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Product Description
A managing editor of Reader's Digest traces the behind-the-scenes evolution of the magazine from a tiny operation run by DeWitt and Lila Wallace to a beloved American institution plagued by rivalries and greed. 20,000 first printing.
Amazon.com Review
Dewitt and Lila Wallace founded Reader's Digest in the 1930s to provide edifying articles for people who often read little else. Canning, a former Digest managing editor, has written an in-depth history of the Wallaces' project, which turned into a publishing phenomenon. While he shows due respect to the Wallaces for their early struggles, their generosity to staff and their philanthropy, the author reveals unDigest-like details of their unusual sex lives, and more tellingly documents considerable government interference with the magazine's content. In the 1940s and 50s the CIA fed articles to the Digest. During the Vietnam War it was stridently hawkish, and Richard Nixon's speeches formed the basis of editorials. While too many Digest stories have had the insipid flavor of packaged pieces of puffed-up positive thinking, Canning's history is stronger stuff.
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