United States
The two earliest American miscellanies were produced almost simultaneously. Spurred by the success of the Gentleman’s Magazine in England Benjamin Franklin founded the General Magazine (1741) at Philadelphia, but it expired after six monthly numbers had appeared. Franklin’s rival, Andrew Bradford, forestalled him by three days with the American Magazine (1741) edited by John Webbe, which ran only to two numbers. Further attempts at Philadelphia in 1757 and 1769 to revive periodicals with the same name were both fruitless. The other pre-revolutionary magazines were the Boston American Magazine (1743–1747), in imitation of the London Magazine; the Boston Weekly Magazine (1743); the Christian History (1743–1744); the New York Independent Reflector (1752–1754); the Boston New England Magazine (1758–1760), a collection of fugitive pieces; the Boston Royal American Magazine (1774–1775); and the Pennsylvania Magazine (1775–1776), founded by Robert Aitken, with the help of Thomas Paine. The Columbian Magazine (1786–1790) was continued as the Universal Asylum (1790–1792). Matthew Carey brought out the American Museum in 1787, and it lasted until 1792. Among the other magazines which ran out a brief existence before the end of the century was the Philadelphia Political Censor or Monthly Review (1796–1797) edited by William Cobbett. One of the most successful was the Farmer’s Weekly Museum (1790–1799), supported by perhaps the most brilliant staff of writers American periodical literature had yet been able to show, and edited by Joseph Dennie, who in 1801 began the publication of the Portfolio, carried on to 1827 at Philadelphia. For five years it was a weekly miscellany in quarto, and afterwards an octavo monthly, it was the first American serial which could boast of so long an existence. Charles Brockden Brown established the New York Monthly Magazine (1799), which, changing its title to The American Review, was continued to 1802. Brown founded at Philadelphia the Literary Magazine (1803–1808); he and Dennie may be considered as having been the first American professional men of letters. The Anthology Club was established at Boston in 1803 by Phineas Adams for the cultivation of literature and the discussion of philosophy. Ticknor, Everett and Bigelow were among the members, and were contributors to the organ of the club, the monthly Anthology and Boston Review (1803–1811), the forerunner of the North American Review. In the year 1810 Thomas (Printing in America, ii. 292) informs us that 27 periodicals were issued in the United States. The first serious rival of the Portfolio was the Analectic Magazine (1813–1820), founded at Philadelphia by Moses Thomas, with the literary assistance of W. Irving (for some time the editor) Paulding, and the ornithologist Wilson. In spite of a large subscription list it came to an end on account of the costly style of its production. The first southern serial was the Monthly Register (1805) of Charleston. New York possessed no periodical worthy of the city until 1824, when the Atlantic Magazine appeared, which changed its name shortly afterwards to the New York Monthly Review, and was supported by R. C. Sands and W. C. Bryant. N. P. Willis was one of the editors of the New York Mirror (1823–1842) Between 1840 and 1850 Graham’s Magazine was the leading popular miscellany in the country, reaching at one time a circulation of about 35,000 copies. The first western periodical was the Illinois Monthly Magazine (1830–1832), published, owned, edited and almost entirely written by James Hall, who followed with his Western Monthly Magazine (1833–1836), produced in a similar manner. In 1833 the novelist C. F. Hoffman founded at New York the Knickerbocker (1833–1860), which soon passed under the control of Timothy Flint and became extremely successful, most of the leading native writers of the next twenty years having been contributors. Equally popular was Putnam’s Monthly Magazine (1853–1857, 1867–1869). It was revived in 1906–1910. The Dial (1840–1844), Boston, the organ of the transcendentalists, was first edited by Margaret Fuller, and subsequently by R. W. Emerson and G. Ripley. Other magazines were the American Monthly Magazine (1833–1838), the Southern Literary Messenger (1834), Richmond, the Gentleman’s Magazine (1837–1840), and the International Magazine (1850–1852), edited by R. W. Griswold. The Yale Literary Magazine dated from 1836. The Merchants’ Magazine was united in 1871 with the Commercial and Financial Chronicle. First in order of date among the current monthly magazines comes the New York Harper’s New Monthly Magazine (1850), the earliest existing illustrated American serial, then the Boston Atlantic Monthly (1857), with which was incorporated the Galaxy (1866) in 1878, famous for its editors Lowell, Howells and T. B. Aldrich, and its contributors O. W. Holmes, Longfellow, Whittier and others. Next came Lippincott’s Magazine (1868) from Philadelphia, and the Cosmopolitan (1886) and Scribner’s Monthly (1870, known as the Century Illustrated Magazine since 1881) from New York. These were followed by Scribner’s Magazine (1887), the New England Magazine (1889), the Illustrated Review of Reviews (1890), McClure’s Magazine (1893), the Bookman (1895), the World’s Work (1902), the American Magazine (1906) succeeding Frank Leslie’s Popular Monthly, and Munsey’s Magazine (1889). All are illustrated, and three in particular, the Century, Scribner’s and Harper’s, carried the art of wood-engraving to a high standard of excellence.
The first attempt to carry on an American review was made by Robert Walsh in 1811 at Philadelphia with the quarterly American Review of History and Politics, which lasted only a couple of years. Still more brief was the existence of the General Repository and Review (1812), brought out at Cambridge by Andrews Norton with the help of the professors of the university, but of which only four numbers appeared. Niles’s Weekly Register (1811–1848) was political, historical and literary. The North American Review, the oldest and most famous of all the American reviews, dates from 1815, and was founded by William Tudor, a member of the previously mentioned Anthology Club. After two years’ control Tudor handed over the review to the club, then styled the North American Club, whose most active members were E. T. Channing, R. H. Dana and Jared Sparks. In 1819 E. Everett became the editor; his brother Alexander acquired the property in 1829. The roll of contributors numbers almost every American writer of note. Since 1879 it has been published monthly (except in Sept. 1906-Sept. 1907, when it appeared semi-monthly). The American Quarterly Review (1827–1837), established at Philadelphia by Robert Walsh, came to an end on his departure for Europe. The Southern Quarterly Review (1828–1832), conducted by H. Legaré, S. Elliot and G. W. Simms in defence of the politics and finance of the South, enjoyed a shorter career. It was resuscitated in 1842, and lived another thirteen years. These two were followed by the Democratic Review (1838–1852) the American Review (1845–1849), afterwards the American Whig Review (1850–1852), the Massachusetts Quarterly Review (1847–1850), and a few more. The New Englander (1843–1892), the Biblical Repertory and Princeton Review (1825), the National Quarterly Review (1860) and the New York International Review (1874–1883), may also be mentioned. The critical weeklies of the past include the New York Literary Gazette (1834–1835, 1839), De Bow’s Review (1846), the Literary World (1847–1853), the Criterion (1855–1856), the Round Table (1863–1864), the Citizen (1864–1873), and Appleton’s Journal (1869). The leading current monthlies include the New York Forum (1886), Arena (1890), Current Literature (1888), and Bookman, the Chicago Dial (1880), and the Greenwich, Connecticut, Literary Collector. Foremost among the weeklies comes the New York Nation (1865).
Religious periodicals have been extremely numerous in the United States. The earliest was the Theological Magazine (1796–1798). The Christian Examiner dates from 1824 and lasted down to 1870. The Panoplist (1805) changed its name to the Missionary Herald, representing the American Board of Missions. The Methodist Magazine dates from 1818 and the Christian Disciple from 1813. The American Biblical Repository (1831–1850), a quarterly, was united with the Andover Bibliotheca Sacra (1843) and with the Theological Eclectic (1865). Brownson’s Quarterly Review began as the Boston Quarterly Review in 1838, and did much to introduce to American readers the works of the modern French philosophical school. Other serials of this class are the Protestant Episcopal Quarterly Review (1854), the Presbyterian Magazine (1851–1860), the Catholic World (1865), the Southern Review (1867), the New Jerusalem Magazine (1827), American Baptist Magazine (1817), the Church Review (1848), the Christian Review (1836), the Universalist Quarterly (1844). Current religious quarterlies are the Chicago American Journal of Theology and the Oberlin Bibliotheca Sacra. The Chicago Biblical World is published monthly.
Among historical periodicals may be numbered the American Register (1806–1811), Stryker’s American Register (1848–1851), Edwards’s American Quarterly Register (1829–1843), the New England Historical and Genealogical Register (1847), Folsom’s Historical Magazine (1857), the New York Genealogical Record (1869), and the Magazine of American History (1877). There is also the Lancaster, Pennsylvania, American Historical Review, issued quarterly.
Many serial publications have been almost entirely made up of extracts from English sources. Perhaps the earliest example is to be found in Select Views of Literature (1811–1812). The Eclectic Magazine (1844) and Littell’s Living Age (1844) may be mentioned.
In 1817 America possessed only one scientific periodical, the Journal of Mineralogy. Professor Silliman established the journal known by his name in 1818. Since that time the American Journal of Science has enjoyed unceasing favour. The special periodicals of the day are very numerous. Among the most representative are: the Popular Science Monthly, New York; the monthly Boston Journal of Education; the quarterly American Journal of Mathematics, Baltimore; the monthly Cassier’s Magazine (1891), New York; the monthly American Engineer (1893). New York; the monthly House and Garden, Philadelphia; the monthly Astrophysical Journal, commenced as Sidereal Messenger (1882), Chicago; the monthly American Chemical Journal, Baltimore; the monthly American Naturalist, Boston; the monthly American Journal of the Medical Sciences, Philadelphia; the monthly Outing, New York; the weekly American Agriculturist, New York; the quarterly Metaphysical Magazine (1895) New York; the bi-monthly American Journal of Sociology, Chicago; the bi-monthly American Law Review, St Louis; the monthly Banker’s Magazine, New York; the quarterly American Journal of Philology (1880), Baltimore; the monthly Library Journal (1876), New York, the monthly Public Libraries, Chicago; the weekly Scientific American, New York; the quarterly American Journal of Archaeology (1885), New York.
The number of periodicals devoted to light literature and to female readers has been, and still remains, extremely large. The earliest
