The Most Unlikely Thing

At Liberty magazine one morning last week, veteran Fiction Editor Elsie Christie dropped in to Editor John Danby's office to regale him with a rumor she had just heard: Liberty (circ. 1,096,987) was being sold to "one of those awful girlie books." Recalled Danby: "We both agreed that that was the most unlikely thing in the world." Two days later, Publisher Osborne Bond called in Editor Danby, Miss Christie and most of his 40 other staffers and fired them. Reason: Liberty was closing down. Liberty's name and good will had been sold to Lawrence Holmes, publisher of two "girlie books" (Taboo, Night and Day).

Newcomer Holmes announced that he would bring out a "new kind" of Liberty in the fall. On Liberty's record, the magazine's chances were poor. Founded by the late Captain Joe Patterson and Colonel Bertie McCormick, later acquired by Bernarr Macfadden, and since controlled by various owners and creditors, Liberty had lost money for all but two of its 26 years.

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