You want to talk about direct mail copy? Nothing can beat a series of letters sent by Time magazine during the early years of World War II.
February 10, 1940
Dear Reader:
This is the dullest war in history…
FOR PEOPLE WHO DON’T KNOW WHAT IT’S ALL ABOUT!
But it’s a tremendously exciting, moving, portentous war for those who know and understand what is really going on…
…tremendously exciting for the readers of TIME.
For TIME has given its readers the background for war and touched their eyes with understanding. TIME’s Editors have used TIME’s great newsgathering and newsverifying organization to clear away all the confusion of trivialities, propaganda and contradictory bulletins -- and let the real news make sense.
This is not a war of newspaper headlines and hymns of hate that every man in the street can follow and every housewife can understand. This is not a war in which half a million men must die to make a famous victory.
But it is a deeply stirring fact that London has not been bombed – that Rumania has not been invaded -- that Italy has not fired a shot.
…if you understand why!
Only 114 English soldiers have died in this war to hold the Germans at the Maginot Line – but they have stopped Hitler just as surely as 700,000 killed and wounded Frenchmen stopped the Kaiser at Verdun.
Only 74 English seamen died to conquer the Graf Spee – but that was one of the most decisive sea fights in all history.
Only a few thousand Finns have lose their lives on the Karelian front – but already they have shaken the vaunted imperialism of Russia, revealed the weakness of the world’s biggest army and upset the balance of power from the Vistula to the Amoy.
There’s nothing dull about that -- and TIME-readers know it.
The readers of TIME understand that today’s seeming calm is just the calm before the storm. They know that this smouldering war must erupt into volcanic tragedy-- perhaps tomorrow -- perhaps next month.
Major George Fielding Eliot says Hitler cannot hope to win if he hesitates beyond next spring to launch the full fury of the Nazi attack. With each passing day, the suspense grows sharper as Europe wonders where he will strike --
…for he may launch his Blitzkrieg over England through the air; he may send 2,000,000 men through Holland to outflank the French; he may drive north to seek a new Poland in Scandinavia; he may turn again against Stalin, taking advantage of Russia’s military weakness to build a Nazi empire in the Ukraine!
Surely, in times like these, you need TIME more than ever to make the news make sense -- to let you feel the full drama and significance of being alive in such never-to-be-forgotten times.
For the war abroad is not the only great news of 1940; 1940 is a tremendous year at home as well as overseas. This is the year of America’s rearmament -- the year when America may reassert herself as a world power. This is the year when the New Deal must face the voters and fight for its life in one of the most decisive elections in all American history.
The year has begun to a quicker, more vital tempo all over America. With every passing hour, business is creating thousands of new jobs. In all the arts, America is achieving a new world leadership. Our laboratories are pouring out new discoveries in science and medicine that may change all the ways of our living.
Yes -- there is much news crowding in upon us from so many sources, that most people are bound to miss half the drama and excitement and profound significance of this historic year.
And that is why I am so sure you will find TIME invaluable.
For TIME is the one best way you can be sure of getting all the news -- told so briefly you can follow each week’s chapter of current history in a single fascinating evening -- so clearly you catch its significance at once -- so vividly you can’t forget it.
TIME will make it twice as interesting for you to follow the news -- and TIME will spend over 25 cents on every word in every issue to make sure everything you read in TIME is straight and true and reliable.
Try TIME for yourself and see how much TIME can add to your own understanding of each marching week.
Try TIME for yourself and see why the editors of America’s leading newspapers have just voted that TIME is the most interesting, the most valuable and the most reliable magazine in America.
Try TIME at our special introductory rate, which will save you $2.53 and being you TIME For the next eight months for only one cent a day.
8 months for only $2.67!
Eight months of this stirring, unforgettable year -- with so much happening each week that will gladly pay air-mail postage on the enclosed card to get your subscription started before you miss another week of TIME.
So please sign it and AIRMAIL it back to me today.
Cordially,
Perry Prentice
Circulation Manager
