Local historical researcher Kevin Savick has been giving me material from time to time which has resulted in some interesting articles and columns based on this area’s past.

Not long ago Kevin gave me a Tribune article about a local lad which said he was “probably” the world’s youngest editor. Please note that I used the Tribune’s word probably to describe this particular lad who was just 13 years old, according to this article dated Feb. 15, 1944.

This lad’s name was James Bourne and he was the son of Mr. and Mrs. Harry Bourne who then lived at 512 Park Ave.

Right at this point allow me to comment about a stupid newspaper policy of that era. This young lad, who went by the name of Jim, had a father and mother. However, this Mr. and Mrs. foolishness effectively eliminated the first names of the wives and mothers. Anyway, I did a little research and found out Jim’s mother’s first name was Margaret. This same research in a city directory said his father, Harry, was a buyer for the local Wilson and Co. plant in 1944.

This particular news article described how 13-year-old Jim prepared and published his small monthly named “The Town Talker.”

The entire operation was based in Jim’s bedroom. He had a desk and three printing presses. One was used for the newspaper and two were for smaller publications then called handbills. Those handbills were likely advertising or publicity announcements for neighborhood events. He also had 22,000 letters of type in various sizes and 185 illustrations.

By more modern standards with computers, spell checkers, printers and other gimmicks, Jim’s publishing operations were toy-like and rather crude.

Jim had to create the information to be featured in his newspaper, set the type, and then print each copy of his publication on a small press which could have ranked as a glorified toy. Anyway, it took Jim about 15 days to prepare his four- to six-page monthly newspaper.

I have no idea as to how large a copy of The Town Talker was. It could have been based on a sheet of letter-size paper. If this 11-by-8 1/2 inch sheet is folded in half to become 5 1/2-by-8 1/2 inch in size, then print on each side would result in a four-page newspaper. An additional half-size page of paper could result in a six-page publication. Again, what I’m conjuring up here is my guess as to the size of Jim’s newspaper.

The February 1944 Tribune article said Jim’s newspaper was in its second year of publication and had a circulation of 175 copies. Some of these copies went to neighbors in this part of the city, plus subscribers elsewhere in Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana and Iceland.

Now the Minnesota and Iowa part is understandable, but where do those other states, plus Iceland, fit in? The answer is based on the nation being involved in World War II during 1944. It’s likely local members of the armed forces stationed in those other states, plus Iceland, enjoyed having this added news from their hometown.

It can assumed that Jim personally delivered some copies of his newspaper to local subscribers. It can also be logically assumed that the folks in other localities, plus Iceland, received their copies of The Town Talker by mail.

The Tribune article said, “He has been at this hobby for four years and prints commercial handbills, Red Cross and Boy Scout material and (World War II) war bond and stamp advertisements.”

This was followed with a direct quote from Jim himself who commented, “There’s nothing I’d rather do than publish patriotic material to win this war. That’s why I name this the Victory Press.”

In the next column we’ll have even more information from another Tribune article about James Bourne and his small neighborhood newspaper, The Town Talker, plus several special requests or challenges for our readers.

Ed Shannon’s column has been appearing in the Tribune every Friday since December 1984.