Nostalgia for a more inclusive and unifying time

During my recuperation from foot surgery and subsequent physical therapy, I have been working my way through my daunting backlog of books (in the thousands) with an ultimate goal of being able to dispose of some them.  Some would say to make room for some new ones.

One such was The Saturday Evening Post Reader of Sea Stories edited by Day Edgar and published in 1962.  A delightful melange.

The Saturday Evening Post published from 1821 to 1968.

The Saturday Evening Post published current event articles, editorials, human interest pieces, humor, illustrations, a letter column, poetry (with contributions submitted by readers), single-panel gag cartoons (including Hazel by Ted Key) and stories by the leading writers of the time. It was known for commissioning lavish illustrations and original works of fiction. Illustrations were featured on the cover and embedded in stories and advertising. Some Post illustrations continue to be reproduced as posters or prints, especially those by Norman Rockwell.

It made me reflect on what a loss we have had in our publishing world with the decline and disappearance of general interest magazines such as SEP; magazines which appealed across the county and across classes (though solidly focused on the rising middle class); magazines which focused on entertainment and edification rather than politics and advocacy.  

That was perhaps a month ago when I finished the SEP book.  This morning I came across a charming little essay, I Had a Fortress Once in Paradise by Gerard Van der Leun.  

When my brother was 5 and I was 7, my parents moved us to Paradise. We’d been living in the Los Angeles section known as Glendale. We lived at 521B Allen Avenue. (You never forget your address when you go off to school for the first time, do you?) It was a two-bedroom bungalow apartment. There was a driveway between the two parallel strips of postwar apartment units that opened in the back to a wide asphalt courtyard with a cement block fence at the rear and an incinerator up against that wall.

[snip]

Sometime later my parents bought a house on the edge of Butte Canyon, out on the fringes of Paradise. My father built a new bedroom for Tom and me at the back of the house with its own entrance stairs that incorporated the trunk of a black walnut tree. There was a cherry tree in the backyard along with a brick barbecue. Beyond the backyard was an acre of wild oak, madrone, and manzanita. Behind that was an old dirt road that ran right at the edge of Butte Canyon. The canyon here was draped everywhere by frozen flows of black lava in all shapes, and often precipitous drops. Nearby there were trails branching out and down into the canyon. On weekends and in the summer, our parents’ instructions to us were simple: “Home before dark.”

Part memoir, part tribute to his brother, it is also an peek into childhood and into an era and place.  Informational and humorous, it is a delight.  Exactly what is needed.

However, looking at the url, there it is: https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2021/02/i-had-a-fortress-once-in-paradise/

What?

Its it The Saturday Evening Post, though not that of its heyday.  It's mission:

Tracing its roots to Benjamin Franklin, The Saturday Evening Post mirrors cherished American ideals and values, most memorably illustrated by its iconic cover artist Norman Rockwell. The Post is also known for publishing such literary greats as Ray Bradbury, Agatha Christie, William Faulkner, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Edgar Allan Poe, J.D. Salinger, and Kurt Vonnegut, and continues to seek out and discover emerging writers of the 21st century.

Headquartered in Indianapolis, the Post is a publication of the nonprofit Saturday Evening Post Society, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit charitable organization (formerly the Benjamin Franklin Literary & Medical Society), which was established in 1976 in an effort to honor, preserve, and share its historical legacy of promoting the arts and literature, while inspiring and empowering individuals to embrace a proactive approach to physical, mental, and spiritual health. The Saturday Evening Post Society also publishes the award-winning youth magazines Humpty Dumpty and Jack and Jill and funds The Children’s Better Health Institute. Having been at the side of Americans in various forms since 1728, through the events and cultural shifts that have shaped the country’s character, The Saturday Evening Post remains America’s Magazine.

The current mission of The Saturday Evening Post is to prepare for the future through our publishing and health endeavors, while also honoring our past. To this end, we have undertaken the important task of carefully preserving the history of the magazine. Through the use of specialized, high-resolution large-format digital scanners, and the hard work of dedicated staffers, we are working to convert every word and image of our print magazine to a digital format. You can see the tremendous progress we have made by viewing our online archive. In addition to the magazines, we have a treasure trove of correspondence from well known authors and artists, sketches, meeting notes, marketing and advertising ideas, and the daily details of the magazine business from 1821 to today. We have just begun to scratch the surface of this rich history. It’s a challenging but rewarding undertaking to document such an important record of not only the magazine, but also the weekly concerns and entertainments of our nation. Our work is ongoing, and your membership or donation helps with our preservation efforts. 

 And it publishes six times a year.  I've just signed up.