Magazine of the Year, Vol. 2, No. 1

A split-face portrait dominates this cover, the woman's profile rendered in contrasting color registers—red on one side, cool blue on the other. Bold sans-serif typography announces "NEW YEAR · NEW TITLE" alongside featured authors Albert Einstein, Ogden Nash, Vincent McHugh, and John Kieran. Published in Chicago and priced at 35 cents, this issue marks a transitional moment for the pulp magazine format. By the late 1950s, such general-interest digest magazines competed with television and specialized publications, adapting the illustrated covers and star-studded mastheads that once dominated newsstand shelves. The design suggests both modernist aesthetics and the commercial illustration traditions inherited from earlier pulp adventure and detective magazines.