Nothing is a success until it is a proved success. The ideas that seem
best frequently turn out the worst. If it were not for this fact, a fact
with which we are thoroughly familiar, we should feel that we have in THE
SCRAP BOOK the hit of a century. Indeed, it is difficult not to let
ourselves go a bit, even now, and talk about this new creation in
magazine-making in a way that would sound like high-pressure fiction.
Six weeks ago THE SCRAP BOOK was nothing but an idea. It had had a good
deal of thought in a general way, but nothing effectually focuses until
actual work begins. Filmy, desultory thought, in cloudland, counts for
little.
In the early conception of THE SCRAP BOOK it was as unlike this magazine
as a mustard-seed is unlike the full-grown tree. Rebelling as I did, and
still do, at the restraints of the conventional magazine, and realizing
the added strength that should come from the rare old things and the best
current things--the scrap bits that are full of juice and sweetness and
tenderness and pathos and humor--realizing all this, I undertook to
incorporate in MUNSEY'S MAGAZINE a department which I intended to call THE
SCRAP BOOK.
I had special headings and borders drawn for this department, with a view
to differentiating it from other parts of the magazine. I had sample pages
put in type, and more or less work done on the department. But it did not
fit MUNSEY'S MAGAZINE, and MUNSEY'S MAGAZINE gave no scope for such a
section. It was atmospherically antagonistic to a magazine which consisted
wholly of original matter. This was the beginning of THE SCRAP BOOK--the
thought nebula.
* * * * *
It was as late as the middle of January when I came to my office one
morning and startled our editorial force by saying that THE SCRAP BOOK
would be issued on the 10th of February. Up to this time no decisive work
had been done on it. As I stated in my introduction last month, we had
been gathering scrap books from all over the world for some time, and had
a good deal of material classified and ready for use. It was an accepted
fact in the office that THE SCRAP BOOK would be issued sooner or later.
Indeed, the drawing for the cover was made more than a year ago. But no
one on the staff, not even myself, knew just what THE SCRAP BOOK would be
like or when it would make its appearance.
With a definite date fixed for the day of issue, however, and that date
only about three weeks away, intense work and intense thought were
necessary, and from this thought and work was evolved THE SCRAP BOOK as we
now have it. From the first minute, as it began to take shape, it became a
thing of evolution. Enough material was prepared, set up, and destroyed to
fill three issues of THE SCRAP BOOK, and display headings were changed and
changed--and a dozen times changed--to get the effect we wanted.
As it was something apart from all other magazines, we had no precedents
to follow, no examples to copy, either in the matter itself, the method of
treating it, or the style of presenting it. Our inspiration in producing
THE SCRAP BOOK was mainly, and almost wholly, our conception of what would
appeal most forcefully to the human heart and human brain--to all the
people of all classes everywhere. This, supplemented by our experience in
publishing, was our guide in evolving this magazine.
I have told you this much about the beginning and the development of THE
SCRAP BOOK because such information about the beginning of anything of any
consequence appeals to me individually, and I think generally appeals to
all readers. If THE SCRAP BOOK, therefore, is to make an important place
for itself in the publishing world, as certainly looks probable at this
time, it will perhaps be worth while to have the story of its inception
and evolution.
* * * * *
While I have created in THE SCRAP BOOK a magazine for the public, as I
interpret the public taste--and this is always my purpose in anything I
publish--I find that in THE SCRAP BOOK I have unconsciously created a
magazine for myself. I mean just this, that for my own reading THE SCRAP
BOOK as it is, and THE SCRAP BOOK in its possibilities, has all other
magazines, every phase and kind of magazine the world over, beaten to a
standstill.
And why? Simply because THE SCRAP BOOK in its scope is as wide as the
world. It has no limitations, within the boundaries of decency and good
taste. It has as broad a sweep in the publication of original articles and
original fiction and original everything as any magazine anywhere. It has,
in addition, in its review phases, recourse to the best current things
throughout the world--the daily press, the weekly press, the magazines,
the pulpit, and the platform. And best of all, it has the vast storehouses
of the centuries to draw from--the accumulation of the world's best
thoughts and best writing.