FOR THE BUND

Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 52, 2 March 1934, Page 2

FOR THE BUND

NEW MAGAZINE

STORIES AND NEWS

A magazine ia raised type for "tho blind called tho "New Moon" has been launched by the Braillo Institute of America. , ' - " Tho magazine, being the first of its kind ever published in the ' United States, marks a new era in journalism, for tho blind, states the ''Christian Science Monitor." The method of printing does not depart from the type size, style, or line spacing which have become familiar to American Moon readers in English, ~ Moon printing, but an improvement has been made in the method of reading- tho - lines. In English Moon books,.the text has always run from left to right on one line, and then' from, right to left on the next line, a peculiar "practice which requires the reader to work back and forth. As there seemed to be no good reason for this system.-American' ' Moon literature will be printed-with, lines running from, left to right, as in sighted reading. Dedicated to American leaders of Moon type, of whom, there are'jnanv ' thousands in tho United States, it will' carry a digest of world' news, the' latest political events of import in all countries, some bits of humour, housel hold hints, and an occasional short stor^-. ISSUED AT SPECIAL BATES. _ Specimen copies of the new maga^ zinc ■were circulated. in June and Doceinber of last year to several hundred readers, and by tho time tho -first issrin went to press, more- than 2000 blind readers in widoly-separated districts had expressed an interest in the publication. - . Tho magazine is being.issued -to"the blind at special rates much below actual publishing cost, one of the- activities - of the Braille Institute being to" supply; literature to the blind at prices they can afford to pay, and free to those unable to pay anything at-all. On account of limited fnnds. which.-.can bo used for this purpose, tho publishers find it impossible to grant all requests for the magazine at this time, and re^ " gret that many blind readers must be disappointed, temporarily at least. .During 1931, niore than 30,000 volumes of Moon literature were circulated among readers by libraries in'th« • • United States. _ But up to the present time, all this literature has been printed in England; where-the process of embossing from type has been guarded, and for the most = part, Moon literature has been thn ■ work of English authors. The blind in the United States naturally want to read works by American authors as well as the English classics, and especially to read about the latest American events. They have welcomed tho announcement 'of an - American Moon type monthly magazine, reporting current news, and reflecting American opinion. THE FIRST,BOOK. . ! -. The first book to fee printed ..in ~ America in tho Moon type is now Jon* - tho press at the Braill* Institute. The . - work is "Dear Enemy," by Jean "Web- - ster, author o{ Daddy Long-Legs." It I is being published' under contract for - tho Library of Congress,' \ under a - Federal appropriation to, supply, literature to the adult blind. -■ - Tho characters in the Moon, raised alphabet are of great simplicity, near- - ly half of them being recognisable by anybody at first sight, and all' having; -. quick -legibility, under, the fingers of elderly blind' readers who have "not - acquired "the sensitive-" touch- needed for Braille, or who have infirmities in-addi- ' tion to blindness:' •