Malcolm Forbes

Forbes, Malcolm, 1919–90, American publisher, b. Englewood, N.J. The third son of a Scottish immigrant who founded Forbes magazine in 1917, he graduated from Princeton (1941), and became publisher of the magazine on his father's death (1954). Under his leadership, the publication became one of America's most successful business magazines, with a circulation of 735,000. Its annual list of the richest 400 people in America is one of the most widely quoted sources on the subject of wealth in the United States. Forbes ran unsuccessfully for governor of New Jersey (1957) and used his magazine and numerous books to praise the virtues of laissez-faire capitalism. He was worth at least 0 million at his death. The family continues to run the magazine.

See A. Jones, Malcolm Forbes (1977); C. Winans, The Man Who Had Everything (1990).

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