“He believed ardently in [Reader’s] Digest’s populist mission of making well-written books with strong stories and interesting characters available to people who might not otherwise be readers,” Stephen Zinsser said of his father, John S. Zinsser Jr., who was editor of Reader’s Digest Condensed Books. Zinsser died on May 27.
A lot of people are condescending about RD Condensed Books, but you know–I think one of the great unspoken truths of our time is that most novels really are too long. It’s easier to write long than short, and the buyer likes to get a fat book in return for his money. So everybody’s happy, but the art form suffers.