The New Living Age

It is ten years since the fortunes of the House Beautiful were joined with those of the Atlantic Monthly Company. The large increase in the circulation of this periodical has been a more recent phenomenon. Only five years ago the Atlantic Monthly Company acquired control of the Living Age, then called Littell’s Living Age, a name so strongly entrenched in the minds of American readers that many persons with long traditions still speak of seeing an article in ‘the last Littell’! At the time of coming into its present control the Living Age owed its living rather to tradition than to subscriptions, for the number of its readers was all too narrowly limited. In the five years since 1918 the circulation of this weekly has increased more than 700%. The enlarged distribution of the Living Age within the past year bears every resemblance to the short run that precedes a long jump. The jump is to be expected the more confidently because the readers of the magazine have become its volunteer advertisers; they are telling their friends right and left that they have found the periodical which really keeps them informed about the vital concerns of the whole world outside America. A few years ago, that very considerable portion of our globe and its inhabitants which is not circumscribed by Canada, Mexico, the Atlantic, and the Pacific did not greatly matter even to many thoughtful Americans. Now it does, to a degree that is increasingly apparent. It is something more than a coincidence that in the very period which has wrought this change, the Living Age has stepped into the place it is rapidly filling.

Indeed the growing interdependence of the entire world is shown in many ways. One of them is the variety of sources from which letters written by readers of the Living Age come to its editor, Dr. Victor S. Clark. Before he set forth early in March to attend the approaching Pan-American Congress in Santiago, Chile, Dr. Clark’s recent correspondence included letters from readers in the Far East, Argentina, Denmark, and many other widely separated places. An American presentation of the world’s thoughts plainly recommends itself to other than American readers.