'fess up now

I find it hard to believe that many readers of the confession magazines in 1979 bought this interesting paperback. Would teenagers and young adults be interested in reprints of stories stretching back to the 1920s only to discover that the formulae hadn't changed a bit over the decades.

I think it probably sold more copies to social historians interested in down-market popular culture. As a publication designer I found it fascinating mainly because of the visual content. Someone at the publishers had the clever idea of not only reprinting the stories but presenting them with the original photos, layouts with period headline type and best of all the ads, probably more than a hundred. The pages are bit smaller than the original magazines but other than that you could be reading the real thing (though the paper was a bit better than this reprint).

The book has six chapters: from the 1920s to the 1970s. Each has a minimum of four stories, some decades have more and it includes reader problem pages and poems. I found it an interesting look back though for me it was essentially a visual one.

Incidentally, I don't think the book is worth much and I've seen some high prices but also some really low ones. It's worth checking out several online sellers.