1940s: Print Culture

World War II (1939–45) dominated serious print media from 1939 until most of the last troops returned from Europe in 1946. American newspapers and magazines focused intently on bringing news from the front to the doorsteps of almost every American. Stories and photographs of soldiers and battles filled most of the papers' pages. Thirty-seven American reporters and other newspeople died while trying to get their stories during the war.

Even though the news of the war was the most important topic of the decade, the 1940s was also the golden age of the comic book. Comic strips had tickled the funny bones of readers since 1890, and comic books now offered entertainment in their own package. Aimed mostly at young readers, comic books about superheroes like the Green Lantern and Captain America, about detectives, and about just plain funny characters such as the kids in the Archie Comics were printed in abundance.

Unlike in other decades, young readers could find many magazines, comic books, and books written specifically for them. Golden Books offered the youngest children colorful picture books. Highlights magazine offered educational reading entertainment. Seventeen gave advice on teenage life to young women. The Bobbsey Twins and Cherry Ames characters entertained young readers in their series of books.

With the rise of comic books and other reading materials for young people and the increase in paperback books for adults, the pulp magazines that were dominant in the 1920s and 1930s lost their appeal. The pulps lost writers to book publishers and comic books. Sales of racy, longer stories in paperback proved too damaging to many pulps to continue publication. Throughout the decade, fewer and fewer pulps could remain in print. By the 1950s, the pulps had virtually disappeared, with the exception of a small number of detective, science fiction, and fantasy magazines.