The following essay discusses Dewitt Wallace and his wife, Lila Wallace.

Together DeWitt and Lila Wallace founded a magazine that would reach the largest readership in world history and created the world's greatest publishing empire. Reader's Digest

would gain a circulation of more than thirty million and be read by an estimated one hundred million people in a Babel of languages throughout much of the world. The magazine, in turn, would spawn other enterprises, including a hugely successful book-publishing division and the nation's largest book club. DeWitt and Lila Wallace not only made millions of dollars, they also gave away millions to enrich the lives of others.

Both were approaching their thirty-second birthday when they married after a two-day courtship; then they were together for nearly sixty years until DeWitt's death in 1981 at the age of ninety-one; Lila died three years later at the age of ninety-four. Time...