Lila Acheson Wallace orig. Lila Bell Acheson
born Nov. 12, 1889, St. Paul, Minn., U.S.
died March 30, 1981, Mount Kisco, N.Y.
born Dec. 25, 1889, Virden, Man., Can.
died May 8, 1984, Mount Kisco
U.S. publishers and founders of Reader's Digest magazine.
DeWitt Wallace began an index of favourite magazine articles while he was a college student, and he developed the idea of a pocket-sized digest of popular articles while recuperating from wounds suffered in World War I. Lila Acheson, a minister's daughter, worked in social services during the war. The two were married in 1921. After various publishers rejected the digest idea, they began publishing Reader's Digest themselves on a low budget and had rapid success. DeWitt Wallace served as editor until 1965. They had no heirs but supported numerous philanthropic causes; the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund has been a major benefactor of the arts and culture.