On the Origins of The American Journal of Economics and Sociology: Its Purposes and Objectives

American Journal of Economics and Sociology, The, April, 2001 by Will Lissner

Even before I had finished Lowe's book I knew I had the name for my magazine--The American Journal of Economics and Sociology--which the Schalkenbach office and others frequently shortened vocally to the AJES.

Money was always a worry in those early days and one of the greatest worries was what the cost of printing the Journal was going to be. I asked Leonard Recker, a printer who was also a member of the Schalkenbach board, if he could please find me a good printer who would be willing to print the magazine at a price we could afford. I had a friend who was supposed to take care of the financial details but he became busy with other things and dropped out. Vi Peterson, Executive Director of the Foundation, agreed to take over and become business manager. While still in the planning stage and before we had to pay any bills, Vi had to inform me that although the Foundation had agreed to fund the Journal for $400, it only had $200 in its coffers for that purpose.

Desperately I began to send out letters about the project to members of learned societies at various colleges and universities, using their membership lists, explaining our project and our struggle to meet publication costs. Members of these societies at Columbia University, the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of Chicago immediately responded by managing to acquire from their colleagues and for the universities' library collections about 15 subscriptions each for the magazine. Members from Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Cornell also came through by getting us a number of subscriptions.

Friends I had met through my work at the Times and when I had been attending or lecturing at various colleges or universities also came through with subscriptions.

Things were beginning to look up.

They were really beginning to look up when Leonard Recker found Business Press, formerly known as Science Press, in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, run by Jacques Cattell. The world-famous publication Science had been founded at Science Press. Business Press was prepared to turn out the kind of economic journal that we wanted to have and because Cattell became interested in our project he gave us a rate for the first year of publication that would have bankrupted Business Press if it had continued, but it enabled us to get started.

Cattrell had also become interested in the Journal because he very much liked the cover, which had been done by Wallace Kibbee.

Kibbee was one of the four most famous typographical designers in the country at that time and he was designing for the Foundation The Life of Henry George by George's son, Henry George, Jr. Impressed with his work, I had written to him asking him to design the Journal. He had agreed and not only had designed the magazine, front to back, but had drawn the cover and designed the title The American Journal of Economics and Sociology in original lettering, lettering he used only for the Journal so that there was never a complete alphabet. So we had a unique cover of which we were very proud.