An Informal Chat About Decorah-Posten
Front page of the first edition of Decorah-Posten. All photos from Decorah-Posten 1867-1897. Used with permission of Anundsen Publishing Company, Decorah, Iowa.
Decorah-Posten, founded by Brynild Anundsen, an immigrant from Skien, Telemark, Norway, is a landmark and long-running success story of immigrant publishing. The first issue of this Norwegian-language newspaper appeared in 1874 and, remarkably, it continued to publish in Norwegian, or bilingually in Norwegian and English, until 1972, when it was purchased by Western Viking.
What follows is B. Anundsen’s own lively account of his first 30 years in publishing, from Decorah-Posten’s less than lucky predecessor, Ved Arnen, through the newspaper’s rocky beginnings and initial successes. Printed in a small commemorative booklet, “Decorah-Posten 1867-1897”—of course in both Norwegian and English-language versions—tells a story animated by Anundsen’s droll humor and captures a time when journalism was often a harrowing, dare-devil profession.
In the years after his narrative ends, the saga of DecorahPosten remained just as exciting and significant. The newspaper was saved from the brink of bankruptcy again in 1899 by the publication of a hugely popular serial, “The Cotter’s Son.” The iconic comic strip “Han Ola og Han Per,” drawn by Peter Julius Rosendahl from 1918 until 1935, was introduced in the Decorah-Posten and remained an exclusive feature of the newspaper. The comic strip was reprinted almost continually until the newspaper ceased publication. During World War II, Decorah-Posten somehow slipped past the Nazi censors of occupied Norway and brought word of the free world to newsstarved Norwegians.
Historian James Hippen brought to our attention this wonderful piece by B. Anundsen on the early years of his historic newspaper, and Vesterheim is proud to reprint it here with the kind permission of Erik Anundsen and Anundsen Publishing Company, Decorah, Iowa. We have maintained many of the original nineteeth-century printing conventions in our version because today they are charming in their own right.—Charlie Langton, Vesterheim Editor
An Informal Chat About Decorah-Posten. By The Publisher. (Translated from the Norwegian.)
HE first paper I attempted to publish was called Ved Arnen (By the Fireside). This was the seed of which Decorah-Posten is the fruit.
In the summer of 1866 I conceived the idea of publishing a literary magazine for Norwegians in America and persuaded a friend and fellowprinter, E. Svendsen by name, to join me, the result being a co-partnership, the chief feature of which was its unvarying dearth of money.
The following advertisement was inserted in Fædrelandet of La Crosse, Wis., and in Skandinaven of Chicago, Ill.:
“Ved
Arnen.”
Beginning with August next, the undersigned will publish a literary magazine, to be issued once a month and called Ved Arnen. It will contain short stories, poems, geographical sketches and items of interest in natural history in popular form , reports of new discoveries, biographies of famous men, anecdotes, etc. Having secured the services of a man whose literary
B. Anundsen.
All photos from Decorah-Posten 1867-1897. Used with permission of Anundsen Publishing Company, Decorah, Iowa.
Mrs. B. Anundsen.
All photos from Decorah-Posten 1867-1897. Used with permission of Anundsen Publishing Company, Decorah, Iowa.
training was obtained in Norway, we hope to be able to offer our readers entertaining selections on a variety of subjects.
The magazine will appear once a month, and will contain thirty-two pages in large octavo, with two columns to the page, with a handsome cover. The regular price will be one dollar a year, or 30 cents for three months. Single copies 12 cents.
Subscriptions may be sent to the publishers. Agents wanted in every locality. For every eight subscribers obtained the agent will get one yearly subscription without charge.
Address,
B.ANUNDSEN VED ARNEN Box 578, E.SVENDSEN LA CROSSE, WIS. La Crosse, June, 1866
Subscribers began coming in, but not in bunches, averaging scarcely one a day. Well do I remember the name of the first subscriber. It was Emil Frøchen, and his post office was Madison, Wis.
My partner soon tired of the business, the subscribers not coming in fast enough to suit him, and he commenced negotiations with another printer, Mr. Trøan, who appeared willing to buy him out. Mr. Svendsen announced to me his determination of retiring and his opportunity to sell to Trøan, but offered to sell to me upon the basis agreed upon between himself and Trøan, namely $7.65, which represented his investment.
I hung out for three month’s time on the deal and finally closed it on these terms.
The magazine had sixty subscribers to begin with, and now began the first of many years of hardship. The first six numbers were set up in the office of Fædrelandet, and most of the work I did myself after the regular working hours. My wife folded, stitched and mailed the magazine. In the spring of 1876 a cousin came to visit me, and he was simple enough to lend me $200; with this money I bought type, although not enough to set up the whole magazine. Of Mr. Mons Anderson, the merchant, I bought a small press, of which the cut on page XVII [see above—Editor] is an improvement. The size of the pages was 4x7, but the press was so small that I could print only two pages at a time. My printing office was in a garret above our dwelling place and the portion of the roof that I could stand upright under was not more than two feet wide and from there sloped downwards. My wife helped me to set up the type and to ink the forms. This last, of course, was done with a hand roller. In the day time the heat in the garret was so intense that the roller melted, and so we had to print the paper after sundown and frequently worked all night. My wife helped faithfully to issue the paper and devoted her energies also to helping to earn money with which to buy the absolute necessaries of life. The income of the business was magnificently meagre. At the end of the first year I had seven hundred subscribers and as I gave so much time to my own publication I had early in the year lost my job in the Fædrelandet office. At this time my wife knit and sold babies’ jackets to help along, but when we got to the point where the
“Page XVIII”: Decorah-Posten’s Reserve Press.
All photos from Decorah-Posten 1867-1897. Used with permission of Anundsen Publishing Company, Decorah, Iowa.
last number of the first year’s issue should appear, it became apparent that to buy the paper to print it on would be an utter impossibility. By the most unremitting work on the part of my wife I was finally enabled after a two week’s postponement of publication to buy enough paper to enable Ved Arnen to make its appearance. My wife helped me devotedly, not only in La Crosse, but also in Decorah, and just as long as her help was necessary. This was many years, and by virtue of her efforts she is more than entitled to a prominent place in the Decorah Posten picture gallery.
I have already mentioned that Emil Frøchen was the first subscriber. More than this, he was the first one to discontinue the paper at the end of three months. Ouch! how that hurt. Receiving discontinuances at that time was like having teeth pulled, but I have learned since that time that a man can get used to almost anything.
The work and worry of the first year was over. Many of my friends advised me, before the last number was printed, to stop publishing Ved Arnen. My wife begged and implored me to give it up. Publisher Fleischer of the Fædrelandet, with the best of intentions, said in his comfortable way: “You are silly, Anundsen, to try to keep the thing going. I can buy your type, you can sell the little press some place, it isn’t worth much anyhow, and you can go to work at the case in the Fædrelandet office. If you persist in your visionary attempt to make anything of value out of your Ved Arnen, you and your wife will both starve to death.” All this was good, practical advice, but notwithstanding, in the last number of the first year appeared the following notice,
“To our subscribers:
This number completes volume one of Ved Arnen. The publisher is happy to state that the magazine in the past year has met with so much favor that its future is assured. As the magazine is to be enlarged, and some new type and borders required for the improvement are to be sent for, the first issue of the second volume will not reach the subscribers until October.’’
The new type and border part was all right, but I had not a dollar, no not five cents to buy with. Nevertheless an order went in for a supply to be sent C. O. D.
That fall a road was being graded between La Crosse, and North La Crosse, and at this work I got a job. Many a heavy load of black loam did I trundle in the three weeks that I labored at this undertaking, but I got $27.00 for my work, and with this money I secured my C. O. D. shipment of new type and borders, and even had a few dollars left with which to buy paper.
About this time the Norwegian Synod had a conference in La Crosse, and at one of the meetings the project of moving their church paper from Madison, Wis., to Decorah, Iowa, was discussed, but as it was conceded that there was not enough work connected with the publication to support even one printer, the idea was about to be dropped. Pastor Estrem, one of the delegates to the convention, was stopping with his brother-in-law, Hjalmar Heyerdahl, and happened to mention this desire on the part of the conference. Heyerdahl imparted to Pastor Estrem that there was a printer in La Crosse owning a few type, who was industriously engaged in starving to death, and would undoubtedly relish doing so in Decorah fully as well as in La Crosse. On Friday, the thirteenth day of December (note the unlucky combination), two well loaded wagons wound their way slowly out of La Crosse with Decorah as their destination, via Spring Grove. The wagons contained Ved Arnen’s type and equipment, the family and household effects and one printer besides myself. We reached Decorah on December 15, 1867. During the first two years I edited Ved Arnen, worked at the compositor’s case, worked the hand press and performed the somewhat menial but exceedingly necessary functions of “Jokum Jokumsen.”
In the fall of 1870 I was compelled to stop publishing Ved Arnen. Couldn’t stand it any longer. The magazine at that time had 1400 subscribers, but there were too many who failed to pay their subscriptions.
In January 1871, the periodical For Hjemmet was established, and I got the job of printing it. I still retained the printing of the church paper, which now appeared twice a month.
September 18, 1874, the first number of DecorahPosten was published.
I have been somewhat circumstantial in relating all this, and I am, perhaps, mistaken when I think these things are of interest to anybody but myself. But if I had not started to publish Ved Arnen, Decorah-Posten might never have appeared, and this would have been a “great misfortune to humanity,” and a “long-felt want” could not possibly have been appeased.
Decorah-Posten, when first foisted on an unsuspecting world, was a little four page creation containing five columns to the page and selling for fifty cents a year. It was intended, as I announced, that it should be a news sheet and an advertising medium for Decorah and vicinity. One thousand copies were scattered every week, and in less than three months we had that many paid subscribers. I will confess that at that time I had not the slightest idea that today Decorah-Posten could have the largest circulation of any Scandinavian publication on the face of the earth. As a matter somewhat incomprehensible, I may mention that in the fall of 1869 I started the publication of a seven column, four page paper that I called Far and Near. I asked but seventy-five cents a year for it, but did not get over seventy-five subscribers and got practically no advertising.
In the fall of 1877 the Synod, whose printing had grown to a considerable magnitude, started a publishing house of its own, and there I was again on my uppers. Decorah-Posten was not yet self-supporting. The manager of the Synod publishing enterprise prophesied that my career would close with the winter, and he expected to fall heir to DecorahPosten through the intervention of a sheriff’s sale. It was at this juncture that I did the hard work of my life, frequently toiling from six in the morning until ten or eleven at night, it having been my custom until within the last four or five years to open my mail at home after 6 o’clock. My wife assisted me in this work also, she opening the letters and taking out the contents. She took especial pleasure in counting the money. But then she was rewarded off and on with a dime, and when the mail “was very good,” a quarter quite often found its way into her lap.
The result of the year 1877 was a net loss of $465. The outlook was anything but flattering. It had been difficult, hitherto, to see where the means of subsistence had come from, but nevertheless we had lived. Now I was at the outmost rim of my circle of resources. What should, or rather, what could be done? I figured and figured and at last reached the conclusion that Decorah-Posten would have to be enlarged and improved again. Two weeks later this improvement was manifested. The bluff went. People concluded at last that Posten had come to stay and that year it paid for itself and supplied us with food and some clothes. From that year until 1884 about the only variety I experienced was the quantity of hard luck I met. Some days I met less and some days more and every time I saw a constable or a lawyer coming in my direction I thought the jig was up. The business was growing, but its very growth forced me for several years into steadily deepening water. But the situation was bettering, and when finally the story Husmandsgutten appeared, that together with various improvements which I had long had in mind without the where-with-al to carry into effect, turned the tide most decidedly in my favor. I shall never forget the night in January 1884 when the opening of the mail showed
Editorial Room.
All photos from Decorah-Posten 1867-1897. Used with permission of Anundsen Publishing Company, Decorah, Iowa.
me eighty-one new subscribers. That night I slept with the comforting conviction that the battle was won
There were two other successful ventures that helped me that year.
A few years before, my wife had bought a colored chart, illustrating by means of pictures the Lord’s Prayer and the Ten Commandments, the text being in English. As soon as I saw it I made up my mind that a Norwegian edition of the same would make an excellent premium with Decorah-Posten. I wrote at once to the publishers inquiring the price, and was informed that 5000 copies would cost $1300. That was beyond me. But in 1884 I again broached this subject with the same firm and was then quoted 10,000 copies for less than they had four years previously asked for 5000 copies. Apparently the publishers did not refer to our former correspondence as to price, and of course it did not occur to me to allude to it. The pictures were ready in November, I advertised them as suitable for Christmas presents, and sold enough of them the first winter to pay for the whole edition.
In all 30,000 of these handsome pictures have been distributed. The same year I sold also 2,300 Waterbury watches, and many of these are doing service even today. These watches were good and kept correct time, but much patience was required to wind them. The approved way of doing this was to press the stem down on the top of a board fence and to then run about two rods.
Decorah-Posten has continually grown in favor with the reading public. The growth of the paper to its present magnitude has been gradual and has probably escaped the notice of many subscribers, but scarcely one year of the twentytwo has passed without visible improvement in one way or another, as to both size and contents. In any business, and particularly in the newspaper business, if you are not improving you are retrograding. Decorah-Posten has not halted, but always marched onward. In 1885 Ved Arnen was issued as a supplement to Decorah-Posten, thirty-two small pages every month, later it was made an eight-page weekly supplement, and still later this has been increased to sixteen pages.
Decorah-Posten’s Home.
All photos from Decorah-Posten 1867-1897. Used with permission of Anundsen Publishing Company, Decorah, Iowa.
satisfaction of including them. The number which follows every individual’s name indicates how long that person has been connected with the Posten, and it will be seen that the large majority can look back to from ten to twenty-eight years of uninterrupted cooperation with my efforts.
Few of our readers have any idea of the amount of work requisite to placing the paper before our subscribers. Only a few stop to consider the large number of little type utilized for each issue, how much paper is needed, or how much ink and other necessaries are required. One evening when at leisure this occurred to me, and I made a few calculations. Some of our readers may be interested in the result.
Every week about 475,000 type or letters are set up for Decorah-Posten and Ved Arnen, or almost 25,000,000 a year. In this number are included the spaces between each word. These type are in big cases, containing one hundred and fifty small divisions, one inch deep, and each letter or sign has its proper place. The average type-setter will set between 10,000 and 14,000 type in a day. But most of DecorahPosten is now set up by machine.
By the representation on page XVII [see page 19—Editor] can be seen that the paper to be printed is in the form of a roll suspended at the rear end of the press. There are four miles of paper on every roll. The press prints, folds and trims nine thousand papers every hour, and the paper races off of the roll at the rate of seven miles an hour. Posten appears on Tuesdays and Fridays and we use fifty-six miles of paper a week or over 2,900 miles a year. This amounts to 8,650 pounds a week, or 450,000 pounds a year. The post-office department charges us one cent a pound for transmission and this costs $86.50 a week, or $4,500 a year. Of Decorah-Posten and its accompanying supplement Ved Arnen, we print 5,460,000 impressions a year, and this number of sheets laid side by side would cover 41,861,000 square feet or nine hundred and sixty acres.
A little ink will go a long ways, but when it comes to furnishing it for Decorah-Posten, we buy 4,000 pounds a year, and as the sheets are printed on both, sides, these 4,000 pounds are spread over a surface of 1,920 acres.
I shall not trouble my readers by recounting in detail how much labor and effort I have expended in making the business what it is. Suffice it to say that I did business for seventeen years without opening a bank account. Money reached no further than my vest pocket. The sheriff and constables saw to that.
This little souvenier [sic] was gotten out with the idea of giving the distant readers of Decorah-Posten some idea of how the institution looks to a casual visitor. Most of the pictures are taken by flash light and, of course, fall far short of perfection. However, the booklet serves its intended purpose fairly well.
Undoubtedly it is an innovation to present to the general public likenesses of all the operatives of such a plant as this, but most of my assistants, in every department, are so closely identified with Posten, they have been interested in its success for so many years, our mutual relations are so cordial, and withal, they are so well favored in respect to intelligence, ability and appearance that I could not deny myself the
Decorah-Posten was the first Scandinavian publishing house in this country to install a so-called Web Press, and in 1889 we set up the one of which a picture appears on page XVIII [see page 20—Editor]. As the circulation of Posten increased, this press became too slow to give complete satisfaction, and a year and a half ago we bought the new Scott Perfecting Press, a cut of which will be found on page XVII [see page 19—Editor]. The press which was superceded by this last machine is set up in another part of town, ready to run at a moment’s notice, so that the advent of disaster to the main establishment, such as fire etc., would in no way defer the prompt appearance of Decorah-Posten, the branch establishment being complete enough with steam-boiler and engine and all the necessary type to enable us to get the paper out on time. To some this might appear to be an unnecessarily expensive precaution, but it must be remembered that Decorah is a small city which could afford us no assistance were our main establishment crippled, and if it were destroyed, two or three months would scarcely enable us to get sufficient equipment on the ground to again issue Posten, hence, the branch.
With heartiest wishes for the well-fare of the subscribers and readers of Decorah-Posten—Adieu.