Reader's Digest Press was a United States publisher of the mid-1960s to early 1980s, owned by The Reader's Digest Association. It published full-length, original non-fiction books, often concerning military or political topics. (It thus differed from the better-known

Reader's Digest Condensed Books ''Reader's Digest Condensed Books'' was a series of hardcover anthology collections, published by the American general interest monthly family magazine ''Reader's Digest'' and distributed by direct mail. Most volumes contained five (although a ...

.) Its works were sometimes distributed by Thomas Y. Crowell Co. Books published by Reader's Digest Press include ''Secrets & Spies: Behind the Scenes Stories of World War II'' in 1964. Covering the war from the

Pearl Harbor attack The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii, ...

of December 7, 1941, to

Japan's surrender The surrender of the Empire of Japan in World War II was announced by Emperor Hirohito on 15 August and formally signed on 2 September 1945, bringing the war's hostilities to a close. By the end of July 1945, the Imperial Japanese Navy ( ...

on August 15, 1945, this collection of espionage accounts and anecdotes included pieces by

Walter Lord John Walter Lord Jr. (October 8, 1917 – May 19, 2002) was an American author, lawyer, copywriter and popular historian best known for his 1955 account of the sinking of the RMS ''Titanic'', '' A Night to Remember''. Biography Early life Lor ...

, Edwin Muller, Gordon W. Prange and others, and illustrations by

Paul Calle Paul Calle (pronounced KAL-ee; March 3, 1928 – December 30, 2010) was an American artist who was best known for the designs he created for postage stamps, including 40 that were released by the United States Postal Service, and others for s ...

and Guy Deel. Individual stories include "The Hunt for a Spy" and "Hitler's Undercover Invasion", accounts of German attempts at espionage inside the United States; "Jungle of Hidden Friends," a narrative of OSS agents who coalesced native Burmese warriors against Japanese forces in Burma; and "The Great Ambush", the story of the behind-the-lines battle for

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

's freedom from

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

dominion. Other topics explored include

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It i ...

's secret transportation of its gold reserves to

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

in the threat of a German invasion; narrow escapes, such as the Great Escape from a German POW camp; and the repair of a crashed fighter plane by a company of

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

-marooned American airmen for one final mission against Japan.''Secrets & Spies''

amazon.com Amazon.com, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational technology company focusing on e-commerce, cloud computing, online advertising, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence. It has been referred to as "one of the most influential econo ...

References

Companies with year of establishment missing Companies with year of disestablishment missing 1970s establishments in the United States 1980s disestablishments in the United States Publishing companies established in the 1970s Defunct book publishing companies of the United States Publishing companies disestablished in the 1980s

Press Press may refer to: Media * Print media or news media, commonly called "the press" * Printing press, commonly called "the press" * Press (newspaper), a list of newspapers * Press TV, an Iranian television network People * Press (surname), a fam ...

{{US-publish-company-stub

See also

References