The Press: Rose-Colored Geography

The National Geographic Society, which finances scientific discovery, prints maps, and publishes the National Geographic Magazine, is the least exclusive, farthest flung and most improbable nonprofit publishing corporation in the world. Last year it sponsored an expedition to South America in search of the world's largest ant (longer than 1 in.), underwrote a dozen other scientific projects around the globe, printed 17.5 million maps, and gained 125,000 members, to bring total circulation to 2,440,000. The Magazine (a word customarily capitalized by the society) sends 849 copies to Uganda and Kenya, 57 to Broken Bow, Neb., 73 to North Borneo, and one...