When Gilbert Hovey Grosvenor took over the National Geographic in 1899, he likes to recall, the circulation was so small (900) that "I could carry the entire issue on my back." Today, says Grosvenor, who shares his magazine's passionate addiction to detail, "A single issue would form a pile more than eight miles high, or 79 piles each as tall as the Washington Monument." In its familiar yellow-bordered, acorn-decorated wrapper, this month's issue reached 2,150,000 living rooms, libraries, throne rooms and dentists' offices from Maine to Monaco.
This week, in recognition of his responsibility for this fine growth, and in tribute to...
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