From its inauspicious beginnings as a men's store giveaway and a "girlie" magazine in 1933, "Esquire" magazine quickly established a policy of literary excellence. By 1945, the magazine included the works on such major literary figures as Erskine Caldwell, John Dos Passos, Dashiell Hammett, Ernest Hemingway, Ring Lardner, James T. Farrell, E. E. Cummings, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Thomas Mann, Bertrand Russell, John Steinbeck, Upton Sinclair, and Ezra Pound. Editor Arnold Gingrich used the pages of "Esquire" to publish the works of established writers, engage in controversial discussion, and encourage undiscovered writers. (DF)