CURTIS PUBLISHING COMPANY, THE, an Ameri can publishing company with headquarters in Philadelphia. It owns and publishes the Ladies' Home Journal, The Saturday Eve ning Post and the Country Gentleman, which rank among the larg est periodicals in the world both as to circulations and advertising patronage. The Ladies' Home Journal was founded in 1883 by Cyrus H. K. Curtis, president of the company, the first issue con sisting of eight pages. It was edited by Mrs. Curtis at first. Ed ward W. Bok became the editor in 1889, and served for 3o years. In 1934 it had a monthly paid circulation of over 2,575,000 copies. The Saturday Evening Post has been published continuously since its founding (under the name of the Pennsylvania Gazette) by Benjamin Franklin, in 1728, except for a few weeks during the British occupancy of Philadelphia in the course of the Revolu tionary War. In 1839 it had a circulation of 35,00o copies, then the largest figure of all the weeklies published in the United States. In 1897 Mr. Curtis bought this magazine from a partner ship that was then publishing it ; the weekly paid circulation in was approximately 2,775,000 copies. The Country Gentle man, the oldest agricultural journal in America, was established in the year 1831. In 1911 it was bought by the Curtis company, which in 1925 changed its original form (a weekly) to that of a monthly, and instituted such innovations as quality paper, colour illustrations, etc. During the next two years, the circulation in creased by half a million copies; in 1934 the paid circulation was over 1,765,00o copies. Two hundred and twenty-five large presses are run day and night to print these three periodicals.
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