JOHN PERRY BARLOW

I didn't meet Carolyn until the fall of '94, by which time he and Daryl had broken up. Carolyn was as charismatic as John was. Charisma, you know, was once a theological term meaning "grace." And she had that. I was also impressed with the fact that she was a bit eccentric. She was not conventional in any sense. Carolyn seemed a lot like John's mother in her quirkiness and also in her unbelievable capacity to engage one's attention. Jackie could be talking to six people at one time and make everyone feel like the only one in the room. Carolyn had the same ability. It was based on genuine interest. Having a beautiful woman want to know all about you is not such a bad thing, you know laughs.

DAVID PECKER
Former CEO of Hachette Fillipachi Magazines

I first met John in 1994, over lunch at an Italian restaurant on East 60th Street. He arrived on his bike, with his briefcase slung over his shoulder. At the time, I was head of Hachette, and John wanted us to invest in this idea he had. He told me he wanted to start a magazine that would combine politics and pop culture. He said he wanted it to be "prime time for public life." I was skeptical. I told him that magazines about politics and religion don't sell. Why should I invest Hachette's money in this? He said he'd put celebrities on the cover -- commercialize the covers. He handed me the results of a direct-mail campaign, which he had paid for himself -- it cost him hundreds of thousands of dollars. That's how confident he was, and it was reassuring to me that he was willing to put his own money at risk.

He said that after his father got out of the White House, he had planned to go back to be a reporter or an editor for a newspaper, and his mother worked for Doubleday, so publishing was in his blood. He could make a career for himself.

JOE ARMSTRONG

John and his partner Michael Berman and I talked about the magazine for six months when it was still top secret. When they began, they didn't know anything about publishing -- they didn't have any idea they were doing the absolutely hardest thing in publishing, to start a magazine from scratch. But John wasn't intimidated by what he didn't know. So I worked with them on magazine basics -- editorial structure, design, circulation, direct mail, advertising, creating a business plan. He read other magazines and looked for the kinds of stories he wanted in George, the kinds of writers. He came up with the magazine's name when he was on vacation in Vietnam.

MARYJANE FAHEY
Art director

He came to us to do the protype for George. He'd come into the office, and every woman and gay guy would immediately have to show me the layouts for Esquire Gentleman or some other project. One time John asked to see some of our other work, so I tried to find a copy of Out, which we had designed. I couldn't find it, so I said, "Well, you can certainly get a copy on the newsstand." And he laughed and said, "Can you imagine what would happen if I bought a copy of Out on the newsstand?"

SUSANNA HOWE
George's first hire

Right after I graduated from Barnard, in 1994, I went to the career-services office and there was a listing that said "Start-up political magazine," with a phone number. I called and spoke to Michael Berman, and I went in for an interview. Michael and I spoke for a while, and he said, "Well, do you want the job?" I said yes.

For the next five months, it was me, John Kennedy, and Michael in a conference room, trying to figure out the magazine. There was one other employee, RoseMarie Trenzio. She's really funny and she was around for a long time. She became really, really close to both John and Carolyn. She originally did P.R. for Michael, but after Berman quit, she kept working for John up until . . . now.

John and I had lunches with the most amazing array of media people. He brought me along because he didn't want to go alone. We would just go and have all these "advice lunches," where people would pontificate on their luminous career in publishing and tell John how hard they worked.

JOE ARMSTRONG

In September 1995, I sat in the front row at the unveiling of the inaugural issue of George and listened to John speak with authority and conviction about the magazine and its potential. I thought of Jackie, who had died the year before: John had tried very hard to convince her that this was a smart magazine idea, and though she hadn't been quite persuaded, I know she would have been very proud that he got this done. He created something from scratch that he felt had a potential to make a difference, and he did it his way.