Books in Brief

Traveling on business last summer, Publisher Walter J. Black was struck by the number of people he saw reading small monthly magazines of the Reader's Digest type. Mulling over this trend, Mr. Black conceived the notion of a "digest" monthly to give readers boiled-down versions of full-length books. This week the U. S. saw the result--a 25-c- Book Digest, of which 75,000 copies were distributed to the stands of American News Co. First issue of Book Digest had condensations of ten recent books, fast-sellers like John Gunther's Inside Europe, Herbert Asbury's The French Quarter, Pearl Buck's Fighting Angel.

Because Reader's Digest, originator and most successful exponent of the cut-and reprint idea, had already condensed a number of books with beneficial effects on their sales (TIME, Nov. 2), most publishers approached by Mr. Black were friendly. Book Digest's royalties to publishers are to increase as its circulation climbs. The magazine will attempt no fiction condensations, stick to non-fiction products from a long list of publishers including Doubleday, Doran & Co., Harper & Brothers, Alfred A.

Knopf, Macmillan Co., Simon & Schuster, Viking Press.

Selector for Book Digest is Donald Leonard Gordon, long a consulting expert to the book trade. Mr. Black's book career began in 1923 when he was salesman for a company publishing a one-volume Shakespeare. Launching out for himself on a $500 stake, Bookseller Black became Publisher Black with a one-volume Shakespeare of his own. Since then, Publisher Black has issued over 70 "classics," spent upwards of $1,000,000 advertising them.

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