DeWitt Wallace

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DeWitt Wallace
Lila Bell Wallace
Parent(s)James Wallace and Janet Wallace

William Roy DeWitt Wallace (/dəˈwɪt/ də-WIT; November 12, 1889 – March 30, 1981), publishing as DeWitt Wallace, was an American magazine publisher.

Wallace co-founded

Lila Bell Wallace, publishing the first issue in 1922.[1]

Life and career

Born in

farming
literature.

Room 108 of the New York Public Library, now known as the DeWitt Wallace Periodical Room, services current unbound issues of 68 popular periodical titles and 22 domestic and foreign newspapers. In the 1920s DeWitt Wallace spent countless hours in this room, reading and condensing articles from the Library's collection. In 1983, the room's restoration was made possible by a gift from the Wallace Fund, established by DeWitt Wallace.

During

U.S. Army and was wounded. He spent four months in a French
hospital recovering from his injuries, passing the time by reading American magazines.

Returning to the U.S., Wallace spent every day of the next six months at the Minneapolis Public Library researching and condensing magazine articles. He wanted to create a magazine with articles on a wide variety of subjects, abridged so that each could be easily read. Wallace showed his sample magazine to Lila Bell Acheson, sister of an old college friend, Barclay Acheson,[2][3] who responded enthusiastically. He proposed to her and on October 15, 1921, they were married.

The Wallaces decided to publish the magazine themselves and market it by

anti-communist views, and the magazine reflected these beliefs.[4][5][6] Wallace and his wife were strong supporters of Richard Nixon's presidential bid in 1968, giving Nixon cash donations and allowing Nixon to write articles for the Digest.[7]

Wallace was a noted

Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia
.

On January 28, 1972, DeWitt Wallace was presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Richard Nixon.

Wallace was inducted into the Junior Achievement U.S. Business Hall of Fame in 1980.

Wallace died at his home in Mount Kisco, New York, on March 30, 1981. He left no children with his wife Lila. His niece, Julia Acheson, was married to The New York Times executive Fred D. Thompson.[9]

Awards and honors

See also

  • Glynwood Center

References

  1. ^ "The Story of DeWitt Wallace: An Original Aggregator - Dewitt Wallace Center". Dewitt Wallace Center. Retrieved 2017-06-01.
  2. ^ "Dr. Barclay Acheson, Editor, Dies at 70; International Reader's Digest Official". The New York Times. Retrieved 2022-07-23.
  3. ^ "The Story of DeWitt Wallace: An Original Aggregator". DeWitt Wallace Center. Retrieved 2022-07-23.
  4. ISBN 9781440800481
    (p. 43).
  5. ISBN 0874174406
    (p. 156)
  6. ^ John Heidenry, Theirs Was the Kingdom: Lila and DeWitt Wallace and the Story of the Reader's Digest, New York, W.W. Norton, 1993
  7. ISBN 978-0-7432-4302-5
    .
  8. ^ "About Wallace: A Brief History". The Wallace Foundation. 2019.
  9. ISSN 0362-4331
    . Retrieved 2022-07-23.
  10. American Academy of Achievement
    .
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