Porter, Sylvia (1913–1991)

American financial writer who raised the standards in reporting on finance for the general public. Name variations: S.F. Porter; Sylvia Field Porter. Born Sylvia Field Feldman on June 18, 1913, in Patchogue, Long Island, New York; died of complications from emphysema on June 5, 1991, in Pound Ridge, New York; daughter of Louis Feldman (a doctor) and Rose (Maisel) Feldman; attended Hunter College, B.A. (magna cum laude), 1932; graduate work in economics at New York University's School of Business Administration; married Reed R. Porter (a banker), in 1931(divorced); married G. Summer Collins, in 1943 (died January 1977); married James F. Fox, in 1979; children: Cris Sarah; (stepson) Summer Campbell Collins.

Awards:

National Headliner's Club medal for "best financial and business reporting of 1942" (1943); award from New York Newspaper Women's Club for "best column written by a woman in any field" (1945, 1947, 1951, 1962); named one of 25 outstanding women in America, First Assembly of American Women of Achievement (1951); medallion from the General Federation of Women's Clubs for "outstanding achievement in the field of finance" (1960); named outstanding woman of the year in the field of journalism by Who's Who of American Women (1960); Meritorious Public Service Certificate, Internal Revenue Service (1964); Spirit of Achievement Award, Albert Einstein College of Medicine (1966); named free enterprise writer of the year, National Management Association (1966); Top Hat Award, National Federation of Business and Professional Women's Clubs (1967); Hunter College Centennial Medal for noteworthy achievement (1970); named woman of the year in communications, Advertising Club of New York (1970); named one of America's 75 most important women, Ladies' Home Journal (1971); elected to the Hall of Fame, Alumni Association of Hunter College (1973); Woman of the Year 1975 award, Ladies' Home Journal ; awards and honorary degrees from numerous colleges.

Selected writings:

How to Make Money in Government Bonds (1939); If War Comes to the American Home: How to Prepare for the Inevitable Adjustment (1941); The Nazi Chemical Trust in the United States (1942); (with Jacob Kay Lasser) How to Live Within Your Income (1948); (with Lasser) Money and You (1949); How to Get More for Your Money (1961); (with Lasser) Managing Your Money (1953, rev. ed., 1963); Sylvia Porter's Money Book: How to Earn It, Spend It, Invest It, Borrow It, and Use It to Better Your Life (1975); Sylvia Porter's Your Finances in the 1990s (1990); Planning Your Retirement . Also author of Sylvia Porter's Income Tax Guide , published annually from 1961. Contributing editor, Ladies' Home Journal ; author of financial column, beginning in 1938 under the title "Financial Post Marks," later syndicated to over 400 newspapers across the country and changed to "S.F. Porter Says" and later to "Sylvia Porter."

Through her syndicated financial columns and numerous books, Sylvia Porter was able to make the most complex economic concepts accessible to the average reader with her straightforward and occasionally amusing style. When she first began writing a financial column for the New York Post in 1935, she used the byline "S.F. Porter" to prevent gender bias in what had been, up to that time, a male-dominated field.

Sylvia Field Feldman was born on June 18, 1913, in Patchogue, Long Island, New York, the daughter of Louis Feldman, a doctor, and Rose Maisel Feldman . As a young girl, Sylvia longed to be a poet or writer, and when she first entered Hunter College she studied English literature and history. After Louis Feldman died, leaving behind a "trunkful of IOUs" from his patients, and the family lost what little they had in the stock market during the Depression, Rose Feldman went to work to support her children's educations. Sylvia changed her major to economics and graduated magna cum laude in 1932, having married a banker named Reed R. Porter the year before. After graduation, she found a job as an "assistant to the president of an investment counsel house specializing in United States government bonds," said Porter. She also did some graduate study in economics at New York University's School of Business Administration.

During 1934, Porter held jobs in diverse financial organizations and began writing magazine articles. In 1935, she persuaded a "rip-roaring drunk" managing editor at the New York Evening Post to hire her to write a financial column three times a week. "The economics writing that was done then was all done by men and most of it was completely incomprehensible," she said. "It was all written in what I call bafflegab." She became the newspaper's regular financial writer covering Wall Street. In 1938, her column, "Financial Post Marks," went daily and was later syndicated nationwide to over 400 newspapers; in it, she exposed many questionable activities in the financial arena while also giving financial advice. Fearful of a negative reaction to a woman financial advisor, Porter wrote under the name "S.F. Porter" for quite a while. She was not able to change her byline to "Sylvia F. Porter" until her 1942 book, If War Comes to the American Home: How to Prepare for the Inevitable Adjustment, became a success. She often contributed to magazines, and was a contributing editor for the Ladies' Home Journal. She also authored many books, including How to Make Money in Government Bonds (1939), How to Live Within Your Income, with J.K. Lasser (1948), Managing Your Money, with Lasser (1953), How to Get More for Your Money (1961), and Sylvia Porter's Money Book (1975). Starting in 1961, she annually wrote Sylvia Porter's Income Tax Guide.

Porter was able to make economics understandable to the general public through her books on such subjects as investments, taxes, and personal finance, and her syndicated columns that appeared in papers around the world. In recognition of her work to end "economic illiteracy," as she called it, Porter won numerous awards throughout her career. Among the honors she received was the National Headliner's Club medal in 1943, and the New York Newspaper Women's Club award in 1945, 1947, 1957, and 1962. Sylvia Field Porter died of complications from emphysema on June 5, 1991, in Pound Ridge, New York.

sources:

Contemporary Authors. Vol. 81–84. Detroit, MI: Gale Research.

Current Biography 1941. NY: H.W. Wilson, 1941.

Gilbert, Lynn, and Gaylen Moore. Particular Passions. NY: Clarkson N. Potter, 1981.

McHenry, Robert, ed. Famous American Women. NY: Dover, 1980.

Jo Anne Anne , freelance writer, Brookfield, Vermont