Of course the most important event of the month in this favored part
of the world is the unheralded advent of such a robust youngster as
the FLY LEAF. Oh yes, thank you, Mrs. Grundy, we are doing very well
indeed--a very healthy and vigorous infant and a favorite already; and
we may be able to show a very pretty set of teeth in a month or two,
if occasion should demand. Some of our distinguished contemporaries
will perceive the delicacy of this metaphor; albeit the babe is quite
good-natured.
And now a few words about the aims and purposes of the FLY LEAF will
be in order--and the incidental commentary may be found to be equally
interesting. For the FLY LEAF, although but the bantling of yesterday,
has been nursed in the lap of harsh experience, and is at least as
wise as some drivelling and decrepit contemporaries it finds lagging
superfluous on the stage.
It is true that the field of contemporary journalism is already fairly
well stocked with various periodicals, of various shades of unprovoked
domesticity, and innocuous intention in the way of imparting that
miscellaneous misinformation, which is the mental stock-in-trade of
the millions everywhere, and put into print day after day, is the most
effective bar to tolerance and growth and hospitality of thought. But
there is plenty of room for the FLY LEAF. These highly respectable
publications are all competing with each other, and reaping the rich
rewards that are the portion of those who have invested their capital
in the impossible virtues and spotless innocence of the Young Person.
They are all reported to be very prosperous, and we cannot bring
ourselves to believe so highly of human nature in the bulk as to doubt
the truth of their returns.
But the FLY LEAF will occupy a field that all these periodicals regard
with the suspicion of conservatism. It will not impinge on their field,
and they cannot by any possibility intrench upon its. For it is a
magazine of the New, the Modern, the Young Man, the Young Woman, Today
and its stirring, probing, fantastical spirit.
With the immense reading public that exists in this land of popular
education and enlightenment--a public which expands every year, as
generation after generation takes its place in the ranks of life--there
is room for all sorts of periodicals; and instead of these various
periodicals being in rivalry, they actually raise up new readers for
each other. Even the old fogy magazines have helped to prepare the way
for honest bubbling thought and fancy and humor. They have unwittingly
and unwillingly educated their readers for the FLY LEAF. The more
literature is cultivated in America--the more writers with fresh
opinions and experiences and ideas increase--the more readers there
will be to encourage the treatment of ever new and wider aspects of the
complex life of this vast and complex aggregation of people.
In the pages of these respectable domestic periodicals, old-fashioned
folk, who lived before thought was let loose in the English tongue
among respectable, law-abiding people, and who linger on to the
confusion of poetry and new ideas and new interests, can still doze
over profound articles on “How to Cook a Beefsteak” and fiction that
has even less relevance to the comedy and tragedy of real modern life.
But all inspiring literature is drenched in the spirit and vigor of
Youth--even though the writers may be only belated boys. It is the
New in eternal nature that entrances the imaginations of thinkers
and poets. The day is coming when the periodicals now devoted to the
dissemination of the platitudes and ideas of two or three generations
ago will have to awaken to the fact that the Young Man and the Young
Woman of this era demand the heart of life in their literature, or
they will be compelled to give way to bolder spirits, such as are now
gathering strength in every modern literature. Already the tide has set
in. Hence the FLY LEAF.
The FLY LEAF belongs to this end of the century. It is essentially
modern. It does not look to the future, however, with any affected _fin
de siecle_ weariness or ennui, but with the hopefulness and stirring
courage of youth. It does not aim to be Decadent, or pin its faith to
any particular Ism; although it will always be hospitable to art and
beauty and truth from any quarter.
The Editor and his coadjutors are of the new school of younger writers,
and they aim to unite free sincere thought with humor and fantastic
whimsies and imagination; to be serious and amusing; earnest and
honest; but never dull. The underlying purpose and inspiration of our
efforts will be to strike this Modern note and awaken this broader
Modern spirit, which marks the literature of our era off from all the
ancient thought and literature of the world.
The FLY LEAF will deal with the Here and Now, with the aims and ideals
of the Young Man and the Young Woman, with the drift and tendencies of
American social and literary thought. It will embody the New Spirit of
the age that is moving the literature of all the world, but it will be
distinctively an American periodical.
The FLY LEAF hopes that in this struggle for the recognition of this
broader spirit in criticism and the material of literature, and for
the encouragement of American writers of ability, it will receive the
cordial support of the younger generation of readers throughout the
country.