ormal and informal surveys of Adventist Review readers always reveal the same fact: The "Letters" section is significantly the "first-read" and the "best-read" part of the magazine. Many readers suppose that this favorite feature has always been a prominent part of the Review.
The first "letter to the editor" appeared in the Present Truth magazine (forerunner of the Adventist Review) in September 1849, when the journal was only a few weeks old. "I would just suggest the propriety, if your means will admit of it," wrote J. C. Bowles, of Jackson, Michigan, "of having your sheet enlarged sufficient to insert extracts of the letters you may receive from the brethren who have or may receive the message, for no doubt you will have many such. I have two reasons for the above suggestion. First, it will be comforting to those who have received it, to hear of others. Second, it may induce some to examine the subject, that would not otherwise; but do as the Lord shall direct."
James White was quick to recognize the wisdom of Bowles' suggestion, and letters became a regular and prominent part of the magazine that developed into the Advent Review and Sabbath Herald (now the Adventist Review). In many ways the magazine served as a bulletin board for scattered and isolated believers in the Sabbath and the Second Advent, and successfully welded them into a cohesive group during the decade of the 1850s. Getting your letter in the hands of the editor wasn't always easy, though: one 1850 edition gave three successive post office addresses to which correspondence should be sent to keep up with the traveling editor.
By the late 1860s, however, resident editor Uriah Smith had replaced the Letters section with "Progress of the Cause" news items and short updates from denominational leaders. Letters about Review articles were certainly received by the editor, but only rarely referred to in the magazine.
Through the early decades of the twentieth century the magazine published thousands of items gleaned from letters written by missionaries, church planters, denominational officers, and some laypersons-but almost never in response to its published articles. In the September 1, 1966, edition-almost exactly a century after the Letters feature had disappeared-new editor Kenneth Wood reintroduced a regular feature entitled "Letters From Our Readers," and predictably, it soared in popularity.
Except for special themed issues and General Conference Bulletin issues, all weekly editions of the Adventist Review today carry a robust "Letters" section.
