DeWitt Wallace, founder of Reader’s Digest, is born
On this day in 1889 DeWitt Wallace is born in St.Paul Minnesota to a minister and his wife.After high school Wallace worked in a bank and began keeping an index-card file of his favorite magazine articles.He later attended the University of California at Berkeley.
While visiting friends in Oregon he met his future wife Lila Bell Acheson also the child of a minister.After condensing some government pamphlets into booklets Wallace became convinced he could create a popular periodical by condensing other readings but his plan was interrupted by World War I.He joined the Army and was wounded.While recovering he began to explore his idea assembling a sample issue and sending it to publishers who consistently rejected the idea.He proposed to Lila and the pair married in 1922 in Pleasanton New York the future home of Readers Digest.
They decided to start the magazine themselves.Working out of a basement in Manhattan the couple published their first issue in February 1922 with an initial run of 1500 copies.By 1929 circulation had reached 200000 and was growing.In 1933 the magazine began publishing original articles and the following year began to condense books.
The magazine continued growing rapidly and by the end of the 20th century had the largest circulation of any publication in the world with more than 17 million readers in dozens of countries and some 20 languages.The Wallaces donated much of their resulting wealth to philanthropic causes.They also purchased an impressive art collection which they hung in the offices of their employees in the Pleasanton headquarters.
