Yearnings Come True

Three hundred and fifty U.S. writers and artists had pooled their dollars and their talents to put out a magazine they could call their own (TIME, July 1). There were salable names among them: Steinbeck, Dos Passos, Lippmann, Hersey, Fadiman, Gropper. The editors boldly promised "stories, experiences and ideas these great writers and illustrators have always yearned to tell you." This week the pocket-sized magazine's first issue appeared on the stands. Its name (which it hopes to change annually): '47.

Readers of '47's first issue would probably feel that what some of the nation's top writers "have always yearned" to tell them wasn't much. Articles by Jay Franklin, Raymond Swing and Roy Chapman Andrews had the old familiar ring. The photographic art spreads in color (Will Connell, David Eisendrath) and the gag cartoons (Alan Dunn, Gardner Rea) weren't up to the average of the people who made them.

Editor Jerome Ellison (briefly managing editor of Collier's and Liberty) realistically guessed where part of the trouble lay: his name-in-lights stable "have to earn livings, and they've got to sell to other markets too." To his stockholder-contributors went an urgent "special request": "We need masterfully written short stories, and articles, that will make the nation stop to read. You can insure your investment by routing '47-ward the two finest pieces you produce in the next twelve months."

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