• November 21, 1983
• Vol. 20
• No. 21

Publisher's Letter

By S. Christopher Meigher III

Here at PEOPLE we share many interests with our readers. By definition we share with you the magic of words and the discovery and pleasure reading can bring. We know, for instance, that some 1.5 million PEOPLE readers bought more than six hardcover volumes in 1982. That is one reason why we review more than 300 books a year in our Picks & Pans section. We include authors among our best friends and introduce you to the new and noteworthy in feature articles. When we called on humorist Russell Baker earlier this year, after he published Growing Up, Baker devoted a syndicated column to the experience. ("My mouth watered! PEOPLE magazine. A circulation of 2.5 million.")

We have also brought you excerpts from many books. Our most recent selection was Frank Deford's Alex: The Life of a Child, the story of his daughter's struggle with cystic fibrosis. The two-part series drew more than 100 letters from readers moved by the account of Alex's short life. (For some of the most recent, see page 7.) Next spring you will read exclusively in PEOPLE excerpts from Rosalynn Carter's autobiography, First Lady From Plains. PEOPLE itself will turn author in 1984: To commemorate our 10th birthday in March, Time-Life Books and Ballantine Books will publish The Best of PEOPLE, a selection of articles and photographs that appeared in our first decade.

Those are just a few of the reasons why it gives us special pleasure to bring you in this issue the 40-page holiday catalog of B. Dalton Bookseller. The insert is the biggest advertising message ever to appear in a single issue of PEOPLE and the largest single advertising effort of this kind in book-publishing history. That PEOPLE was chosen is a compliment to our readers. Next week we celebrate Thanksgiving. To each of you, we extend our heartfelt thanks for your continued support and our promise of more good reading in the issues to come.