Shepherd Mead
Shepherd Mead, born Edward Mead on April 26, 1914, in St. Louis, Missouri, was a notable American author and advertising executive. He attended prestigious educational institutions on scholarships and began his career in advertising after earning his degree in 1936. Mead is best known for his 1951 satirical book, "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying," which humorously chronicles the climb of a fictional employee at World Wide Widgets from the mailroom to the executive suite. The book's success led to a Broadway musical adaptation that garnered both a Pulitzer Prize and a Tony Award, as well as a film version released in 1967.
In addition to his acclaimed work in business satire, Mead authored nineteen novels across various genres, often infused with elements of comedy and satire. His experiences in the advertising industry informed much of his writing, including his favorite novel, "The Admen." Throughout his life, Mead lived in various locations, including a significant period in Europe, and his writing touched on themes that explored societal norms and human behavior. He passed away on August 15, 1994, in London, leaving behind a legacy marked by sharp wit and insightful commentary on the business world.
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Shepherd Mead
Writer
- Born: April 26, 1914
- Birthplace: St. Louis, Missouri
- Died: August 15, 1994
- Place of death: London, England
Biography
Shepherd Mead was born on April 26, 1914, in St. Louis, Missouri, as Edward Mead. He attended Country Day prep school and Washington University in St. Louis, both on scholarships. He was the oldest of three boys. Their mother died when Mead was a teen- ager. After earning his bachelor’s degree in 1936, he moved to New York City and began working in the advertising business. That experience would serve him well when he began writing, which he began to do full time at age thirty-nine.
He published his most famous title, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, in 1951, supposedly after spending one hundred days writing it. How to Succeed, despite its satire, was semiautobiographical. It told of the rise of an employee at the fictional company of World Wide Widgets from the mailroom to the top executive level of the company. The entire story has nothing to do with whatever product the company produces, only with the machinations of the various employees jockeying for position as they try to rise to the top.
He is said to have written the book in roughly a hundred hours, while vacationing at Cape Cod. It became a best seller. It was adapted for the stage by Gilbert and Weinstock, but that version was never produced. Later, Frank Loesser and Abe Burrows re-adapted it as a musical, which was wildly successful when it opened in 1961 on the Broadway stage. It ran for four years and was made into a movie in 1967. The stage version earned a Pulitzer Prize and a Tony Award.
Mead published nineteen novels, including his favorite, The Admen, which was also based on his experience in the advertising industry. He had been part of the advertising team at Benton and Bowles, Inc., of New York, where he, like his future character in How to Succeed, began as a mailroom clerk and became vice president in 1951. His team produced ads for products like Tide, the laundry detergent, and Crest, the toothpaste, and produced the first animated cartoon advertisement.
He and his wife, Annabelle, moved to Europe in 1957, spending a year in Geneva, Switzerland, and moving to England, where they settled. They would return to Switzerland over high British taxes but came back after working out a settlement.
He wrote in various genres, but usually featured satire and comedy in his works, even in his science-fiction and fantasy novels such as his first novel, The Magnificent MacInnes (1949), also known as The Sex Machine. The story uses the device of an electronic brain that can predict personal preferences. Mead also wrote The Big Ball of Wax (1954), in which Madison Avenue techniques are used on a device which allows people to invade the lives of others, a technology corrupted by being used vicariously for entertainment. In The Carefully Constructed Rape of the World (1966), Shepherd writes of aliens that artificially impregnate Earth women. He died on August 15, 1994, in London.