THE LITERARY INTERESTS OF CHICAGO 523
"its chosen field as a representative of western literature'* dragged out a profitless existence until 1888, when it was merged with America.
In the meantime, Literary Life, a contemporary of the Current, attracted attention. It appeared in regulation form, and was advertised as "an illustrated magazine for the people; only Si a year, ten cents a copy." Charles Dudley Warner was quoted as having written to the publisher saying : " I am amazed that you can afford to publish such a very handsome periodical at so little cost to the subscriber."
There was nothing local about the contents of Literary Life. Essays on literary topics, biographical sketches and portraits of well-known authors in America and England, with engravings to show their "homes and haunts," appear to have made up the material sought for the magazine, which also announced a somewhat broader ambition namely, to be "the Century of the West." To what degree the aspirations it advertised were realized cannot be ascertained in Chicago. There is no reliquary file in the libraries here.
The name of Rose Elizabeth Cleveland, sister of President Grover Cleveland, was conspicuously connected with Literary Life. Miss Cleveland was the editor of some of the early num- bers. But although a Boston organ was quoted as saying, "Literary Life helps to make Chicago one of the literary centers of the country," Miss Cleveland never came to this literary center. All her work as editor was done at her home in New York state. Perhaps this arrangement for long-range editing may be inter- preted as a sign of a broad, metropolitan outlook on the part of A. P. T. Elder, the publisher.
Miss Cleveland, in a letter recently sent for use in these papers, said :
I was interested in Literary Life for three months, and then dropped it because of a wide divergence between myself and its business manager as to policy in its management. During the three months in which I did my rather amateurish " editing " it was quite successful, and would in the hands of a more discriminating manager, or a less fastidious editor, have been a profitable enterprise.
