Rolling Stone magazine

Rolling Stone magazine enters the diary not through a broad account of its history or operations, but through two specific acts of reading: Andy Warhol’s reaction to Jann Wenner’s ranking of him and a political discussion prompted by a piece about Jody Powell. Together, these references show the magazine as a source of public judgment and current commentary that Warhol carried into conversation.

Wenner’s judgment of Warhol

On December 13, 1983, Warhol read an issue in which Jann Wenner placed him among the “Overrated People.” The judgment stung in part because Warhol thought Wenner owned his Mao paintings and therefore might have been expected to speak in his favor. He wondered aloud whether Wenner had sold them, turning the magazine’s ranking into a question about the relationship between critical opinion and the ownership of his work.

The episode records more than offense at an unfavorable notice: Warhol linked Wenner’s public assessment to a possible private transaction. In the same entry, he mentioned that Joe Allen had sold the Silver Elvis and furniture. The juxtaposition places the magazine’s verdict within Warhol’s attention to who valued, owned, or disposed of his art, without establishing why Wenner ranked him as he did.

A source for political conversation

In another diary account, Warhol told Walter Cronkite that he had just read a piece about Jody Powell in Rolling Stone magazine. That reading opened a conversation about presidents and political speech. Cronkite called Jimmy Carter the most intelligent president, then recalled hearing Richard Nixon use profanity while awaiting an interview during a presidential campaign. Cronkite had suspected Nixon was performing machismo for his benefit; after the Watergate tapes emerged, he was surprised to find Nixon spoke that way habitually.

The diary gives no further description of the Powell piece or of the magazine’s position. What it does establish is that Warhol brought something he had read there into an exchange with Cronkite, where the subject widened from Powell to Carter, Nixon, and the later confirmation supplied by the tapes.

The magazine in the diary

These appearances give Rolling Stone magazine two distinct functions in Warhol’s recorded life: it carries a judgment about his standing, and it supplies material that can prompt discussion of public affairs. The diary preserves the difference between them. The Wenner ranking becomes personally charged through Warhol’s speculation about his art; the Powell reference remains a brief point of entry into Cronkite’s recollection. The evidence supports those particular roles, rather than a general conclusion about the magazine’s editorial character.