''Princeton Tiger'' or ''Tiger Magazine'' is the second oldest
college humor magazine Many colleges and universities publish satirical journals, conventionally referred to as "humor magazines."
Among the most famous: The Harvard ''Lampoon'', which gave rise to the '' National Lampoon'' in 1970, The Yale Record, the nation's oldest ...
in the United States, published by
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the n ...
undergraduates since 1882. It is best known for giving the start to literary and artistic talent as wide-ranging as
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (September 24, 1896 – December 21, 1940) was an American novelist, essayist, and short story writer. He is best known for his novels depicting the flamboyance and excess of the Jazz Age—a term he popularize ...
,
John McPhee
John Angus McPhee (born March 8, 1931) is an American writer. He is considered one of the pioneers of creative nonfiction
Creative nonfiction (also known as literary nonfiction or narrative nonfiction or literary journalism or verfabula) is ...
,
Jim Lee
Jim Lee ( Korean 이용철; born August 11, 1964) is a Korean American comic-book artist, writer, editor, and publisher. He is currently the Publisher and Chief Creative Officer of DC Comics. In recognition of his work, Lee has received a H ...
,
Booth Tarkington
Newton Booth Tarkington (July 29, 1869 – May 19, 1946) was an American novelist and dramatist best known for his novels ''The Magnificent Ambersons'' (1918) and '' Alice Adams'' (1921). He is one of only four novelists to win the Pulitzer ...
. and
Tim Ferriss
Timothy Ferriss (born July 20, 1977) is an American entrepreneur, investor, author, podcaster, and lifestyle guru. He became well-known through his ''4-Hour'' self-help book series—including ''The 4-Hour Work Week'', ''The 4-Hour Body'', and ' ...
, first publishing the "
Man from Nantucket" limerick, and being the first published source using the Tiger as mascot for Princeton.
History
The magazine's style has not remained stagnant over the past 135 years. While the format in the mid-20th century still tended towards humorous, light pieces, the off-campus circulation was broader and the writing reflected it. In recent years, ''Tiger Magazine'' has moved to the internet, where it has begun to expand its topics to be more accessible to those outside of Princeton.
Past editorial boards have occasionally published material sufficiently offensive as to spark controversy. Most famous among those controversies was the "Brooke Book" issue of 1983, which satirized an actress named "Brook Shell" who had been purportedly accepted into Princeton—a thinly veiled jab at the real-life actress-model
Brooke Shields
Brooke Christa Shields (born May 31, 1965) is an American actress and model. She was initially a child model and gained critical acclaim at age 12 for her leading role in Louis Malle's film ''Pretty Baby'' (1978). She continued to model into ...
, shortly after she was accepted into Princeton's class of 1987. While the published material was substantially less obscene than some of the drafts that led to it (see the links below for details), the magazine's graduate board was so disturbed as to fire the top undergraduate officers shortly after the issue was published. The issue became a campus
cause célèbre
A cause célèbre (,''Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged'', 12th Edition, 2014. S.v. "cause célèbre". Retrieved November 30, 2018 from https://www.thefreedictionary.com/cause+c%c3%a9l%c3%a8bre ,''Random House Kernerman Webs ...
, attracting national news attention.
The March 30, 1893 issue contained the earliest print appearance of the delayed postfixed
Not!
... Not! is a grammatical construction in the English language used as a function word to make negative a group of words or a word. It became a sardonic catchphrase in North America and elsewhere in the 1990s. A declarative statement is ma ...
joke. ''Tiger Magazine'' also has the first recorded "
There once was a man from Nantucket" limerick.
Alumni
A number of its writers and editors later went on to notable literary or artistic careers.
*
Bill Brown
*
Robert Caro
Robert Allan Caro (born October 30, 1935) is an American journalist and author known for his biographies of United States political figures Robert Moses and Lyndon B. Johnson.
After working for many years as a reporter, Caro wrote '' The Power ...
*
Whitney Darrow, Jr.[Leitch, Alexander]
"Princeton Tiger, The"
''A Princeton Companion'', 1978. Retrieved 2016-03-01.
*
Chip Deffaa
*
Tim Ferriss
Timothy Ferriss (born July 20, 1977) is an American entrepreneur, investor, author, podcaster, and lifestyle guru. He became well-known through his ''4-Hour'' self-help book series—including ''The 4-Hour Work Week'', ''The 4-Hour Body'', and ' ...
*
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (September 24, 1896 – December 21, 1940) was an American novelist, essayist, and short story writer. He is best known for his novels depicting the flamboyance and excess of the Jazz Age—a term he popularize ...
*
Joshua Hammer
*
David Itzkoff
*
Rob Kutner
Rob Kutner is an American comedy writer.
Career
As a writer for '' Dennis Miller Live'', he was nominated for a 2003 Writers' Guild of America Award. After '' Dennis Miller Live'' left the air, Kutner went on to write for '' The Daily Show'', wh ...
*
Jim Lee
Jim Lee ( Korean 이용철; born August 11, 1964) is a Korean American comic-book artist, writer, editor, and publisher. He is currently the Publisher and Chief Creative Officer of DC Comics. In recognition of his work, Lee has received a H ...
["The Princeton Tiger"](_blank)
"Princetoniana," 2015. Retrieved 2016-03-01.
*
Aaron Marcus
*
Henry Martin
*
John McPhee
John Angus McPhee (born March 8, 1931) is an American writer. He is considered one of the pioneers of creative nonfiction
Creative nonfiction (also known as literary nonfiction or narrative nonfiction or literary journalism or verfabula) is ...
*
Kenneth Offit
Kenneth Offit (born February 19, 1955) is an American cancer geneticist and oncologist. He is currently Chief of the Clinical Genetics Service and the Robert and Kate Niehaus Chair in Inherited Cancer Genomics at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer ...
*
Henry Payne
*
John Seabrook
*
Bob Smiley
*
Booth Tarkington
Newton Booth Tarkington (July 29, 1869 – May 19, 1946) was an American novelist and dramatist best known for his novels ''The Magnificent Ambersons'' (1918) and '' Alice Adams'' (1921). He is one of only four novelists to win the Pulitzer ...
*
Lewis Thomas
Lewis Thomas (November 25, 1913 – December 3, 1993) was an American physician, poet, etymologist, essayist, administrator, educator, policy advisor, and researcher.
Thomas was born in Flushing, New York and attended Princeton University ...
*
Katrina vanden Heuvel
Katrina vanden Heuvel (; born October 7, 1959) is an American editor and publisher. She is the publisher, part-owner, and former editor of the progressive magazine ''The Nation''. She was the magazine's editor from 1995 to 2019, when she was su ...
*
Christine Whelan
*
Michael Witte[Witte, Michael]
"BIO"
"Michael C. Witte." Retriever 2016-03-01.
References
External links
''The Princeton Tiger'' - Tigermag.com*
ttps://www.princeton.edu/~paw/archive_old/PAW98-99/14-0421/0421feat.html ''PAW'' article discussing ''Tiger Magazine'' and Brooke Shields
{{Princeton
College humor magazines
Princeton University
Magazines established in 1882
Princeton University publications
Magazines published in New Jersey