Branch Letter
Dear Kingdom Publishers:
This is the thirty-ninth time that Jehovah’s servants have had the privilege and the opportunity to share in the Awake! subscription campaign. This magazine that presents the truth regarding creation, religion, the practical sciences and other points of human interest has not always been called Awake!
Brother C. T. Russell had for some time contemplated a publication of this kind, but it wasn’t until 1919, three years after his death, that it became a reality. On September 5 of that year, the 6,000 assembled at the first Cedar Point, Ohio, convention were thrilled to hear that this new magazine, The Golden Age, would soon be published. What was the response? Over 15,000 subscriptions were received before the first issue was ever published. Volume one, number one of this semimonthly magazine was dated October 1, 1919, and the subscription rate was $1.50 a year, or ten cents a copy.
With the October 6, 1937, issue, on the eighteenth anniversary of The Golden Age, the magazine took on a new appearance, and its name was changed to Consolation and remained such for the next nine years.
It was on August 6, 1946, at the “Glad Nations Theocratic Assembly” in Cleveland, Ohio, not far from Cedar Point, that a vast crowd of 55,000 was introduced to the Awake!, which now has reached over ten million copies average printing for each issue. But the original symbol “g” (for Golden Age) still identifies Awake! as in the Index.
The Awake! magazine has played an important role in keeping people informed on the vital issues of the day and in whetting their spiritual appetites for the deeper things of God’s Word. Over the years we have shown our appreciation for this fine provision by not only benefiting from its pages personally but also zealously offering it to the public, especially during the annual subscription campaigns. During the first campaign, April-June 1938, 30,000 publishers obtained 73,006 subscriptions. What a fine witness would result if during the month of October each one of us could help someone to subscribe so that they could appreciate more fully the value of Awake!
All of us look forward to good success in this campaign, with the rich blessing of Jehovah upon it.
Your brothers,
BROOKLYN BRANCH OFFICE