Purchaser.... The conductors of this paper, being a kind of whimsical
and negligent gentry of easy habits and inconstant disposition, its
continuation will not so much depend upon the patronage that may be
given to it as upon their own humours and caprices. It is, as Johnson
says of its title--'Trangram--an odd, intricately-contrived thing,' and,
therefore, in its appearance will be as irregular in its size or
proportions as unequal, and in its pecuniary value as unstated, though
always as reasonable, as any other oddly-contrived thing ever was, or
is, or ought to be." The publisher, George Blake, was a Yorkshireman and
a music dealer in South Fifth Street. He told William Duane that the
editors were Mordecai M. Noah, Alexander F. Coxe, a son of Tench Coxe,
and in 1814 a member of the bar, and a third person "whose name he
seemed unwilling to mention" (Duane). Only three numbers were printed,
the triple team quarrelled, and the publication ceased.
Mordecai Noah was born in Philadelphia, July 14, 1785. After his removal
to New York, about 1816, he became the owner or editor of a number of
magazines and newspapers.
The _Trangram_ is full of local gossip and scandal cleverly concealed.
Andrew Hamilton figures in it as "Dapper Dumpling." J. N. Barker, the
author of "Superstition," is "Billy Mushroom." Joseph Dennie is
nicknamed "Oliver Crank." William Warren is dubbed "the tun-bellied
manager."
The account of a walk through the city streets ends with "the
description of the defence of his friend would doubtless have continued
until we reached the end of our journey had we not by this time arrived,
where mathematicians never could arrive, at the Square Circle,"--that
is, at Centre Square, Broad and Market Streets.
The third number, February 1, 1810, contains accounts of "Jeremy
Corsica" (Jerome Bonaparte) and his visit to Philadelphia, and to
"Bangilore" (Baltimore), and his acquaintance with Miss "Cornelia
Pattypan," or Patterson.
The _Beacon, erected and supported by Lucidantus and his Thirteen
Friends_, was published by W. Brown, and began its course Wednesday,
Nov. 27, 1811. It aimed to surpass _The Spirit of the Reviews_, the
_Dramatic Censor_ and the _Port Folio_, but it is believed to have made
only two numbers. The purpose of the magazine was defined in the second
number, December 11, 1811: "We propose to develop to our readers the
machinery and composition of our Philadelphia Society."
The _Luncheon_ was a monthly satirical paper "boiled for people about
six feet high by Simon Pure." Its first appearance was in July, 1815.
The second number contained an abusive article upon William McCorkle. In
January, 1816, Lewis P. Franks, the editor of the _Luncheon_, confessed
himself the author of the libel and declared that the alleged biography
of McCorkle was false, and that the journal would be discontinued.
The _Independent Balance_ was published weekly by "Democritus the
Younger, a lineal descendant of the Laughing Philosopher." It was
established, March 20, 1817, by George Helmbold, the first editor of the
_Tickler_ and late of the United States Army.
The second volume had a vignette of a sportsman shooting a bird, with
the motto:
"Whene'er we court the tuneful nine,
Or plainer prose suits our design,
Then fools may sneer and critics frown
At every corner of the town,--
Condemn our paper or commend;
One aim is ours, our chiefest end:
With well-poised gun and surest eyes
To shoot at Folly as it flies."
Helmbold died in Philadelphia, December 28, 1821. The magazine, after
passing through several hands, finally became the property of L. P.
Franks, who published it at "No. 1 Paradise Alley, back of 171 Market
Street, between Fourth and Fifth Streets." At this time it was edited by
"Simon Spunkey, Esq., duly commissioned and sworn regulator,
weigh-master and Inspector General." Its motto proclaimed its purpose to
anatomize the wise man's folly as plain as way to parish church:
"I claim as large a charter as the wind
To blow on whom I please."
The _Critic_, by Geoffrey Juvenile, Esq., No. 1, January 29, 1820.
Every number of the _Critic_ contains some quip or satire at the expense
of James Kirke Paulding, and his "Backwoodsman" is particularly levelled
at. Paulding is dubbed "The Cabbage Bard," and the caustic reviewer
proceeds to write: "We _had_ a Dennie and a Clifton, yet the classical
elegance of the one has not availed to preserve his countrymen from
being intoxicated by the quaintness and affectation of the Salmagundi
school, and the purity and wit of the other have as little proved
powerful to save his work from being deserted for the bathos and
silliness of the 'Backwoodsman.' I remember them both. In private life
they united qualities which are seldom found together, brilliancy of
conversation and modesty of deportment. In their writings they were
chaste without being tame, and elevated without being extravagant. Alas!
I little thought to have lived until their light should be hidden by a
cloud of delirious bats who had left their native obscurity and madly
rushed to uncongenial day, vermin which are likely to be of direful omen
to our country unless the land be speedily cleansed of them."
The greatness of Philadelphia is the inspiration and the pride of the
_Critic_. "Having often heard Philadelphia called the 'Athens of the
United States,' 'the birthplace of American literature,' I was naturally
delighted at the prospect of a visit to so celebrated a city" (p. 14).
And again: "Philadelphia with all its faults and follies is, in a
literary and scientific point of view, the first city of the Empire" (p.
20). The _Critic_ fired its last arrow May 10, 1820.
Dennie's _Port Folio_ continued to be the admiration and the despair of
contemporary editors and authors. In 1821 appeared the _Post-Chaise
Companion or Magazine of Wit_. By Carlo Convivio Socio, Junior Fellow of
the Royal Academy of Humorists. It was begun in January, 1821, and was
issued from 15 North Front Street. In its first "leader" it deprecated
comparison with the favorites of the hour: "With the venerable Mr.
Oldschool, who for almost twenty years has delighted or instructed the
'mind of desultory man,' I would not presume to enter into a
competition, still less should it be provoked with the profound labours
of the editor of the _Analectic Magazine_ and his host of 'the most
eminent literary men' who promised to eclipse the dissertations of the
famous Northern lights" (p. 3).
The little paper contains a long article on Mr. Kean's acting (pages
37-51).
The _Philadelphia Medical Museum_ was conducted by John Redman Coxe for
five years, from 1805 to 1810, and was published by A. Bartram.
The _Eye_, by Obadiah Optic, was published every Thursday by John W.
Scott, from January to December, 1808, at three dollars a year. It was
filled with odd, historical and alliterative articles.
The _Philadelphia Repertory_, a weekly literary journal, was published
in 1810 by Dennis Hart.
The _Eclectic Repertory and Analytic Review, Medical and Philosophical_,
was commenced in October, 1811, and continued until October, 1820. It
was published quarterly, and edited by an association of physicians, and
published by T. Dobson and Son.
It was continued in January, 1821, as the _Journal of Foreign Medical
Science and Literature_, conducted by S. Emlen, Jr., and William Price,
and published by Eliakim Littell. It finally ceased October, 1824.
The _Freemason's Magazine and General Miscellany_ was published from
1810-1812 (?). It was edited by George Richards, a school-master and
clergyman of the Revolution. He was the author of "An Historical
Discourse on the Death of General Washington" (Portsmouth, 1800), and of
a number of patriotic poems of the Revolution.
ROBERT WALSH began, in 1811, the publication of the first quarterly that
was issued in the United States. It was the _American Review of History,
of Politics, and General Repository of Literature and State Papers_, and
was published for two years, in four volumes, by Farrand and Nichols.
Walsh was born in Baltimore in 1784. He was educated in Catholic schools
in Baltimore, and at the Jesuit College at Georgetown. While at college,
in 1796, he delivered a political address before General Washington. He
began the practice of law in Philadelphia. In 1817-18 he edited the
_American Register_.
The _National Gazette_, a daily newspaper, was established by him in
Philadelphia in 1819, and his connection with it did not cease until he
sold it, in 1836, to William Fry.
The _Philadelphia Register_ had been a weekly paper, the title of which
was changed, in 1819, to the _National Recorder_. It was founded in 1818
by E. Littell and S. Norris Henry. In July, 1821, it changed its name
for the second time, and became the _Saturday Magazine_. De Quincey's
"Confessions of an English Opium Eater" and the essays of Charles Lamb
were published for the first time in America in the pages of the
_Saturday Magazine_. In the following year (1822) the magazine became a
monthly publication, and was called the _Museum of Foreign Literature
and Science_. In this year (1822) it was edited by Robert Walsh. Toward
the close of 1823 the proprietor gave notice that Mr. Walsh was no
longer connected with the _Museum_. It was then conducted by Eliakim and
Squier Littell. In 1843 the publication office was removed to New York,
and the magazine was called the _Eclectic Museum of Foreign Literature
and Science_. Littell had no connection with the magazine in this phase
of its history. He went to Boston, and in 1844 established _Littell's
Living Age_, of which he remained the proprietor until his death, May
17, 1870.
After retiring from the editorial chair of the _Museum_, Walsh
successfully resuscitated the _American Quarterly Review_, which he
published from March, 1827, to 1837.
The _Review_ was published by Carey, Lea and Carey. It appeared in
March, June, September and December. Each number contained two hundred
and fifty pages, and the subscription price was five dollars per annum.
Some of Walsh's original works had met with approval in England. His
"Letter on the Genius and Disposition of the French Government" passed
through four editions in England, and was commended by Lord Jeffrey in
the _Edinburgh Review_ (Vol. XVI, p. 1). The _American Quarterly Review_
did not share the same happy fate. The _Monthly Review_ said of it, "It
is as dull a work of the kind as any that we know of. It is heavier even
than the _Westminster_ when burthened by the lucubrations of Jeremy
Bentham." Neal, in _Blackwood's_ (XVI, 634), sarcastically styled Walsh
"The Jupiter of the American Olympus."
Walsh was United States Consul at Paris from 1845-1851, and remained in
France until his death, February 7, 1859.
Joseph Delaplaine, in April, 1812, respectfully solicited the patronage
of the public to the _Emporium of Arts and Sciences_, "conducted by John
Redman Coxe, M.D., professor of chemistry in the University of
Pennsylvania." The magazine was published monthly, beginning in May,
1812. It made three volumes, but two volumes only were published in
Philadelphia. The second volume was conducted by Thomas Cooper, who, in
1813, removed the magazine to Carlisle, Pennsylvania, where it was
printed by Kimber and Richardson.
The _Religious Remembrancer_ was begun by John Welwood Scott on the 4th
of September, 1813. It was the first religious weekly published in the
United States, and was three years in advance of Willis's _Boston
Recorder_.
Two children's papers publishing about this time were: the _Juvenile
Magazine--Religious, Moral, and Entertaining Pieces in Prose and Verse_,
"compiled by Arthur Donaldson," Philadelphia, 1811, published monthly,
twelve and a half cents per number. The _Juvenile Port Folio_, a weekly
miscellany, was published by Thomas G. Condie, Jr., 22 Carter's Alley,
in 1813.
A French weekly was started in 1815, _L'Abeille Americaine, Journal
Historique, Politique, et Litteraire a Philadelphie_, A. J. Blocquerst,
130 South Fifth Street. Matthew Carey took subscriptions for the work,
which continued several years.
The _Parterre: by a Trio_ (Cora and Charles Chandler), 1816, printed by
Probasco and Justice, 350 North Second Street. This worthless little
weekly was begun June 15, 1816, and ended June 28, 1817.
The _American Register, or Summary Review of History, Politics and
Literature_--Phila.: Thos. Dobson, 1817-1818--made two volumes.
The _American Medical Recorder_ appeared in 1818, supported by a number
of physicians. It was a quarterly publication. The title was changed in
1824 to the _Medical Recorder of Original Papers and Intelligence on
Medicine and Surgery_. It was merged in 1829 into the _American Journal
of the American Sciences_.
The _Ladies' and Gentlemen's Weekly Literary Museum and Musical
Magazine_ was a weekly publication begun, January 1, 1819, by H. C.
Lewis, No. 164 South Eleventh Street.
Washington Irving's first literary adventure was the publication of
_Salmagundi_. It was begun in New York, January 14, 1807, by Irving and
James Kirke Paulding. The origin of the venture is not quite clear, but
it was an outcome of the alert and gay society in New York, of which
Brevoort and Paulding and the Irvings were conspicuous members.
Mr. Paulding said of the enterprise, "It was when fairly initiated into
the mysteries of the town that Washington Irving and myself commenced
the publication of _Salmagundi_, an irregular issue, the object of which
was to ridicule the follies and foibles of the fashionable world. Though
we had not anticipated anything beyond a local circulation, the work
soon took a wider sphere; gradually extended throughout the United
States, and acquired great popularity. It was, I believe, the first of
its kind in this country; produced numerous similar publications, none
of which, however, extended beyond a few numbers and formed somewhat of
an era in our literature. It reached two volumes, and we could easily
have continued it indefinitely, but 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, and the work was
abruptly discontinued. It was one of those productions of youth that
wise men--or those who think themselves wise--are very apt to be ashamed
of when they grow old."
In 1819 Paulding attempted to revive _Salmagundi_, and a "second series"
was published fortnightly in Philadelphia, 108 Chestnut Street, by Moses
Thomas, from May 30, 1819, to August 19, 1820. Evert A. Duyckinck, in
his preface to the latest issue of the first series, writes, "Some ten
years or more after the conclusion of _Salmagundi_, Paulding ventured
alone upon a second series. Washington Irving was in Europe, and the
muse of Pindar Cockloft was silent. It was a dangerous undertaking, for
the very essence of a _Salmagundi_ is the combination of choice
ingredients--a product of many minds.... Yet it contains many delightful
pages."
The publication is referred to by Paulding in a letter to Washington
Irving, January 20, 1820: "I must now make two or three explanations
concerning myself and proceedings. Hearing last winter from William
Irving that you had finally declined coming home, and finding my leisure
time a little heavy, I set to work and prepared several numbers of a
continuation of our old joint production. At that time and subsequently,
until Gouverneur Kemble brought your first number [of the Sketch Book]
down to Washington with him, I was entirely ignorant that you
contemplated anything of the kind. But for an accidental delay my first
number would have got the start of yours. As it happened, however, it
had the appearance of taking the field against you, a thing which
neither my head nor heart will sanction. I believe my work has not done
you any harm in the way of rivalship, for it has been soundly abused by
many persons and compared with the first part with many degrading
expressions. It has sold tolerably, but I shall discontinue it shortly,
as I begin to grow tired, and I believe the public has got the start of
me. It was owing to Moses that I did not commence an entire new work."
The reputation of the periodical in Fashion's choicest circle is hinted
at in Halleck's "Fanny:"
"And though by no means a _bas bleu_, she had
For literature a most becoming passion;
Had skimm'd the latest novels, good and bad,
And read the Croakers, when they were in fashion;
And Dr. Chalmers' Sermons, of a Sunday;
And Wordsworth's Cabinet, and _the new Salmagundi_."
In closing his introduction to the new series, Paulding alluded
gracefully and affectionately to his tried and generous friend and
former fellow-worker, Washington Irving. "The reader will not fail of
hearing, in good time, all about the worthy Cockloft family; the learned
Jeremy, and the young ladies who are still young in spite of the lapse
of ten years and more. Above a dozen years are past since we first
introduced these excellent souls to our readers, and in that time many a
gentle tie has been broken, and many friends separated, some of them
forever. Among those we most loved and admired, we have to regret the
long absence of one who was aye the delight of his friends, and who, if
he were with us, would add such charms of wit and gayety to this little
work that the young and the aged would pore over it with equal delight."
The Protestant Episcopal Church established the _Episcopal Magazine_ in
January, 1820. It was conducted by Rev. C. H. Wharton and Rev. George
Boyd. The former editor, Charles Henry Wharton, was born in St. Mary's
County, Maryland, June 5, 1748. Notley Hall, the family estate, was
presented to the family by Lord Baltimore. Wharton was educated in
Jesuit schools and ordained a deacon and a priest of the Roman Catholic
Church. In the last years of the Revolution he was chaplain to the Roman
Catholics in Worcester, England, to whom, in 1784, after joining the
Church of England, he addressed his celebrated "Letter." He was a member
of the American Philosophical Society, and for a short time President of
Columbia College. In 1813-14 he was co-editor with Dr. Abercrombie of
the _Quarterly Theological Magazine and Religious Repository_.
The _Episcopal Magazine_ was published by S. Potter & Co. and printed by
J. Maxwell.
The _Rural Magazine and Literary Evening Fireside_, a monthly
publication by Richards and Caleb Johnson, was begun in January, 1820.
Its purpose was to give correct views of the science of agriculture. It
also contained articles on slavery, a sketch of Benezet, etc. But the
farmers were not inclined to write out their ideas of agriculture, and
the bucolic journal, after binding its monthly sheaves into a single
volume, asked its own _congé_.
Nathaniel Chapman was the only begetter of the _American Journal of the
Medical Sciences_, which, in its seventy years of history, has known the
touch of so many skilful editorial hands. Chapman issued it as a
quarterly from the publishing house of M. Carey and Son. It was then
called the _Philadelphia Journal of the Medical Sciences_.
In 1825 Dr. Williams P. Dewees and John D. Godman were associated with
Dr. Chapman in the editorship. Dr. Isaac Hays was added to the staff in
February, 1827, and in November the name of the magazine was changed to
the _American Journal of the Medical Sciences_, and Dr. Isaac Hays
became sole editor, to be in turn succeeded by his son, Dr. I. Minis
Hays. The history of its changes and extension would take us far beyond
the chronological boundary of this book. Nearly every physician of note
in America has contributed at some time to its pages, and nearly every
notable triumph of American medicine has found fitting record somewhere
in its multitudinous numbers.
The _Reformer_ was a monthly religious and ethical publication issued in
1820.
Robert S. Coffin, who had written popular verses under the name of the
"Boston Bard" while a compositor in the office of the _Village Record_,
at West Chester, Pa., came to Philadelphia in 1821 and began a literary
paper, which he called the _Bee_. Not more than two hundred subscribers
were secured, and Coffin sold the unsuccessful paper to Charles
Alexander, who had formerly been employed upon Poulson's _Daily
Advertiser_. On the 4th of August, 1821, Atkinson and Alexander, in the
office once occupied by Benjamin Franklin, back of No. 53 Market Street,
began the publication of the Philadelphia _Saturday Evening Post_. T.
Cottrell Clarke was appointed editor. He retired in 1826 and founded the
_Ladies' Album_, a weekly literary paper, which ultimately merged into
the _Pennsylvania Inquirer_. Morton McMichael succeeded Clarke in the
editorial chair of the _Post_, and, when he too resigned, became the
first editor of the _Saturday Courier_. Other editors of the _Post_ at
various times were Benjamin Mathias, founder of the _Saturday
Chronicle_, Charles J. Peterson, Rufus W. Griswold, H. Hastings Weld and
Henry Peterson. The _Post_ had few important rivals among the family
newspapers and it absorbed a number of the young literary journals. The
_Saturday News_, the _Saturday Bulletin_ and the _Saturday Chronicle_
were merged into the _Post_. Mrs. Henry Wood's early novels, written in
her obscure days before the time of "East Lynne," were published in it.
The _Episcopal Recorder_, established in 1822, and edited by Rev. B. B.
Smith, Bishop of the P. E. Church in the United States, has always
admitted into its pages articles by leading clergymen of whatever sect
or creed.
The _Erin_, a weekly paper containing Irish news, was published in
August, 1822, by Hart & Co., No. 117 South Fifth Street.
Rev. G. T. Bedell, who had established the _Episcopal Recorder_, was
also the editor of the _Philadelphia Recorder_ (1823), likewise a
religious weekly published in the interest of the Protestant Episcopal
Church.
The _Arcadian_, a literary periodical, of the year 1823, was published
by A. Potter and Co.
The _American Monthly Magazine_, January, 1824, to June, 1824, was
edited by James McHenry and published by Job Palmer.
The _Medical Review and Analectic Journal_ was edited by Dr. John Eberle
and Dr. George McClellan and published quarterly between June, 1824, and
August, 1826.
The _Æsculapian Register_ was published from June 17, 1824, to December
8, 1834. Several physicians united in its editorship, and R. Desilver,
of 110 Walnut Street, was its publisher; its motto: "Ars longa, vita
brevis."
The _American Sunday School Magazine_ (1824-1831) was the first
Sunday-school-teacher's journal issued in America.
_La Corbeille_, a weekly journal published in 1824. The editor was a
gallant Cavalier, who warns the ladies in the first number that novel
reading "induces a sickly diathesis of the mind, or mental marasmus."
In June, 1824, there were published in Philadelphia the _Port Folio_,
the _Museum_, the _American Monthly_ and nine other magazines, four
religious, three medical and two political. It was in this year that
_Blackwood's Magazine_ congratulated America on Charles Robert Leslie's
success in art.
The _Reformer_, published in 1824, by Theophilus R. Gates, aimed to
"expose the clerical schemes and pompous undertakings of the present day
under the pretence of religion, and to show that they are irreconcilable
with the spirit and principle of the Gospel."
The _Christian_ was a weekly paper of 1824.
The _Philadelphian_, a large folio sheet, containing religious articles,
was founded in May, 1825, by S. B. Ludlow, and published weekly at No.
59 Locust Street. William F. Geddes and Dr. Ezra Styles Ely were among
its editors.
The _North American Medical and Surgical Journal_, January, 1826, to
October, 1831, was published quarterly.
The _Album and Ladies Weekly Gazette_, begun June 7, 1826, by T. C.
Clarke, changed its name to the _Philadelphia Album and Ladies' Literary
Port Folio_, and was edited by Robert Morris after consolidation with
the _Ladies' Literary Port Folio_.
The _Casket, Flowers of Literature, Wit and Sentiment_ was a magazine
published in newspaper form. It was made out of the _Saturday Evening
Post_, and was first issued by Samuel Coate Atkinson, at No. 36 Carter's
Alley, January 1, 1827. Elizabeth Margaret Chandler (1807-1834) won a
prize for the "Slave Ship" offered by the proprietor of the _Casket_.