Scribner’s Magazine – Old Magazine Articles

A Bewildering American Phenomenon (Scribner’s Magazine, 1937)

This well-read writer recalls the great novels leading up to the publication of Gone With The Wind (1936). Along the way, she lists some of the many foibles of The Great American Reading Public – in the end she recognizes that she shouldn’t have been surprised at all that the historic romance was an all-time-best-seller and that Margaret Mitchell was awarded a Pulitzer.

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The Pandemic of 1918 (Scribner’s Magazine, 1938)

The Spanish Influenza (February 1918 – April 1920) struck hard in the U.S. Army camps. Every fourth man came down with the flu, every twenty-fourth man caught pneumonia, every sixth man died.

By the time the virus ran its course in the United States 675,000 Americans would succumb (although this article estimated the loss at 500,000).

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Collier’s (Scribner’s Magazine, 1938)

From Scribner’s on-going series from 1938, Magazines That Sell came this brief history of the crowd-pleasing weekly, Collier’s (1888 – 1957).

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‘Class Magazines” (Scribner’s Magazine, 1938)

This article looks at the rise of Vanity Fair, Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar and House & Garden – recognizing them as highly unique publications for their time. Special attention is paid to publisher Condé Nast and his meteoric rise during the early 20th Century.

The class magazines exude an aura of wealth and their circulations, therefore, are limited. They cater to the fit though few and they do this with slick paper, excellent illustrations and a sycophantic reverence for Society – at thirty-five to fifty cents a copy.

Click here to read about Fortune Magazine…

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‘It was a Nice Depression” (Scribner’s Magazine, 1937)

I always knew that I would one day find a reminiscence of the Great Depression – what I didn’t expect is finding it in a magazine from 1937. As mentioned in another part of this site, 1937 saw some measure of economic recovery (until it didn’t) and this reminiscence was penned by a fellow who wanted so badly to believe that the whole thing was finally over. He wished so earnestly that the Depression had ended that he listed just what he was missing about it already. Little did he know he had three more years to go.

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Women Can Do The Heavy War Work (Scribner’s Magazine, 1919)

The essential facts are that women can do men’s heavy work with substantially equal output, without any disturbance of the particular industry, and, when guided by proper conditions, without detriment to their health. How far and how long they ought to do it in the emergency arising from the war is to be decided upon different grounds.

Click here to read about the women war workers of the Second World War.

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More on Birth of a Nation (Scribner’s Magazine, 1937)

An appreciation of Birth of a Nation written 20 years after its opening.

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‘The Americans Are Here” (Scribner’s Magazine, 1919)

Les Américains Sont Là!

Those were the words on everybody’s lips as the first big detachments of United States troops began to appear in the Paris streets… I think there is a simple politeness in these young warriors from across the sea, whether they come from some of the big cities, New York, Boston, Chicago or from some far-away states on the other side of the Rockies.

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Fortune (Scribner’s Magazine, 1938)

Fortune is the world’s outstanding exponent of plush journalism. Its editors, long accustomed to prodigal expenditures, proudly talk of doing things ‘in the Fortune manner’. The Fortune manner may mean spending $12,000 on research for a single story. It means commissioning oil paintings of industrial tycoons for the sole purpose of reproduction in Fortune. It mean de luxe color gravure and high-priced writers…

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Scenes From The War (Scribner’s Magazine, 1919)

Numerous little vignettes depicting the American Expeditionary Forces in France.

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