Reader's Digest; Vol. 31, No. 186, October 1937 (Sixteenth Year)
Pleasantville, NY: The Reader's Digest Association, Inc., 1937. Presumed First Edition, First printing this issue. Wraps. 136 pages, plus covers. Cover has some wear and soiling. Among the "Articles of Lasting Interest" are Those Nazi Americans, After the Merrimac by Herbert Gambrell, What does the CIO want, Half a Mile of History by Richard Halliburton, The World War's Deep-Sea spy, Optometry On Trial by Roger William Riis, and The Star by H. G. Wells. Reader's Digest is an American general-interest family magazine, published 10 times a year. Formerly based in Chappaqua, New York, it is now headquartered in midtown Manhattan. The magazine was founded in 1922 by DeWitt Wallace and Lila Bell Wallace. For many years, Reader's Digest was the best-selling consumer magazine in the United States. According to Mediamark Research (2006), Reader's Digest reaches more readers with household incomes of $100,000+ than Fortune, The Wall Street Journal, Business Week, and Inc. combined. In 1922, DeWitt Wallace started the magazine while he was recovering from shrapnel wounds received in World War I. Wallace had the idea to gather a sampling of favorite articles on many subjects from various monthly magazines, sometimes condensing and rewriting them, and to combine them into one magazine. The Wallaces initially hoped the journal could provide $5,000 of net income. Wallace's assessment of what the potential mass-market audience wanted to read led to rapid growth. By 1929, the magazine had 290,000 subscribers and had a gross income of $900,000 a year. The first international edition was published in the United Kingdom in 1938. By the 40th anniversary of Reader's Digest, it had 40 international editions, in 13 languages and Braille, and at one point, it was the largest-circulating journal in China, Mexico, Spain, Sweden, Peru, and other countries, with a total international circulation of 23 million. The magazine's format for several decades consisted of 30 articles per issue (one per day), along with an "Increase your Word Power" vocabulary quiz, a page of "Amusing Anecdotes" and "Personal Glimpses", two features of funny stories entitled "Humor in Uniform" and "Life in these United States", and a lengthier article at the end, usually condensed from a published book. Other regular features were "My Most Unforgettable Character" and the "Drama in Real Life" survival stories. These were all listed in the table of contents on the front cover. Condition: Good.
Keywords: Robert Littell, William Seabrook, Herbert Gambrell, Milton MacKaye, Richard Halliburton, Roger William Riis, H. G. Wells, Elliot Paul, Nazi, Deep-sea Spy, Merrimac, Congress of Industrial Organizations
[Book #82670]
Price: $25.00