Portrait of the CEO/Politico as Collector: Chatting with Steve Forbes

By Abby Tallmer

On a lovely Indian Summer afternoon this reporter talked with Steve Forbes, business leader, major Americana collector, and political figure – not necessarily in that order. (Full disclosure: It was not our first conversation: the author of this article served for two years as Manuscript Curator for Mr. Forbes and The Forbes Magazine Collection.)

Mr. Forbes has had nary a free moment over the past few years. Even reading about his activities is dizzying: in addition to serving as the President and Chief Executive Officer of Forbes and Editor-in-Chief of Forbes magazine, the nation’s leading business magazine with a circulation of 900,000, in which he writes a regular editorial; serving as Chairman of Forbes’ American Heritage division and as publisher of American Heritage magazine and two quarterlies (American Legacy and American Heritage of Invention & Technology); serving as a model husband to his wife Sabina and model father to his five daughters (family and family time are very important to Mr. Forbes, and he is careful to make them a priority somehow despite his busy schedule); and campaigning unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination for President of the United States, Mr. Forbes has been on a quest: for most of the last twelve months he has spent his spare time busily weeding material from his legendary and voluminous Americana manuscript and book collection and feeding it to Christie’s New York for two of the most significant Americana auctions of this year and undoubtedly for several years to follow.¹

¹ All facts about Steve Forbes were forwarded to AE Monthly by Diane Reeves, Director of Forbes’ Internal Communication. Ms. Reeves also provided AE Monthly with the image of Steve Forbes that accompanies this article, which is used with Forbes’ permission. We would like to thank Laurie Baker, Monie Begley, Jackie DeMaria, and Diane Reeves for making this interview possible.