Evening star., 1937-07-10
Bv NC. X,

THE reviewer during the past
week had occasion to ask her
neighborhood magazine dealer
a some questions about what the
public buys from him. He told her
the following facts:
The best-selling magazine which
he handles (and he seems to handle
about all Of them) Is the Readers
Digest. 1t leads, it is tops, month
after triumphant month. And next
to it comes the Current Digest. And
after that the vast array Of monthly
magazines Of the digest character
quietly fades away. Science Digest
does not sell at all. Book Digest does
no better. Revue does not sell.
Neither does the Commentator, al
though 1t started out hopefully. Bally-
hoo has dropped nothing Presum-
ably, the public which once bought
these is settling steadily on to the
Readers and the Current Or anyhow
that is the case out our way. We
borhood.
Among the weekly digests Time
leads. said the kindly dealer. Liter
airy Digest Is soon to 60 out OF pub
lication, and the question was asked
by an interested bystander, Did the
famous poll last Summer have any
thing to do with its demise?" The
dealer did not know. The reviewer
can only think that it Is pretty hard
on the Literary D. if it has died
away because the majority OF its sub
scrlberS were Republicans. 1t re-
minds one of provision in one OF
the mock amendments to H. L. Memo
ken's Mock Constitution for the New
Dealt shall be illegal for any
Republican to possess money" ANY,
way, the old veteran is soon to merge
with Reviews Of Reviews, and that
will end its honorable career. 1t
was a good mag while it lasted.
Life and News Week are not par
ticularly good sellers None OF the
weekly surveys, in fact, amount 70
anything except Time. Time for
gossip Time for secrets. Time for
| courage. Time, indeed, as some one
said, for all things Time is a best
seller anyway. Nothing else even
approaches it.
Among the venerable trio-Harpers'
| Atlantic Monthly and Scribner's-
Scribner's leads each of the others
so per cent. 1t was down to q negA-
Cihlo loc hut
| Of changing its formal, getting some
new members to its staff and clean
| ing house generally, it altered its
appeal SO that 1T is now hardly reco9-
nizable as the old conservative it once
was. 1t has doubled its sales since
the change was made, and of all the
| quality group has no rival except
the American Mercury. THAT would
seem to answer the question about
the Digest poll murmured the in
terested bystander)
Globe, says the dealer, Globe is
coming up. 1t did not 60 SO we'll at
first, but now it is doing nicely. The
| reviewer was pleased at that. She
has mentioned in these columns more
than once that Globe is a very nice
little periodical. Maybe, she thought,
maybe her plugs helped it. Well,
maybe her plugs did.
| Bachelor, however, another new
monthly. has not caught on. 1t is,
says the dealer, too limited in ap-
peal.
And what about these, asked the re-
| viewer, pointing to whole row OF
crime and adventure mags, the pulps,
in other words. What about these?
The dealer said that he did nice
little business in them. Not so good
as 1t might be in another neighbor-
hood. however There are not" said
he, enough cowboys around here
Not enough cowboys. He meant
drugstore cowboys, you comprehend
He went on to say that the appeal
OF the pulps was chiefly to the young
the high-school age reader, and that
the reviewer would find that these
mags were selling tops in delicates-
sens, lunch counters and the like
places where the young naturally
congregate. That is where they are
most popular.
There was notion in the revieWer's
mlnd Tor minute that it was regret
table, to say the least. that these
magazines were read so largely by
the Nations youth and she was on the
point OF saying so. But second thought
detained her. The idea of Nation
Of drug store cowboys reading such
trash is sad enough, heaven knows
but nowhere near as sad as would
be the prospect if these periodicals
were purchased for entertainment by
adults.
For there is certain amount OF
crudity in any young animal and il
must have an out. You cannot cor
rupt good taste either You may
starve it, but you cannot change il
into something else. Saving the ap-
pearance of Homer in cheap editions
on magazine counters, it may be that
the pulpS do as well as anything
elSe-or at least do no irreparable
harm-in boosting the populace over
| A~o AAAAASuAO CCCIAo. S1OlCllCC, OdukcI
and romance-theSe are the elements
which the human animal Graves then
and it will not care particularly abou,
how it comes by them. Later il
may become somewhat more attentive
to the dish in which they are served
But young hungers are hungers before
anything else. Esthetics, except ir
very rare cases, will simply have tc
wait
THE women's mags were on the
next rack, but the reviewer die
not ask about them. For long they
have been source Of grief to her, fol-
she does not review them at all con.
sistently, and the reason is that she
cannot find anything in them to talk
about. Recipes, yes. But these are
regular features in such periodicals
and the women who want them will
turn to them of themselves. OF the
rest Of these highly esteemed anc
| popular sheets the reviewer has re.