NATIONAL MAGAZINE

For almost four years now the Regional Review has run a smooth and steady course toward prominence in national and state park affairs. It was started in Richmond in 1938, shortly after the new regionalization program combined 23 eastern states into Region One.

Hugh Awtrey, Editor of the Regional Review from its first appearance until a few months ago when he was called from the National Park Service back into the Navy to do his bit toward helping Uncle Sam through these troubled times, brought this magazine from its conception to its present high station among the interesting and valuable scientific publications in the country. Today the Regional Review ranks among the leaders of its field in the nation.

During the years of its existence many requests have come in from colleges, libraries and individuals for reprints of articles and stories. The mailing list of The Review has grown into most of the states and many foreign nations. Each month a copy goes to Ecuador and another to Lucknow, India.

Now the Regional Review is growing in more ways than one. For some time there has been a proposal to combine the Region Three Quarterly with the Regional Review, invite the other two regions to participate and create out of these two papers a new and larger magazine which would be national in both scope and importance. This proposal which had the approval of Park Service officials generally, was hammered into line for definite action at a meeting of the Regional Directors in San Francisco several months ago. There the idea was discussed and agreed upon by Mr. Drury, National Park Service Director and his regional chiefs. Thus where the two magazines had covered only the east and southwest, the new proposed publication was designed to touch parks and recreation wherever the American flag was flown.

In view of this change, this issue will probably be the last appearance of the Regional Review as a review of events and features and activities in the eastern United States. Many of us who have followed it closely and who have watched it grow from a foundling under the capable and guiding hand of Hugh Awtrey, will be glad to see it blossom into a wider field of usefulness. This does not mean that either the Region Three Quarterly or the Regional Review will discontinue in any manner to serve where they have served before. It is the thought of those who proposed this change that the two magazines may be able to serve more forcefully and more comprehensively as a single unit with the combined efforts of all the regions.

As yet, this new literary member to American letters has not been given a name. A number of names have been suggested, but none has been declared suitable. The editors of this new publication have offered a gander egg, which they hope is in no manner prophetic, to any individual, group or corporation suggesting the proper name for this magazine.