The Magazine of the Year, March 1947

A portrait of Celia, daughter of painter Robert Brockman, dominates this cover of The Magazine of the Year—a publication aimed at "leading writers, artists and photographers." The soft-focus painting style and interior positioning suggest editorial rather than fiction focus. Priced at thirty-five cents, the issue promises a Pearl S. Buck story, Robert St. John's "Letter to Judy," and a Gallup Poll analysis on political orientation. By the 1940s, the pulp magazine industry—born from cheap wood-pulp printing and sensational cover art—had established itself across multiple genres. Though The Magazine of the Year targeted a more literary audience than its adventure-pulp cousins, it inherited their visual language: the painted cover as primary draw, the promise of diverse content, the direct appeal to readers' curiosity about contemporary figures and ideas.