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Wallace Knows Exactly What An American Family Can Stomach

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Wallace Knows Exactly What An American Family Can Stomach
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Reader’s Digest, the world’s first general interest magazine, was first published in 1922. Its growth was spectacular: from 5,000 copies on inception, circulation grew to 62,000 in 1929, touched 1.457 million in 1935, and scaled its peak of 17.5 million in 1988.

Today, despite competition from television, video games and special interest magazines, its 49 editions in 21 languages still sell a healthy 10.5 million copies.  There has been hardly any change in the contents or format.

In 1939, at 17, Reader’s Digest retained its formula of supporting free enterprise, family values, moral and religious values and general opposition to Communism, socialism, trade unionism, smoking and alcoholism. Founder-editors Dewitt Wallace and his wife Lila Acheson Wallace, were in charge and continued to edit the magazine till 1962.

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An RD in 1939 generally had around 144 pages, all in black and white. There were no photographs, colour section or ads. The cover was the ‘Table of Contents’, announcing 30-odd articles on different topics. The Wallace philosophy of informing, educating and entertaining American readers with a careful selection of articles from hundreds of American magazines, all suitably condensed, rewritten and edited, had continued and the 1939 Digest had only such “pick-up” articles. Now-iconic departments like ‘Humour in Uniform’ or ‘Life in the United States’ had not yet made their appearance. The hugely popular ‘Word Power’ would start in January 1945 and the name of the compiler of this word quiz, Wilfred Funk, featured from the next month.

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What were the contents of the 1939 issues like? One of the most admired and popular pieces was ‘A Gift from Heaven’, by Charles Lindberg, the aviator. Tailor-made for the RD taste, the piece dealt with aviation, geography and peace, and tellingly commented, “A great industrialised nation may conquer the world in the span of a life, but its Achilles heel is Time.”

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The articles were all picked up from well-known publications— American Mercury, American Magazine, Current History, American Legion and so on. One such pick-up from the Forum, titled ‘California’s Grapes of Wrath’, attacked John Steinbeck’s famous novel, The Grapes of Wrath, for its excessive concern for the poor. Always concerned with nature and environment issues, even in 1939, RD carried an article on a radically new concept of forestry management, ‘Pine Tree Bankers’, by Leslie Pomeroy, a leading consultant in the new concept of forest management.

It was still early days of World War II. The US was not directly involved yet and there wasn’t much awareness of the Nazi menace. Britain was fighting a lone battle. But RD did carry a piece on the menace of fascism. In the years to come, as the war spread and America actively involved, the magazine did not lag in denouncing the Nazi terror and supporting the Allied cause. But in 1939, despite the unease at Hitler’s progress, it was still a wait-and-watch policy.

By 1939, though it was only 17, the success of Reader’s Digest was secure and well-established. There had been enough drama at its origin, which highlighted the typical American enterprise. Wallace and his wife, Lila, from humble surroundings, read hundreds of magazines, selected those which would appeal to American readers, condensed, rewrote and edited them to about four or five pages and produced a no-frills magazine where only the contents counted. Again, by themselves,  he couple pooled in all their resources, solicited subscribers and the 5,000 copies of first issue in February 1922 were sold out. As the couple nervously waited, in the days to come no one cancelled their subscriptions.

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Though only 17, Reader’s Digest in 1939 was well on its way to become a national institution like Coca Cola, Apple Pie and the White House.

Gangadhar has served as an assistant editor with Reader’s Digest (India)

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