us. Only ten years after Edward Cave had founded _The Gentleman’s
Magazine_ in London (1731), Andrew Bradford and Benjamin Franklin
founded in Philadelphia the first monthly magazines in America. Of
Bradford’s venture, _The American Magazine_, edited by John Webbe,
only three numbers appeared; while Franklin published only six numbers
of _The General Magazine_. In the course of the century several
others appeared, among them _The American Magazine and Historical
Chronicle_ (Boston, 1743-1746); _The Independent Reflector_ (New
York, 1752-1753), among whose contributors were Governor William
Livingston, John Morin Scott, and Aaron Burr; _The American Magazine_
(Philadelphia, 1757-1758, revived in 1769), which Professor Tyler calls
“by far the most admirable example of our literary periodicals in the
colonial time,” edited by Rev. William Smith, first provost of the
College of Philadelphia; _The New American Magazine_ (Woodbridge, New
Jersey, 1758-1760), edited by S. Nevil; _The Royal American Magazine_
(Boston, 1774-1775); _The Pennsylvania Magazine_ (Philadelphia,
1775-1776), edited by Thomas Paine, to which articles were sent by
Francis Hopkinson, John Witherspoon, and William Smith; _The Columbian
Magazine_ (Philadelphia, 1786-1790), edited at first by Matthew Carey
and later by Alexander J. Dallas, and changed in 1790 to _The Universal
Asylum_ (1790-1792; to this Benjamin Rush was a faithful contributor);
_The American Museum_ (Philadelphia, 1787-1792, 1798), for which Carey
abandoned _The Columbian_ and which was “the first really successful
literary undertaking of the kind in America”; _The Massachusetts
Magazine_ (Boston, 1789-1796); _The New York Magazine_ (1790-1797);
_The Farmers’ Museum_ (Walpole, New Hampshire, 1793-1799), of which
Joseph Dennie, the editor from 1796 to 1799, boasted that “it is read
by more than two thousand individuals, and has its patrons in Europe
and on the banks of the Ohio”; and _The Monthly Magazine and American
Review_ (New York, 1799-1800), founded by Charles Brockden Brown, and
carried on in 1801-1802 as _The American Review and Literary Journal_.
But the reading public of those days was small, and other conditions
were unfavourable to publishers; in consequence, almost none of these
publications lived into the next century.
=The Nineteenth Century.=--Of the literary magazines established
before 1850, only one or two have survived. Yet we now begin to see
the periodicals exhibiting greater vitality; and gradually they come
to deal more and more with native literature and to exhibit a greater
self-reliance on the part of American writers. The first half of the
century was the period in which the national spirit took deep root and
made rapid growth; and this national spirit is fully reflected in the
literature of the time.
In 1801 Joseph Dennie and John Dickins began to publish, in
Philadelphia, _The Port Folio_, which was destined to live for
twenty-six years. Among its contributors were John Blair Linn, author
of “The Powers of Genius,” “The Death of Washington,” etc.; Robert
H. Rose, author of “Sketches in Verse”; John Sanderson, who wrote a
book of Parisian sketches entitled “The American in Paris”; Alexander
Graydon; Gouverneur Morris; Joseph Hopkinson, author of “Hail,
Columbia,” and of articles on Shakespeare; and Alexander Wilson, poet
and ornithologist, whose works were edited by Alexander B. Grosart
(Paisley, Scotland, 1876).
From 1803 to 1811, the Anthology Club maintained in Boston a sprightly
magazine called _The Anthology and Boston Review_. The best minds of
Boston contributed to it; among them George Ticknor, William Tudor,
Joseph Buckminster, John Quincy Adams, Dr. John Sylvester, Edward
Everett, and John Gardiner. The magazine never paid expenses; but the
contributors cheerfully paid for their pleasure. The club did much to
give Boston its literary prestige, and was the forerunner of the famous
Boston Athenæum.
_The Literary Magazine and American Register_ (Philadelphia, 1803-1808)
was likewise founded by the novelist Brown, who published therein,
among other things, his “Memoirs of Carwin, the Biloquist.”
Washington Irving began his literary career with the publication of
_Salmagundi_, which he founded in New York in 1807, in conjunction with
his brother William and James Kirke Paulding. The little sheet, in
yellow covers, was issued by an eccentric publisher, David Longworth,
the front of whose house was entirely hidden by a colossal painting of
the crowning of Shakespeare. The magazine was modelled after Addison’s
_Spectator_. Paulding was Launcelot Langstaff and Irving was Pindar
Cockloft, the poet. “Our intention,” wrote the editors, “is simply to
instruct the young, reform the old, correct the town, and castigate
the age; this is an arduous task, and therefore we undertake it with
confidence.” The work soon became popular throughout the United
States for its clever reproductions of society foibles. After twenty
numbers, however, it was discontinued, because, as Paulding said, “the
publisher, with that liberality so characteristic of these modern
Mæcenases, declined to concede to us a share of the profits, which had
become considerable.” Twelve years later, Irving being then in Europe,
Paulding attempted a second series (Philadelphia, May to August, 1820),
which, though inferior to the first series, still contained some
interesting pages.
_The Select Reviews and Spirit of the Foreign Magazines_, begun by
Samuel Ewing in Philadelphia (1809), later became _The Analectic
Magazine_ (1812-1821). In 1813-1814 Irving was its editor and
contributed to it some biographies of heroes of the War of 1812 and
some of the essays afterwards collected in “The Sketch Book.” Other
contributors were Gulian C. Verplanck, James K. Paulding, Alexander
Wilson, and William Darlington. _The Analectic_ published in July,
1819, the first lithograph made in America.
_The Portico_ (Baltimore, 1815-1819) numbered among its contributors
John Neal, whose lengthy review of Byron appeared as a serial. Neal
continued to write for _The Portico_ “until he knocked it on the head,
it is thought, by an article on Free Agency.”
_The Idle Man_ (New York, 1821-1822) was edited by Richard H. Dana the
elder; in it were printed his novels “Tom Thornton” and “Paul Felton”
and some contributions from Bryant and from Washington Allston.
_The New York Mirror_, a weekly, was begun in 1823 by General George
P. Morris and Samuel Woodworth, the author of “The Old Oaken Bucket.”
Woodworth soon gave way to Theodore S. Fay and he in turn (1831)
to Nathaniel P. Willis. Morris and Willis conducted it with great
success until 1842. Fay contributed “The Little Genius,” satirical
letters on New York society, and “The Minute Book,” letters from
Europe. Willis spent some years abroad as foreign correspondent of the
paper (1832-1836), his letters being eagerly read and widely copied.
Morris and Willis subsequently conducted _The New Mirror_ (New York,
1843-1844), which in October, 1844, became a daily, and _The Home
Journal_ (New York, from 1846 on), which as _Town and Country_ still
continues.
_The Atlantic Magazine_ (New York, 1824-1825), edited by Robert C.
Sands, was continued till 1826 as _The New York Review and Athenæum
Magazine_. In its later form it was edited by Henry J. Anderson and
William Cullen Bryant. In it appeared many of Bryant’s poems and some
of his prose, as well as contributions by Longfellow, Dana, Willis,
Bancroft, and Caleb Cushing. In March, 1826, the _Review_ was merged
with _The New York Literary Gazette_. In July this was in turn combined
with _The United States Literary Gazette_, which had been founded in
Boston in 1825 and edited by Theophilus Parsons, the new title being
_The United States Review and Literary Gazette_. James G. Carter, and
later Charles Folsom, were the Boston editors, and Bryant was the New
York editor. The periodical did not long survive.
_The American Monthly Magazine_ (New York, 1829-1831) was established
and edited by Nathaniel P. Willis, who enlisted a number of younger
writers, such as Richard Hildreth, Park Benjamin, Isaac McLellan,
Albert Pike (“Hymns to the Gods”), Rufus Dawes, and Mrs. Sigourney.
In 1831 the _Magazine_ was absorbed by _The New York Mirror_, of which
Willis now became an associate editor.
_The Illinois Monthly Magazine_ (Vandalia, Illinois, 1830-1832), edited
and mainly written by James Hall, was the earliest literary publication
in the West; it was superseded by _The Western Monthly Magazine_
(Cincinnati, 1833-1836), edited by Timothy Flint.
One of the most popular of the Philadelphia magazines was _Godey’s
Lady’s Book_ (1830-1877), which as early as 1859 circulated 98,500
copies, and which published compositions by Paulding, Park Benjamin,
Holmes, Irving, Poe, Bayard Taylor, Longfellow, Harriet Beecher Stowe,
Simms, Willis, Buchanan Read, Thomas Dunn English, and Lydia H.
Sigourney. Poe’s contribution on “The Literati of New York,” published
in its columns in 1846, created a great sensation at the time. For
more than thirty years _Godey’s_ was edited by Mrs. Sarah J. Hale, who
is also famous as the author of “Mary had a little lamb,” and through
whose exertions our national Thanksgiving Day was secured.
_The New England Magazine_, established in Boston in 1831 by Joseph
T. and Edwin Buckingham, published contributions from Hildreth, Park
Benjamin, Whittier, Holmes (who published here the first two papers,
never by authority reprinted, of his “Autocrat” series), Longfellow,
William and Andrew Peabody, George S. Hillard (“Literary Portraits” and
“Selections from the Papers of an Idler”), and other eminent writers.
In 1835 Park Benjamin took it to New York and continued it till 1838 as
_The American Monthly Magazine_.
_The North American Quarterly Magazine_ (Philadelphia, 1833-1838)
was conducted by Sumner Lincoln Fairfield, author of “The Cities of
the Plain,” and of an unpublished poem, “The Last Night of Pompeii”
(finished in 1830), from which he alleged that Bulwer, to whom he sent
the manuscript, stole the plot of his “Last Days of Pompeii.”
Much more successful was _The Knickerbacker or New-York Monthly
Magazine_, founded in the same year and quietly changed with the
seventh number to _The Knickerbocker_. The founder was Charles Fenno
Hoffman, who edited three numbers. Some contributors were Harry Franco,
Bryant, Irving (“Crayon Papers”), Longfellow, Lewis Gaylord Clark (for
a time the editor), William L. Stone, the brothers Duyckinck, Frederick
S. Cozzens, Simms, Park Benjamin, John L. Stephens (letters from
Egypt), and Parkman (“The Oregon Trail”). With some exceptions it must
be said that the contents of _The Knickerbocker_ were not of very great
merit; and in its later years there were too many stories on the order
of “Carl Almendinger’s Office, or, The Mysteries of Chicago,” which
ran as a serial in 1862. In 1864 the title was _The American Monthly
Knickerbocker_, and from July till October, 1865, when publication was
suspended, the title was _The Fœderal American_.
_The Southern Literary Messenger_, published monthly at Richmond,
Virginia, between 1834 and 1864, exerted a marked influence upon the
literary taste of the whole South. In it were first published many
of Poe’s stories and criticisms, and he was the editor of the second
volume. Other contributors were Paulding, Park Benjamin, John W.
Draper, Willis, Henry C. Lea, R. H. Stoddard, Simms, John B. Dabney,
Matthew F. Maury, Philip Pendleton, and John Esten Cooke, Henry Timrod,
Paul H. Hayne, Aldrich, Moncure D. Conway, Thomas Dunn English, John P.
Kennedy, James Barron Hope (“Henry Ellen”), and W. Gordon McCabe.
In 1837 William E. Burton, the comedian, established in Philadelphia
_The Gentleman’s Magazine_ to do for his sex what _Godey’s_ was doing
for the ladies. Beginning with July, 1839, Poe became joint editor.
The next year Burton sold out to George R. Graham, who combined
the magazine with _The Casket_ (begun by Samuel Coate Atkinson in
1827) to form _Graham’s Lady’s and Gentleman’s Magazine_. For years
_Graham’s_ was the most famous and truly national periodical in
America. Graham understood the reading public as did few other men. He
paid contributors liberally for those days, and collected a brilliant
list of writers, including every name well known in letters at the
time except Irving, who confined himself to _The Knickerbocker_. To
_Graham’s_ Longfellow contributed his “Spanish Student,” “Childhood,”
“The Builders,” “The Belfry of Bruges,” “The Arsenal at Springfield,”
“Nuremberg,” etc. Poe contributed “The Mask of the Red Death,” “The
Murders in the Rue Morgue,” “The Conqueror Worm,” “Life in Death,” and
some minor pieces. Here were first published also many of Hawthorne’s
“Twice-Told Tales.” Simms, Paulding, Geo. H. Boker, Henry W. Herbert,
Robert T. Conrad, E. P. Whipple, and John G. Saxe were “principal
contributors.” Lowell and Bayard Taylor were editorial writers. Cooper
received $1800, then a very high price, for “The Islets of the Gulf, or
Rose Budd,” later republished as “Jack Tier, or The Florida Reefs,” and
$1000 for a series of biographies of distinguished naval commanders.
Nathaniel P. Willis wrote much between 1843 and 1851. In 1852, Graham
boasted that in the decade previous he had paid American contributors
between eighty and ninety thousand dollars. The circulation of the
magazine for a long time was 40,000 copies. About 1854 Graham sold
out. In competition with _Harper’s_ and _Putnam’s_, _Graham’s_ soon
declined. In 1859 its name was changed to _The American Monthly_, and
it quickly disappeared.
In 1839 Willis began, in connection with Dr. T. O. Porter, to issue a
weekly, _The Corsair_, from the basement of the Astor House, New York.
Willis was the chief writer, contributing romantic stories, dramatic
criticism, letters from Europe entitled “Jottings Down in London,”
and gossip. While in England he met Thackeray, whom he induced to
contribute eight letters. In all, fifty-two numbers were printed, the
last dated March 7, 1840.
The Transcendental Movement, which will be discussed elsewhere, found
expression in 1840 in a Boston quarterly called _The Dial_, which
flourished till 1844, and which was edited successively by George
Ripley, Margaret Fuller, and Emerson. The last contributed more than
thirty prose articles and poems, among them “The Conservative,”
“Chardon Street and Bible Convention,” “The Transcendentalist,” and
in verse “The Problem,” “The Sphinx,” and “Woodnotes.” Bronson Alcott
sent his “Orphic Sayings,” the mystery of some of which has never been
fathomed. Other writers were Theodore Parker, George Ripley, Thoreau,
James Freeman Clarke, William H. and William Ellery Channing, Eliot
Cabot, John S. Dwight, Christopher P. Cranch, Mrs. Ellen Hooper, and
Charles A. Dana. “Conceived and carried on in a spirit of boundless
hope and enthusiasm,” the magazine encountered much ridicule among the
Philistines. _The Knickerbocker_ said of the first number:
It is to be devoted to that refinement upon common-sense
literature, just now so much in vogue at the East; which, like the
memorable science of Sir Piercie Shafton, shall indoctrinate the
dull in intellectuality, the vulgar in nobility, and give that
“unutterable perfection of human utterance”; that eloquence which
no other eloquence is sufficient to praise; that art which, in
fine, when we call it _literary Euphuism_, we bestow upon it its
richest panegyric.
Yet in spite of such strictures, the contents of _The Dial_ are now
immensely significant of the social agitation then going on in New
England; and much of its matter has become a part of our permanent
literature.
_The New World_, a large weekly established in New York by Park
Benjamin (1840-1845), reprinted much from the English magazines, but
included also contributions from Epes and John Osborne Sargent, James
Aldrich, Herbert, Charles Lanman, Edward S. Gould, Charles Eames
(editor for a time), and John Jay. George P. Putnam, the publisher, was
for some years its London correspondent.
It was in _Peterson’s Ladies’ National Magazine_ (a fashion journal
begun in Philadelphia in 1841) that Frances Hodgson Burnett published
her first story, “Ethel’s Sir Lancelot” (November, 1868). The magazine,
long popular among readers of light literature, was a few years since
merged with _The Argosy_.
_The Union Magazine_ (New York, 1847-1848), edited by Mrs. Caroline
M. Kirkland, was bought by John Sartain, the engraver, and William
Sloanaker, who had withdrawn from the managership of _Graham’s_, and
reappeared in Philadelphia (1849-1852) as _Sartain’s Union Magazine of
Literature and Art_, attaining great popularity. It published works by
Longfellow (“The Blind Girl of Castel Cuillé,” “Resignation”), Boker,
Mrs. Sigourney, Lucy Larcom, Henry T. Tuckerman, Poe (“The Bells”),
Park Benjamin, R. H. Stoddard, and Charles G. Leland.
_Harper’s New Monthly Magazine_ (New York), established by the Messrs.
Harper in June, 1850, has long enjoyed a deservedly large circulation.
For a considerable time it contained chiefly articles, especially
fiction, reprinted from English periodicals. In later years it has
included much more from American writers, and its contents have in
general been of a high order of merit. Its records of travel and of
scientific progress have been valuable. For many years the “Easy
Chair,” conducted by George William Curtis, and later by William D.
Howells, has been an interesting feature. In _Harper’s_ first appeared
Howells’ “Annie Kilburn” and “Their Silver Wedding Journey,” Warner’s
“Studies of the Great West” and “A Little Journey in the World,”
Constance F. Woolson’s “Jupiter Lights,” “East Angels,” and “Anne,”
Poulteney Bigelow’s “White Man’s Africa,” Stockton’s “Bicycle of
Cathay” and “The Great Stone of Sardis,” John Fox, Jr.’s “Kentuckians,”
Stephen Crane’s “Whilomville Stories,” Mark Twain’s “Personal
Recollections of Joan of Arc,” Woodrow Wilson’s “Colonies and Nation,”
Mary E. Wilkins’ “Portion of Labor,” Mary Johnston’s “Sir Mortimer,”
and Margaret Deland’s “Awakening of Helena Richie.” _The International
Magazine_, founded by Rufus W. Griswold in New York in 1850, was two
years later merged with _Harper’s_.
_Putnam’s Monthly Magazine_ began publication in New York in 1853.
Its earlier editors were Charles F. Briggs (whose pen name was “Harry
Franco”), Parke Godwin, George W. Curtis, and George P. Putnam.
Among the more important of the early contributions may be mentioned
“Shakespeare’s Scholar” by Richard Grant White, “Early Years in
Europe” by George H. Calvert, “The Potiphar Papers” and “Prue and I”
by George W. Curtis, a series of political essays by Parke Godwin,
“Fireside Travels” and “A Moosehead Journal” by James Russell Lowell,
the “Sparrowgrass Papers” by Frederick S. Cozzens, “Cape Cod” by
Henry W. Thoreau, “Wensley” by Edmund Quincy, and “Israel Potter” by
Herman Melville. _Putnam’s_ was one of the first of American magazines
which restricted its pages to original contributions, and which gave
special attention to the encouragement of the work of American writers.
Published till 1857 and from 1868 till 1870, it was revived in 1906
as _Putnam’s Monthly_, under the editorial direction of Joseph B.
Gilder and George H. Putnam. _Putnam’s_ is still to be described as a
literary magazine, although space is given also to illustrated articles
on popular topics. _Putnam’s_ arranges with certain of the English
magazines, such as _The Cornhill Magazine_ and _The Fortnightly
Review_, to share contributors, English as well as American. The essays
of Mrs. Richmond Ritchie (Thackeray’s daughter) and of Mr. Arthur C.
Benson, for instance, have, under such an arrangement, been published
simultaneously in _The Cornhill_ and in _Putnam’s_.
The year 1857 is memorable for the founding of _The Atlantic Monthly_
by the publishing firm of Phillips & Sampson of Boston. James Russell
Lowell became the first editor, accepting the post on condition
that Dr. Holmes, who suggested the name, should be engaged as the
first contributor. Among those who wrote for the first number were
Longfellow, Lowell, Emerson, Motley, Holmes (who began “The Autocrat”),
Whittier, Charles Eliot Norton, J. T. Trowbridge, Harriet Beecher
Stowe, and Parke Godwin. Most of these were already well known authors.
The list of contributors to _The Atlantic_ during the half-century of
its life includes all of the most illustrious of American writers--not
only of New England, but of all parts of the country. In religious
thought its attitude has been reverent but liberal. The achievements
of science have been set forth by men like Agassiz, Percival Lowell,
Simon Newcomb, John Trowbridge, George F. Wright, and George H. Darwin.
The new political and economic questions have been discussed by such
men as President Roosevelt, former President Cleveland, Richard Olney,
Woodrow Wilson, Carl Schurz, John W. Foster, Henry Loomis Nelson,
Edward M. Shepard, Benjamin Kidd, John Jay Chapman, and Thomas Nelson
Page. The fiction of _The Atlantic_ has been produced mainly by
American writers--Hawthorne (“Septimius Felton”), Henry James, Jr.
(“Roderick Hudson,” “The Portrait of a Lady”), Aldrich (“The Stillwater
Tragedy,” “Prudence Palfrey”), Bret Harte, Howells (“Their Wedding
Journey,” “A Chance Acquaintance,” “The Lady of the Aroostook”), Mark
Twain, Marion Crawford (“A Roman Singer,” “Paul Patoff,” “Don Orsino”),
Stockton (“The House of Martha”), S. Weir Mitchell (“In War Time”),
Hopkinson Smith (“Caleb West”), Cable (“Bylow Hill”), Paul Leicester
Ford (“The Story of an Untold Love”), Mary Johnston (“To Have and to
Hold,” “Audrey”), Sarah Orne Jewett (“The Tory Lover”), Margaret Deland
(“Sidney,” “Philip and His Wife”), Kate Douglas Wiggin (“Penelope’s
Progress”), and many others. An equally brilliant list might be made of
the essayists whose best work has made its initial appearance in the
form of _Atlantic_ articles. The editors have been Lowell (1857-1861),
James T. Fields, of the firm of Ticknor & Fields, then the publishers
(1861-1871), William Dean Howells (1871-1880), Thomas Bailey Aldrich
(1880-1890), Horace E. Scudder (1890-1897), Walter H. Page (1897-1899),
and Bliss Perry--an illustrious roll. _The Atlantic_ has never changed
its original purpose.
It is still [to quote a recent writer] an American magazine for
American readers.... It holds that the most important service
which an American magazine can perform is the interpretation of
this country to itself, by the promotion of sympathy between the
different sections of our varied population, the frank examination
of our national characteristics, the study of our perplexing
problems, the encouragement of our art and literature, and the
reinforcement of those moral and religious beliefs upon which
depends the success of our experiment in self-government.
These ideals largely explain the success and permanence of _The
Atlantic_. _The Galaxy_, founded in New York in 1866, after furnishing
for several years an entertaining literary and scientific miscellany,
was in 1878 incorporated with _The Atlantic_.
_Lippincott’s Magazine_, established in Philadelphia in 1868, continues
to devote its chief energies to fiction, though it has also published
some notable poetry. Here appeared Lanier’s “Corn,” Edward Kearsley’s
“CampFire Lyrics,” and some of the verse of Emma Lazarus, Maurice
Thompson, Paul H. Hayne, Celia Thaxter, and Philip Bourke Marston.
_The Overland Monthly_ (San Francisco, 1868-1875, 1883 to the present
time) has faithfully mirrored the picturesque and stirring life of the
Far West. It absorbed _The Californian_ (1880-1882). The first five
volumes were edited by Bret Harte, and a large number of his stories,
probably forming his best literary work, first appeared in its columns.
_Old and New_ (Boston, 1870-1875) was conducted by Edward Everett Hale
with the intention of “squeezing from the Old its lessons for the New”
and of combining amusing with instructive literature after the manner
of the _Revue des Deux Mondes_.
In 1870, Dr. Josiah G. Holland and Roswell B. Smith projected
_Scribner’s Monthly_ (New York), and for eleven years Dr. Holland
was its editor. In 1881 it was changed to _The Century Magazine_ and
under the editorship of Richard Watson Gilder has taken high rank
as a distinctively popular magazine. It has given special attention
to popular history, and its literary, historical, and scientific
articles, generally substantial and meritorious, have appealed to
a wide range of readers. Like _Harper’s_, it has drawn upon all of
the leading writers, for example Harte (“Gabriel Conroy”), Cable
(“The Grandissimes,” “Dr. Sevier”), Howells (“A Modern Instance,” “A
Woman’s Reason,” “Silas Lapham”), Stockton (“Rudder Grange,” “The
Merry Chanter,” “The Hundredth Man”), Boyesen (“Falconberg”), John
Hay (“The Bread-Winners”), Henry James, Jr. (“Confidence,” “The
Bostonians”), Eugene Schuyler (“Peter the Great”), Joel Chandler
Harris (“Uncle Remus”), Hamlin Garland (“Her Mountain Lover”), Mary
Hallock Foote (“The Led-Horse Claim,” “Cœur d’Alene”), Marion Crawford
(“Via Crucis”), Mark Twain (“Pudd’nhead Wilson”), S. Weir Mitchell
(“Characteristics,” “Hugh Wynne”). Many poems of merit have also been
printed in _The Century_.