Judge — December 1932 — page 34: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

Cinb a ‘to those who join at this. time, one of the most uniqttie books its judges have ever*chosen . . - VAN LO ON’S GEOGRAPHY RETAIL PRICE...$3.75 AND THESE ARE THE PEOPLE WHO LIVE IN THE WORLD WE LIVE IN T SOUNDS incredible, but nevertheless it is true. If everybody in this world of ours were six feet tall and a foot and a half wide and a foot thick Cand that is making people a little bigger than they usually are), then the whole of the huinan race (and according to the latest available statistics there are now early 2,000,000,000 descendants of the original Homo Sapiens and his wife) could be packed into a box measuring half a mile in each direction. That, as I just said, sounds incredible, but if you don't believe me, figure it out for yourself and you will find it to be correct. If we transported that box to the Grand Canyon of Arizona and balanced it neatly on the low stone wall that keeps people from breaking their necks when stunned by the incredible beauty of that silent witness of the forces of Eternity, and then called little Noodle, the dachshund, and told him (the tiny beast is very intelligent ‘and loves to oblige? to give the unwieldy contraption a slight push with his soft brown nose, there would be a moment of crunch- ing and ripping as the wooden planks loosened stones and shrubs and trees on their downward and then a low and even softer bumpity- ity-bump and a sudden splash when the edges struck the banks of the Colorado River. Then silence and oblivion! The human sardines in their mortuary chest would soon be forgotten, The Canyon would go oa battling wind and air and sun and rain as it has done since it was created, The world would continue to run its even course through the uncharted heavens, The astronomers on dis- tant and nearby planets would have noticed nothing out of the ordinary. A century from now, a little mound densely covered with vegetable matter, would perhaps in- dicate where humanity lay buried. And that would be all. Van Loon opens his epic story of Mother Earth—a book that will make an Olympian of its every reader, old and young; but Olympians chastened to humility by what it so magnificently unfolds. For from its first pages we realize how babyish are our present notions of Mother Earth. The book contains 163 charac- teristic drawings by the author, many of them in full color. WHY THIS BOOK I$ OFFERED FREE TO NEW MEMBERS great many readers who have intended in the past to join it, and have neglected to do so through pure oversight. This offer is made, frankly, to overcome that procrastination by making it really worthwhile for such persons not to delay longer. We suggest simply that you send the postcard below to get full information as to what the Club does for book-readers, and then decide once for all whether or not you want to join. Are ye aware, for instance, that as a member you are not oblit Tee Book-of-the-Month Club knows that there are a liged to take a book every month; nor are you ever obliged to take the specific book-of-the-month chosen by the judges. You may buy it or not, as you please, after reading the judges’ pre- publication report about it. Nor do you have to pay any fixed sum to be a member of the Club—there are no dues, no fees, no fixed charges of any kind. You simply pay the regular retail price for such books as you decide to buy. ‘What then is the advantage of joining? There are many: first, under the unique book-dividend policy of the Club, for every dollar its members spend on One of the 163 drawings Mr. Yan Loon himself bas made for bis book, 22 of them in fall color.—A good example, this, of Van Loon’s method of picturing the earth not as a simple surface, bat in three dimensions, books they receive back on the average (based on 1951 and 1932 figures to date) over 50% in the form of free books. Moreover, without a penny of expense, through the reports of the judges you are kept completely and authoritatively informed about all the important new books, so that you can choose among them with discrimination, instead of having to rely upon advertising and hearsay. Equally impor- tant, the system really ensures that you will read the par- ticular new books you are anxious not to miss. Surely, within the next year, the distinguished judges of the Club will choose as the book-of-the-month or recom- mend as alternates, at least a few books that you will be very anxious not to miss and which you will buy anyway. Why not—by joining the Club—make sure you get these in- stead of missing them, which so often happens; get the substantial advantages the Club affords (such as the book- dividends mentioned, if nothing else), and at the same time geta copy of VAN LOON’S GEOGRAPHY, free. Send the coupon below, for more complete information as to how the Club operates. BOOK-OF-THE-MONTH CLUB INC. 386 Fourth Avenue. New York, N. Y. Please send me, without cost, a booklet outlining how the Book-of-the-Month Club rates. This request in- volves me in no obligation to subscribe to your service. 137-12 comicbooks.com