UNFORGETTABLE DeWitt Wallace
Reader's Digest India|February 2022
This month marks 100 years since Reader’s Digest got its humble start. Here is the remarkable story of the man who, with his wife, Lila, built it into a global success
Charles Ferguson
UNFORGETTABLE DeWitt Wallace
HE WAS A QUIET MAN WHO SAID LITTLE PUBLICLY. DEWITT WALLACE SPOKE INSTEAD THROUGH READER’S DIGEST, WHICH BECAME THE WORLD’S LARGEST INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINE. IN ITS PAGES HE TOLD MORE STORIES AND BROUGHT MORE INFORMATION— AND LAUGHTER—TO MORE READERS THAN PERHAPS ANY OTHER MAN WHO LIVED.

THE SCENE IS Greenwich Village, New York City, one morning in January 1922. The Village, where rents are low, is a quaint bohemian place peopled by artists, poets and writers. Those who deal with the printed word come to New York to be near literary markets.

At No. 1 Minetta Lane, in a basement storeroom office, the last copies of the first issue of Reader’s Digest, with a February 1922 cover date, are being readied for shipment. The work is supervised by DeWitt Wallace and Lila Acheson Wallace, founders and co-editors of the magazine. They have hired habitués of the speakeasy upstairs to help.

Finally, the last of 5,000 copies are wrapped, addressed, trussed in mailbags and set outside. A cab will take them to the nearest post office, from where they will be sent to subscribers. Then will come days of anxious waiting to see if the little newcomer is indeed what the world has been waiting for.

Esta historia es de la edición February 2022 de Reader's Digest India.

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Esta historia es de la edición February 2022 de Reader's Digest India.

Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.

MÁS HISTORIAS DE READER'S DIGEST INDIAVer todo