How do you distill 90 years of beloved articles (shelves and shelves of bound editions housed in a mansion-like library) into a single sparkling volume that you can hold in your palm?
When we decided to celebrate our 90th anniversary by publishing a book of our best stories, it felt like trying to squeeze the Colorado River into a bottle of Coke. Then I reframed the question: How does the brand that made its name by “curating and condensing” the best reads in the land curate and condense itself?
Because that is one skill that Reader’s Digest editors have shared across generations and decades and anniversaries: the ability to select those stories that are so moving, so evocative, so honest, and so bold that they change your perspective on life. That vision, brought to life in 1922 by founders Dewitt and Lila Wallace, is the mission we still carry on today. And we have the unique privilege of acting on the feeling that such stories inspire: Everyone should read this. This story must be shared.
So I’m indebted to this team of editors who spent weekends and late nights reading through our archives to select the best of Reader’s Digest—these “reads of lasting interest.” Many selections moved us to tears; others made us laugh until we forgot our worries. Some are written by the thought leaders of their time—such as Dwight D. Eisenhower, who expresses in a way that no one else can why all students should go to college. Others celebrate the indelible mark left by longtime contributors such as Alex Haley, the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Roots, and Fulton Oursler, a prolific author and senior editor of Reader’s Digest from 1944 to 1952. Inside you’ll find famous and not-so-famous names, selected and reprinted from newspapers, magazines, books, radio broadcasts, and television specials.
The media we curate from have changed, but the nature of our choices has not. Our selections evoke what we call the extraordinary ordinary: the bond of family, the gift that can change a life, the love of a pet, the quiet coincidences that can be directed only by a divine hand.
The editors who participated in this project told me they felt changed after reading through their trove of Reader’s Digest articles. Because that’s the power of a great story: It lifts our spirits, teaches us something new, connects us to our community, and inspires us with ideas about who we might become. It’s my sincere wish that you experience the same feeling from reading this Reader’s Digest treasury.
