Kitabı oku: «A History of American Literature», sayfa 34
After all, for the attentive reader of contemporary poetry Miss Lowell’s most distinguished service has been in her two books of criticism. In the concourse of present-day poets she is a kind of drum major. One cannot see the procession without seeing her or admiring the skill with which she swings and tosses the baton. But when the parade is past, one can easily forget her until the trumpets blare again. She leads the way effectively, and one is glad to have her do it, – glad that there are those who enjoy being excellent drum majors. Then one pays farewell to her in the words with which she salutes Ezra Pound in her verses headed “Astigmatism”: "Peace be with you, [Sister]. You have chosen your part."
Witter Bynner (1881-) was born in Brooklyn and is a graduate of Harvard in the class of 1902. He took the impress of his university and recorded it not only in an “Ode to Harvard” (1907) – reprinted in “Young Harvard and Other Poems” – but also in the two plays that followed, “Tiger” (1913) and “The Little King” (1914), neither of which have anything to do with Harvard, but both of which reflect the intelligent interest in drama encouraged at that seat of learning. Aside from “Iphigenia in Tauris” (1915), his remaining work, in which his real distinction lies, is the single poem “The New World” (1915) and the collection “Grenstone Poems” (1917). Into both of these are woven threads of the same story, – the poet’s love and marriage to Celia, the inspiration which comes to him from her finer nature, the birth and loss of their child, the death of Celia, his dull bereavement, the dedication of his life to the democracy which Celia had taught him to understand.
“Grenstone Poems” is a series of little idyls comparable in some respects to Frost’s “A Boy’s Will.” They are wholly individual in tone, presenting in brief lyrics, nearly two hundred in number, the quaint and lovely elements in the humor and the tragedy of life. “The New World,” in contrast, contains by implication much of this, but is constructed in nine sections which trace the progressive steps in the poet’s idealization of America. Always Celia’s imagination leads far in advance of his own. Again and again as he strives to follow, his triumphant ascent reaches as its climax what to her is a lower round in the ladder. Two passages suggest the theme in the abstract, though the beauty of the poem lies chiefly in the far implications of definite scenes and episodes. The first is a speech of Celia’s:
It is my faith that God is our own dream
Of perfect understanding of the soul.
It is my passion that, alike through me
And every member of eternity,
The source of God is sending the same stream.
It is my peace that when my life is whole,
God’s life shall be completed and supreme.
The second, with which this volume may well conclude, is in the poet’s own words:
In temporary pain
The age is bearing a new breed
Of men and women, patriots of the world
And one another. Boundaries in vain,
Birthrights and countries, would constrain
The old diversity of seed
To be diversity of soul.
O mighty patriots, maintain
Your loyalty! – till flags unfurled
For battle shall arraign
The traitors who unfurled them, shall remain
And shine over an army with no slain,
And men from every nation shall enroll
And women – in the hardihood of peace!
What can my anger do but cease?
Whom shall I fight and who shall be my enemy
When he is I and I am he?
Let me have done with that old God outside
Who watched with preference and answered prayer,
The Godhead that replied
Now here, now there,
Where heavy cannon were
Or coins of gold!
Let me receive communion with all men,
Acknowledging our one and only soul!
For not till then
Can God be God, till we ourselves are whole.
BOOK LIST
General References
The Younger American Poets. Jessie B. Rittenhouse, 1904.
Tendencies in Modern American Poetry. Amy Lowell, 1917.
The Advance of English Poetry in the Twentieth Century. W. L. Phelps, 1918. (Latter half, American Poetry.)
Convention and Revolt in Poetry. G. L. Lowes, 1919.
The New Era in American Poetry. L. Untermeyer, 1919.
Collections
A Little Book of Modern Verse. Edited by Jessie B. Rittenhouse.
Some Imagist Poets (three annual volumes in a completed series) 1915, 1916, 1917.
An Anthology of Magazine Verse (annual volumes in a continuing series). Edited by W. S. Braithwaite, since 1915.
The Poetry of the Future. Edited by W. T. Schnittkin.
A Book of Princeton Verse. Edited by Alfred Noyes and Others.
Works of Individual Men
Witter Bynner. Ode to Harvard, 1907; Tiger, 1913; The Little King, 1914; Iphigenia in Tauris, 1915; The New World, 1915; Grenstone Poems, 1917; Any Girl, 1917.
Robert Frost. A Boy’s Will, 1913; North of Boston, 1914; Mountain Interval, 1916.
Richard Hovey. Plays (uniform edition), 1907–1908.
Nicholas Vachel Lindsay. General William Booth Enters into Heaven, 1913; Adventures while Preaching the Gospel of Beauty, 1914; The Congo, 1914; The Art of the Moving Picture, 1915; A Handy Guide for Beggars, 1916; The Chinese Nightingale, 1917.
Amy Lowell. A Dome of Many-Colored Glass, 1912; Sword Blades and Poppy Seed, 1914; Six French Poets, 1915; Men, Women and Ghosts, 1916; Tendencies in Modern American Poetry, 1917; Can Grande’s Castle, 1919.
Edgar Lee Masters. Poems, 1898; Maximilian, 1900; The Spoon River Anthology, 1915; Songs and Satires, 1916; The Great Valley, 1916; Toward the Gulf, 1918.
William Vaughn Moody. Poems and Plays. 1912. 2 vols.
Edwin Arlington Robinson. The Children of the Night, 1897; Captain Craig, 1902 and 1915; The Town down the River, 1910; The Man against the Sky, 1916; Prose plays: Van Zorn, 1914; The Porcupine, 1915; Merlin, 1917.
Magazine Articles
The magazine articles on poetry are extremely numerous. From among those since 1900 the following are of special interest:
1900–1904. Poetry and the Stage. H. W. Boynton. Atlantic, Vol. XCII pp. 120–126. July, 1903.
Poetry of a Machine Age. G. S. Lee. Atlantic, Vol. LXXXV, pp. 756–763. June, 1900.
1905–1909. Certain Vagaries of the Poets. Atlantic, Vol. C, pp. 431–432. September, 1907.
On the Slopes of Parnassus. A. Repplier. Atlantic, Vol. CII, pp. 397–403. September, 1908.
Our Strepitous Poets. Nation, Vol. LXXXV, pp. 277–278. Sept. 26, 1907.
Poetry and Elocution. F. B. Gummere. Nation, Vol. LXXXIX, pp. 453–454. Nov. 11, 1909.
State of Pseudo-Poetry at the Present Time. J. A. Macy. Bookman, Vol. XXVII, pp. 513–517. July, 1908.
1910–1914. Democracy and Poetry. Nation, XCIII, pp. 413–414. Nov. 2, 1911.
New Poetry. R. M. Alden. Nation, Vol. XCVI, pp. 386–387. April 17, 1913.
1910–1914. New Poets and Old Poetry. B. Hooker. Bookman, Vol. XXXI, pp. 480–486. July, 1910.
Taking Poetry too Seriously. Nation, Vol. XCVI, pp. 173–174. Feb. 20, 1913.
1915. Imagism, Another View. W. S. Braithwaite. New Republic, Vol. III, pp. 154–155. June 12, 1915.
Limits to Imagism. C. Aiken. New Republic, Vol. III, pp. 204–205. June 26, 1915.
New Movement in Poetry. O. W. Firkins. Nation, Vol. CI, pp. 458–461. Oct. 14, 1915.
Place of Imagism. C. Aiken. New Republic, Vol. III, pp. 75–76. May 22, 1915.
1916. New Manner in Modern Poetry. A. Lowell. New Republic, Vol. VI, pp. 124–125. March 4, 1916.
New Naïveté. L. W. Smith. Atlantic, Vol. CXVII, pp. 487–492. April, 1916.
Poetry To-day. C. A. P. Comer. Atlantic, Vol. CXVII, pp. 493–498. April, 1916.
Poetry under the Fire Test. J. N. Hall. New Republic, Vol. IX, pp. 93–96. Nov. 25, 1916.
1917. From Florence Coates to Amy Lowell: a Glance at Modernity. O. W. Firkins. Nation, Vol. CIV, pp. 522–524. May 3, 1917.
Poetry, Education, and Slang. M. Eastman. New Republic, Vol. IX, pp. 151–152, 182–184. Dec. 9, 16, 1916.
Singers and Satirists. O. W. Firkins. Nation, Vol. CIV, pp. 157–158. Feb. 8, 1917.
Critical Notes on American Poets. E. Garnett. Atlantic, Vol. CXX, pp. 366–373. Sept., 1917.
See also the periodicals Poetry, a Magazine of Verse (see p. 497), as well as The Poetry Journal, The Poetry Review of America, and Poet Lore, entire.
INDEX TO LEADING NINETEENTH-CENTURY PERIODICALS
The following list of periodicals represents a small fraction of those which were established and throve for longer or shorter periods in the United States between 1800 and the present time. The basis of selection has been to include only those which published a generous amount of literature which is still remembered or those of which leading men of letters were editors.
It was intended at first to make the list identical with the periodicals mentioned in the text, but this proved not to be practical. On some of the earlier ones it was not possible to secure exact data concerning length of life, editors, and contributors. Some others mentioned in the text were not of importance enough to justify inclusion. Still others, though not mentioned in the text, were too important to be omitted. The list as it stands, therefore, represents the judgment of the author and would not coincide with that of any other compiler of a list of equal length. It will serve, however, as a fairly representative list and will, perhaps, move some other student of American literature to what is greatly needed – a relatively complete and compact “Who’s Who” of American periodicals.
As yet such material is very meager and unsatisfactory. The great number of magazines and the bewildering consolidations, changes of editorship, title, form, period of publication, and place of publication have apparently discouraged anyone’s attempting a definitive piece of work. On this account and with this explanation the following brief appendix has been prepared.
American Magazine, The, 1875 – . A New York monthly.
Founded in 1875. From 1884 to 1888 the Brooklyn Magazine, then resumed its own name, continuing without important developments till it entered on its present régime in 1905. This came with the absorption of Leslie’s and the assumption of control by Ray Stannard Baker, Lincoln Steffens, and Ida Tarbell, all former staff writers for McClure’s. In this latter period it has been specially successful in recognizing younger authors. It has printed much by Bynner, O. Henry, Lindsay, Whitlock, and Poole; by Eaton and Hamilton on the drama; by F. P. Dunne (“Mr. Dooley”), George Ade, and Irvin Cobb; and, among foreign authors, by Wells, Bennett, Kipling, and Locke. It is popular in policy and content.
Atlantic Monthly, The, 1857 – . A Boston monthly.
Founded in 1857, Francis H. Underwood the prime mover, with the intention of setting new standards for a literary magazine of American authorship. Lowell was first editor; the first notable essay series Holmes’s “Autocrat of the Breakfast Table”; the first popular serial story, Mrs. Stowe’s “Dred.” The field has been consistently divided among fiction, essay, and poetry, and the book reviewing has always been scrupulous. The editors have been Lowell, James T. Fields, W. D. Howells, T. B. Aldrich, Horace Scudder, W. H. Page, Bliss Perry, and the present editor and chief owner, Ellery Sedgwick. Early important contributors were Emerson, Holmes, Longfellow, Lowell, Thoreau, Whittier, Hawthorne, Wendell Phillips. Later issues have included Lafcadio Hearn, Edith Wharton, Frank Norris, Agnes Repplier, Gerald Stanley Lee, S. M. Crothers, William Vaughn Moody, Richard Hovey, and most of the contributors to the best traditions in American literature. (See “The Atlantic Monthly and its Makers,” by M. A. De Wolfe Howe.)
Baltimore Saturday Visiter, 1833 – (?). A Baltimore weekly.
Started by Lambert A. Wilmer, who continued with it for only six months. In October of this year Poe’s “MS. Found in a Bottle” was published as the winner of a prize competition. This was Poe’s one contribution and the Visiter’s sole apparent title to fame.
Broadway Journal, 1845. A New York weekly.
Founded by C. F. Briggs (“Harry Franco”) in January, 1845. So named according to the first editorial from “the first street in the first city of the New World… We shall attempt to make it entirely original, and instead of the effete vapors of English magazines … give such thoughts as may be generated among us.” Poe and Briggs were associate editors in the spring, until in July, 1845, it went under the sole charge of Poe, who bought it from Briggs for $50. During this year it was Poe’s chief vehicle, printing or reprinting some fifteen of his prose tales and two poems. Its business failure took place at the end of the first year. (See “Life of Poe,” by George E. Woodberry.)
Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 1841. A Brooklyn daily.
Isaac Van Anden, first editor and publisher. A democratic newspaper with independent judgment. From 1844 (?) to 1848 Walt Whitman was its editor. From 1885, until his recent death, it was under charge of St. Clair McKelway, a brilliant writer and speaker and a constructive educator.
Burton’s Gentleman’s Magazine (see Gentleman’s Magazine).
Casket, The (Graham’s Magazine), 1826–1840. A Philadelphia monthly.
Called Atkinson’s Casket, 1831–1840. Was combined with Gentleman’s Magazine and became Graham’s Magazine.
Century Magazine, The, 1881 – . A New York monthly.
A continuation of the older Scribner’s Monthly (1870–1881) on the assumption of control by Roswell Smith. R. W. Gilder was editor from the second number, till his death in 1907. Its policy was to publish articles, singly and in series, related to broad aspects of American life, exposition and poetry playing a larger part in the earlier years than of late. In travel it published Lowell’s “Impressions of Spain” and van Dyke’s “Sicily”; in biography later portions of Hay and Nicolay’s “Lincoln,” Jefferson’s autobiography, and a Napoleon series. Riis, Bryce, Darwin, Tolstoy, and Burroughs have contributed from their own fields. Notable fiction series have been contributed by Howells, Mark Twain, Crawford, Weir Mitchell, Garland, London, and Mrs. Wharton; and verse by Emerson, Whitman, Gilder, Moody, Markham, and Cawein. (See also Scribner’s Monthly, p. 499.)
Congregationalist and Christian World, The, 1849 – . A Boston weekly.
Founded in 1816 as the Boston Recorder by Nathaniel Willis, father of the more famous Nathaniel Parker Willis, and conducted by him until 1844. From then till about 1890 it was the sectarian organ of the Congregationalists, playing a rôle similar to that of the Independent and the Christian Union. In the latter part of the nineteenth century it was under the editorship of W. A. Dunning, who was succeeded by the present editor, Horace Bridgman. It has had a consistent career as a religious weekly, changing with the times, but not modifying itself for the sake of a secular circulation so frankly as the other two have done.
Conservator, The, 1890. A Philadelphia monthly.
Founded in 1890 by Horace Traubel, an independent exponent of the world movement in ethics. In 1892 W. H. Ketler, Joseph Gilbert, W. Thornton Innes, and James A. Brown added to the editorial staff and enlarged to contain articles of timely interest, a book-review section, and a “Budget” for the reports of the ethical societies. The chief contributors: Stanton Coit, William Salter, Robert Ingersoll, and M. M. Mangasarian. The magazine gradually dropped its study of ethical questions and became an exponent of “the Whitman argument,” treated by Bucke, Harned, Kennedy, Platt, and Helena Born. In 1890 Traubel added extensive dramatic criticism and enlarged the book-review department. Since 1898 the magazine has been an expression of Traubel’s radical theories. It contains a long editorial “Collect,” which is an uncompromising criticism of the times, a long poem by Traubel, and reviews of current books of socialistic tendencies. During the Great War it was frankly pacific, before the entrance of the United States.
Critic, The, 1881–1906. A New York bi-weekly (1881–1882), weekly (1883–1898), and monthly.
Founded as a “fortnightly review of literature, the fine arts, music, and the drama.” The best known of its editors were the latest – J. L. and J. B. Gilder. After the first four years art and music notes were dropped and book reviews were made the leading feature, original essays giving place to extracts from other magazines. In 1900 the design was stated to be “an illustrated monthly review of literature, art, and life.” From 1905 politics and technical science were dropped. In 1906 it was absorbed by Putnam’s. Best-known contributors: E. C. Stedman, Edith M. Thomas, R. W. Gilder, John Burroughs, E. E. Hale, F. B. Sanborn, J. C. Harris, Brander Matthews.
Democratic Review, The United States, 1837–1859 (?). A Washington and New York quarterly.
A note in Vol. XXXVIII stated that with Vol. XXXIX it would be issued as a newspaper. At the outset it was the most successful political magazine in the country. It was characterized by Carlyle as “The Dial with a beard.” It was at first partisan, until, with payment for its articles, it became broader. Early contributors and best known were Orestes Augustus Brownson, Bancroft, Whittier, Bryant, and Hawthorne.
Dial, The, 1840–1844. A Boston quarterly.
Founded as a quarterly organ for the group of Transcendentalists centering about Emerson. Editors: 1840–1842, Margaret Fuller; 1842–1844, Emerson. The issues of 128 pages contained philosophical essays, discussions of German and oriental thought, comments on contemporary art and literature, book reviews, and poetry. The circulation never reached 300 copies, and at the end of the fourth year it was discontinued, the final debts being paid by Emerson. Leading contributors were the editors: Thoreau, Bronson Alcott, Theodore Parker, George Ripley, C. P. Cranch, J. F. Clarke, and Ellery Channing. There was a reprint by the Rowfant Club, Cleveland, in 1901–1902, with the addition of a historical and biographical introduction. (See introduction to the reprint of The Dial, Vol. II, George Willis Cooke, 1902.)
Dial, The, 1881 – . A Chicago (1881–1918) and New York fortnightly.
Founded and edited for a third of a century by Francis F. Browne as a literary review, and able to refer to itself on its thirtieth birthday as “the only journal in America given up to the criticism of current literature” and “the only literary periodical in the country not owned or controlled by a book publishing house or a newspaper.” After one or two changes of control, following the death of its founder, The Dial was transferred to New York in July, 1918, extending its editorial policy to include, besides the literary features, discussions of internationalism and of industrial and educational reconstruction.
Everybody’s Magazine, 1899 – . A New York monthly.
Founded by John Wanamaker and for the first four years a miscellany best characterized by the purchasers in 1903. The Ridgway-Thayer Company on taking control announced their purpose to do away with the “mawkish, morbid, and unreal,” to repress questionable advertising, and in general to transform the magazine. Since then Everybody’s has attempted in content to satisfy all sorts of intellectual tastes and at the same time to have a hand in the social and economic investigation of the period. The most celebrated series, which multiplied the circulation, was Thomas W. Lawson’s “Frenzied Finance.” Literary contributors in recent years have included Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, O. Henry, Frank Norris, Booth Tarkington, Ernest Poole, Dorothy Canfield, and in poetry Margaret Widdemer, Witter Bynner, and others.
Every Saturday, 1865–1874. A Boston weekly.
A Ticknor and Field publication; one of the numerous “eclectic” mid-century periodicals made up of selected materials chiefly from English magazines. It is of interest partly as a type and partly because Thomas Bailey Aldrich was editor for the nine years of its life. In 1874 it was merged with Littell’s Living Age(see p. 493).
Galaxy, The, 1866–1878. A New York monthly.
“An illustrated magazine of entertaining reading.” The first volume illustrated the practice of the day in featuring English authors with a leading serial by Anthony Trollope. The American contributors include Bayard Taylor, Howells, Stedman, and William Winter. Later Charles Reade was accompanied by Henry James, John Burroughs, E. R. Sill, and Paul Hamilton Hayne. With contributors of this substantial secondary rank, later still supplemented by Sidney Lanier and Joaquin Miller, the Galaxy completed and died with its twelfth year.
Gentleman’s Magazine, Burton’s (1837–1841). A Philadelphia monthly.
Founded by William E. Burton, the actor. Poe was an early, important contributor and in the second year the editor. Although he and Burton separated in 1839, the proprietor saw to it that Poe was reëmployed when in 1841 George R. Graham bought out its circulation of 3500 and merged it with Atkinson’s Casket as Graham’s Magazine.
Godey’s Lady’s Book, 1830–1898. A Philadelphia monthly.
Founded by Louis A. Godey, July, 1830, and managed by him as a monthly until 1877. In 1837 it absorbed the Boston Lady’s Magazine and took over its editor, Sarah J. Hale. Its chief distinction and highest circulation (150,000) came under its first manager. It printed much early work of Longfellow, Holmes, Poe, Bayard Taylor, Mrs. Sigourney, and Harriet Beecher Stowe. In its last years it was renamed Godey’s Magazine. In 1898 it was absorbed by the Puritan.
Graham’s Magazine, 1841–1859. A Philadelphia monthly.
Founded by George R. Graham by combining his Atkinson’s Casket with his purchase of Burton’s Gentleman’s Magazine. Within a year, largely through Poe’s editorial work, the circulation rose from 5000 to 30,000. By 1850 it had reached a circulation of 135,000. Among the later editors were R. W. Griswold, Bayard Taylor, and Charles Godfrey Leland, and among the contributors, Cooper, Longfellow, Poe, Hawthorne, Lowell, N. P. Willis, E. P. Whipple, the Cary sisters, William Gilmore Simms, Richard Penn Smith, and Thomas Dunn English. In January, 1859, Graham’s became the American Monthly (see “Philadelphia Magazines and their Contributors,” A. H. Smyth, 1892, and the Critic, Vol. XXV, p. 44).
Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, 1850 – . A New York monthly.
Founded by Harper Brothers in order “to place within the reach of the great mass of the American people the unbounded treasures of the periodical literature of the present day”; thus it was an “eclectic” magazine, and in the early years it supplemented this borrowed magazine material with serials by the most popular English novelists. Within four years it had a circulation of 125,000. During the 1860’s it became more American in content, and in the 1870’s it included a notable series on the transformed South. In the last thirty years it has drawn on the best-known American authors for single articles and serials: Aldrich, Howells, Lowell, Wister, Mrs. Deland, Mark Twain, James, Harte, Mrs. Wharton, Tarkington, Allen; and it has shared in the publication of recent significant poetry by Cawein, Le Gallienne, Untermeyer, Bynner, and the Misses Thomas, Teasdale, Widdemer, and Lowell. (See “The House of Harper,” J. H. Harper, 1912, and “The Making of a Great Magazine,” Harper & Brothers, 1889.)
Home Journal, The, 1847 – . A New York monthly.
Jointly founded and conducted by George P. Morris and N. P. Willis as a continuation of their National Press (founded 1845). Both remained with it till death – Willis, the survivor, till 1865. “It was and is,” wrote H. A. Beers in his Life of N. P. Willis (1885), “the organ of ‘japonicadom,’ the journal of society, and gazette of fashionable literature, addressing itself with assiduous gallantry to ‘the ladies.’”
Independent, The, 1848 – . A New York weekly.
A periodical “Conducted by Pastors of Congregational Churches”; Leonard Bacon, the first editor; Reverend George B. Cheever and Reverend Henry Ward Beecher, contributing editors. Its purpose was to be a progressive religious journal, particularly for Congregationalists, who protested against conservatism in theology and proslavery politics. Eventually it became an open forum for the liberally minded of all sects, being carefully nonpartisan in politics. From 1870 to 1890 it printed good verse, notably poems by Joaquin Miller and Sidney Lanier. The religious and political viewpoints broadened out from 1873. By 1898 an evident attempt was made to popularize the magazine. Since 1914 it has absorbed the Chautauquan, the Countryside, and Harper’s Weekly.
Knickerbocker Magazine, The, 1833–1865. A New York monthly.
The first editor was Charles Fenno Hoffman. From 1839 to 1841 Irving wrote monthly articles for a salary of $2000. Bryant, Whittier, Longfellow, Holmes, Halleck, and most of the secondary writers contributed. The second editor, from 1841 to 1861, was Lewis Gaylord Clark. In its later years the magazine declined, chiefly because it was carrying the tradition of polite and aimless literature into Civil-War times. During its period it stood in the North for the same interests that its contemporary, the Southern Literary Messenger, did in the South (see “The Knickerbocker Gallery,” 1855, and Harper’s Magazine, Vol. XLVIII, p. 587).
Liberator, The, 1831–1865. A Boston weekly.
The most famous and effective abolition journal, founded and edited throughout by William Lloyd Garrison. It was proscribed in the South and denounced in the North. Wendell Phillips and Henry Ward Beecher praised it, but Mrs. Stowe criticized and Horace Greeley misrepresented it. The financial straits it passed through were augmented by the rivalry of other abolition papers. After the Emancipation Proclamation and Lincoln’s second Inaugural, announcement of discontinuance was made. The last issue appeared December 29, 1865.
Lippincott’s Magazine, 1868–1916. A Philadelphia monthly.
One of three magazines founded near 1870 – the others Scribner’s Monthly and the Galaxy– that made an active market for American writers. Lippincott’s, “a magazine of literature, science, and education,” made an unpretentious start and throughout its career published little prose of distinction. Its poetry, however, was excellent. Bayard Taylor and Paul Hamilton Hayne appeared in the first and following numbers. Margaret Preston, Emma Lazarus, Thomas B. Read, George H. Boker, Thomas Dunn English, and Christopher P. Cranch contributed frequently. Whitman, rare in the magazines, wrote in prose, and, most important of all, Lanier found here a channel for much of his verse from 1875 on. In later years a feature of many issues was a complete short novel. In 1916 Lippincott’s was absorbed by Scribner’s Magazine.
Littell’s Living Age, 1844 – . A Boston monthly.
This is the longest-lived of the eclectic, or “scissors and paste-pot,” magazines. It has been made up of reprints from foreign periodicals, sometimes quoting from English apparent sources articles which had been borrowed there from original American publications. In 1874 it absorbed Every Saturday (see p. 491) and in 1898 the Eclectic Magazine. It still survives.
McClure’s Magazine, 1893 – . A New York monthly.
S. S. McClure publisher and editor. Fiction and poetry have been the dominant features. Contributors (fiction): Kipling, Stevenson, Arnold Bennett, Bret Harte, Mark Twain, Booth Tarkington, Robert Chambers, O. Henry, Jack London; (verse): Wordsworth, Browning, Walt Whitman (reprints), Kipling, Witter Bynner, Edgar Lee Masters, Hermann Hagedorn, Louis Untermeyer. It was the first magazine to sell at the popular price of fifteen cents. The nonliterary articles on affairs of the day were prepared on assignment by expert writers such as Ida Tarbell, Ray Stannard Baker, and Lincoln Steffens, years sometimes being spent on a single series. In 1905 these three assumed control of the American, but the policy has been continued to the present.
Mirror, The New York, 1823–1846. A New York weekly.
Founded by George P. Morris and Samuel Woodworth (remembered respectively for “Woodman, Spare that Tree” and “The Old Oaken Bucket”). In 1831 the Mirror absorbed the Boston American Monthly together with its editor, Nathaniel Parker Willis. In the next year Willis wrote for it the first of his travel series, “Pencillings by the Way,” continuing with weekly letters for four years. In 1839 Hawthorne became a contributor. In 1844–1845 Poe was subeditor and critic, his most famous contribution being “The Raven,” January, 1845. In 1845 the weekly became a daily – the Evening Mirror– and in 1846 it was discontinued.
Nation, The, 1865 – . A New York weekly.
Publishers: Joseph H. Richards, 1865; Evening Post Publishing Co., 1871; E. L. Godkin Co., 1874; Evening Post, 1881; New York Evening Post, 1902; Nation Press, Inc., New York, 1915. Editors have changed frequently, the most famous being the first, E. L. Godkin, who was in the chair from 1865 to 1881. Oswald Garrison Villard, present editor. It has been devoted to discussions of politics, art, and literature and to reviews of the leading books in these fields. Representative contributors have been Francis Parkman, T. R. Lounsbury, B. L. Gildersleeve, J. R. Lowell, Carl Schurz, James Bryce, William James, Paul Shorey, and Stuart Sherman. (See “Fifty Years of American Idealism,” edited by Gustav Pollak. 1915. Also the “Semicentenary Number,” 1915.)
New England Courant, The, 1721–1727. A Boston weekly.
Founded by James Franklin and carried on by him and a group of friends known as the Hell-Fire Club. The Courant represents a violent and somewhat coarse reaction against the domination of the New England clergy. It was written after the manner of the Spectator with frequent paraphrased and a few quoted passages. After the imprisonment of James the paper was carried on by the youthful Benjamin Franklin, who had already contributed the fourteen “Do-Good Papers.” The Courant gave evidence of much wit and enterprise, but quite lacked the urbanity of its English model.
New England Magazine, The, 1831–1835. A Boston monthly.
Founded by Joseph T. Buckingham, former editor of the Polyanthus,1805–1807 and 1812–1814, the Ordeal,1809, the New England Galaxy,1817–1828, and the Boston Courier,, a daily, 1814–1848. The New England Magazine, superior to any of these, was the project of Edwin, a son, who gave it distinction in a single year of editorship before his death, at the age of twenty-two. The father continued in charge for eighteen months, relinquishing it for the final year to Charles Fenno Hoffman and Park Benjamin. These latter took the magazine to New York in January, 1836, renaming it the American Monthly Magazine. The younger Buckingham showed enterprise in enlisting well-known contributors and acuteness in securing copy from Longfellow, Whittier, Holmes, and Hawthorne before they were widely known. It was in the New England that Holmes originated “The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table” in two numbers of 1832, reviving the theme in his first Atlantic series twenty-five years later; and here also Hawthorne printed many stories now in “Twice-Told Tales” and “Mosses from an Old Manse.” (See “The First New England Magazine and its Editor,” by George Willis Cooke, New England Magazine (N. S.), March, 1897.)
