Reader's Digest: 100 years of corny jokes and consumer advice

Oh, and don't forget the fabled prize draw. Yes, it can only be Reader's Digest.

The pocket-sized periodical, the global phenomenon that gave us Humour in Uniform, It Pays to Enrich Your Word Power, and You Couldn't Make It Up, is celebrating its centenary.

Operating out of an office below an illegal "speakeasy" in Greenwich Village, New York, the first edition was launched on February 5, 1922 with a budget of $5,000.

Opening with an article entitled How To Keep Young Mentally, the first edition was sent out to 1,500 subscribers. At the height of its success in the 1980s, Reader's Digest was read by 100 million readers across 163 countries – second only to the Bible. While circulation has declined since the birth of the internet, it remains the biggest-selling periodical in the world, with a global circulation of more than three million.

The magazine was founded by William DeWitt Wallace, the son of American preacher and academic James Wallace. Fiercely intelligent but hyperactive and rebellious, Wally as he was known to friends was said to have driven his strict father to distraction in his youth. He was "asked nicely" to leave the college where his father was a professor, and dropped out of university after two years.

Wallace came up with the idea for Reader's Digest while languishing in a French hospital, having been seriously wounded at Verdun in the closing stages of the First World War. Passing the time by removing superfluous words from American magazines that people brought for him to read, he concluded there was a gap in the market for a pocket-sized publication featuring abridged texts from a wide-range of books and publication. Each article would be truncated to about a page-and-a-half each in order to retain the reader's interests.

Reasoning that people were hungry for content but overwhelmed with choice, in many respects he was the forerunner of today's internet "aggregators".

On his return to the US, Wallace, turned the reading room of the Minneapolis public library into his own personal office, researching and condensing magazine articles. Over a six-month period in 1920, he is said to have spent each day at the library, carefully choosing the best publications.

"I spent countless hours in the periodical room, reading and condensing articles from the library's collection," he said.

Wallace put together a sample edition, which he showed to Lila Bell Acheson, the sister of his old university friend Barclay Acheson. She responded positively, and began helping him with the new magazine. They married on October 15, 1921 – with less than four months to go to the launch date.

But while Lila may have seen the potential of Reader's Digest, the established publishing houses were more sceptical. Only William Randolph Hearst, the founder of Hearst Publications, was said to have given him any encouragement whatsoever. Lila persuaded him that if the big publishers were not prepared to take the chance, he should publish it himself, and he borrowed $5,000 and did just that.

Each edition contained 31 articles – one for each day of the month. When sales were initially modest, Lila told him to appeal to women, "That is where your market is,” she told him. By 1929 the digest had 290,000 subscribers, and was also on sale in newsagents. Annual profit was $900,000, about £9 million today.

The UK edition was launched in 1938, featuring a blend of common material with the US edition, together with locally sourced content.

Perhaps reflecting his own religious and conservative upbringing, Wallace was always keen to ensure the publication reflected the traditional values of Middle America. Tales of morality, the evils of Nazism and Communism, interviews with Christian leaders around the world plus the famous wholesome, if corny, jokes would be the bedrock of the magazine over the decades that followed. Humour in Uniform invited readers to contribute their funny stories about life in the armed forces, and Laughter the best medicine invited them to share jokes you would never hear Bernard Manning tell. It Pays to Enrich Your Word Power looked at some of the lesser known words and phrases from the English language, and every edition contained a selection of practical tips for housewives.

It wasn't all whimsy, though. In 1935, a report by Joseph C. Furnas highlighted the rising death toll caused by car accidents, which some say led to the introduction of seat-belt safety laws. In 1940, the magazine highlighted the dangers of tobacco smoking, at a time when the establishment line – backed by many doctors – was that it was good for you.

The publication reached its zenith in the 1980s, and there probably aren't that many people on either side of the Atlantic who won't have read it at some time or other – or at least had the letter telling them they have been specially suggested for the grand prize draw.

Articles about the Royal Family would prove popular in both Britain and the US. The coronation of the Queen – who assumed the throne the day after Reader's Digest's 30th anniversary – was covered in great depth, and wowed readers around the world.

And it seems even Her Majesty may also be a fan. She has written to the magazine congratulating it on its 100th birthday, sending her best wishes to all its staff and readers around the world.

"Founded with the spirit of bringing the best writing to a worldwide audience, you have enlightened, encouraged and entertained individuals on a variety of subjects and important issues," she wrote.

"On this notable anniversary, I wish you every success for the future and hope you continue to inspire people around the world through the power of the written word for many years to come.”

And you don't need too vivid an imagination to see her chuckling over Laughter the Best Medicine.