decades after the last edition ceased publication, Life magazine is coming back to life," the publication says.

The iconic publication, known for its red-bordered logo and commitment to visual storytelling, will begin publishing again next month as a quarterly print edition. It is returning to a fragmented media landscape that exists in a very different world from the height of the publication's popularity in the mid-20th century, before the internet, social media and artificial intelligence upended the business model of magazine publishing.

But Karlie Kloss, the model and entrepreneur who is supporting the project through her company Bedford Media, says the brand's legacy deserves to be revived and adapted for the 21st century. In addition to a website and social media presence, Life plans to expand its activities to include short films, documentaries and events.

"What made Life magazine special was its ability to bring the world closer together," Kloss said. "And it is our responsibility to preserve and protect that legacy."

The magazine's history

Life magazine was founded in 1936 by Henry Luce, the founder of Time and Fortune magazines. The cover of the first issue featured a black-and-white photograph by Margaret Bourke-White depicting the concrete Fort Peck Dam in Montana, United States, which was part of U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt's "New Deal." The issue sold out immediately.

Life magazine, which became a monument to the power of photojournalism, documented mid-20th-century American life, including World War II, the space race and the civil rights movement. It published the work of photographers such as Robert Capa, Alfred Eisenstaedt and Gordon Parks, resulting in such unforgettable images as the sailor kissing a woman in Times Square on V-J Day in 1945, as well as portraits of Marilyn Monroe and James Dean. The magazine also was the first to publish Ernest Hemingway's complete novella "The Old Man and the Sea" and commissioned Norman Mailer to cover the Apollo 11 crew's 1969 Moon landing.

The magazine's circulation peaked in the 1960s, exceeding eight million copies. But as television's popularity began to upend the magazine industry, Time Inc. discontinued the weekly magazine in 1972. Its life was revived in 1978, this time as a monthly magazine, and continued until 2000, when Time Inc. announced the end of regular publication.

The magazine played a role in the adventure film "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" (2013), in which the protagonist - Walter Mitty (played by Ben Stiller) - works as a manager of the photo negative department at Life magazine.