The history magazine and book publisher American Heritage began Horizon: A Magazine of the Arts as a hardback bi-monthly in September 1958. The editor was Joseph J. Thorndike Jr., with James Parton as publisher. Contributors in the early years included:

While Horizon remained bi-monthly up to July 1962, volume IV, there was an anomalous volume V that had eight issues. After November 1963, there were only four issues a year, and the magazine changed its issue dates to the current season rather than a month. This is shown in Linda Prestwidge's master table of contents for hard cover Horizon issues in the reference link below. From Winter 1964, volume VI, to January 1977, volume XIX, Horizon produced four issues a year which are still prized by collectors and actively traded on the Internet.^[2]

The May 1977 issue contained an insert from the publisher, Rhett Austell, informing the subscribers that Horizon would become a monthly magazine in soft cover.^[3] The reason was plainly financial. Horizon was not able to attract enough subscribers to maintain the luxury magazine devoted to the arts and history that had been envisioned by Thorndike and Parton. Austell referred in this insert to "a time of inflationary prices" and announced that Otto Fuerbringer, a former editor at Time magazine, had been hired as editor of Horizon. There was an editorial in this issue describing the changes in the quality of the printing, binding, and content imposed by the shorter time between issues.

The July 1977 issue, volume XIX, number 4, had another insert from the publisher confirming that this would be the last hard-cover issue. The response from the subscribers to the lower quality of printing and binding and a new emphasis on current events was overwhelmingly negative, resulting in the sale of Horizon to Boone, Inc. a year later.

American Heritage also published books under the Horizon name, such as 1961's Horizon Book of the Renaissance, edited by Richard M. Ketchum and written by Plumb, with contributors including Trevor Roper, Kenneth Clark, Iris Origo and Jacob Bronowski. (OCLC 283425).

In December 1978, publication of Horizon moved from New York City, New York, to Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and the magazine changed to a softcover format, published monthly. The new owner was Boone Inc., with editor and publisher Gray D. Boone. Contributors included Robert Joffrey, Alan Rich, Lanford Wilson, Ray Bradbury and Brendan Gill. Publication ceased eleven years later, with volume 32, number 2, March/April 1989.

• Horizon magazine website
• Horizon (1959-1978) Website containing extracts from articles in the magazine.
• Horizon table of contents 1959–1977