PERIODICALS IN THE UNITED STATES. The his tory of the periodical in the United States be gins in colonial times with The American Maga zine, issued at Philadelephia, February 13, 1741, by the printer Andrew Bradford, a business rival of Franklin's, and edited by John Welibe. The idea was due to Franklin, who had planned an imitation of The Gentleman's Magazine, and had incautiously divulged his scheme to Webbe. Franklin's own periodical, The General Magazine, was issued on February 16, 1741, its projector thus losing by three days the honor of having edited and published the first monthly in America. Both publications were short-lived, Webbe's perishing with its second number and Franklin's with its sixth. Throughout the entire subsequent devel opment of periodical literature in this country the magazine has taken the first place, reviews having been comparatively few in number and decidedly inferior in quality. The magazines published down to the Revolution number sixteen. Among them were The American Magazine and Historical Chronicle (Boston, 1743-46), The Boston. Weekly Magazine (1743), The Christian History (Boston, 1743-44), The independent Re flector (New York. 1752-53). The New England Magazine of Knowledge and Pleasure (Boston, 1758), The American Magazine and Monthly Chronicle (Philadelphia, 1757-5S), The New .1 merican Magazine (Woodbridge. N. J., 175S ), The American Maga:inc (Philadelphia, 1769 ) . The Royal American Magazine ( Boston, 1774-75), and The Pennsylrania Magazine, or American Monthly Museum (1775-76). Between the close of the war and the end of the century about forty others appeared, among them The Col u m Linn Magazine, or it on th 1 y iseellany (Philadelphia, 17S6-92: from March, 1790, en titled The Unirersal Asylum and Columbian Magazine). The .1incrican Jlusenin, or Repository (1787-92), of considerable value as a source of historical information; The Massachusetts Maga zine (Boston, 1789-96), The New York Magazine (1790-97), The Political Censor. or Monthly Re riew (Philadelphia, 1796-97), edited by William Colihett, and The Farmer's Weekly Museum (Wal pole, N. H., 1790-99). The last was edited from 1795 by Joseph Donnie. the founder, in NOE of 7'he Port Folio. Charles Brockden Brown estab lished in 1799, in New York. The Monthly Maga zine and American Reriew. which, with a change of name to The American Review and Literary ,Journal, survived until 1802. lie later edited The Literary Maga:inc and American Register ( Philadelphia, 1803-08).
At the end of the first decade of the nineteenth century the periodicals published in the United States amounted to nearly thirty in number. Only two of them. however, were in any way notable: The Port Folio (Philadelphia) above mentioned, which survived until 1827-up to that time a phenomenally long life for an American magazine; and The Anthology and Boston Review (Boston, 1803-11), which included Ticknor, John Quincy Adams, and Everett among its contribu tors. From this time on the number of literary periodicals—to say nothing of religious and other special publications—increased rapidly. with a corresponding improvement in quality. The fol lowing are perhaps the most noteworthy: The Analectic Magazine (Philadelphia, 1813-20), founded by Moses Thomas, with Irving (its edi tor, 1813-14), Paulding, and Wilson the orni thologist among its contributors; The Atlantic Magazine (New York, 1824-25; continued until 1827 as The :Yetv York Monthly Review), which was edited by Robert C'. Sands and bad the sup
port of Bryant ; The:Vete York Mirror (1823-42), of which N. P. Willis was one of the editors; The Illinois Monthly Magazine (Vandalic, 1n31) 32), the first publication of the kind in the West; The American Monthly Magazine (New York, 1833-38), edited 1837-38 by Park Benja min; Graham's Magazine (1840-50), a widely and deservedly popular periodical; The Dial (Boston. 1840-44), the organ of the New England Transcendentalists, edited by Ripley and Marga ret Fuller, and then by Emerson: The Interna tional Magazine (New York. 1850-52), edited by R. \V. Griswold; The Knickerbocker Magazine (New York, 1833-60). founded by the novelist Charles Fenno Hoffman, and edited for some time by Louis Gaylord Clark: Putnam's Monthly Magazine (New York, 1853-57, and 1867-69) ; The Atlantic Monthly (Boston, 1857—), per haps the foremost of American periodicals from a literary point of view, having as editors Lowell. Fields, Howells. Aldrich, Scudder. Page, and Perry, and among its contributors Holmes. Long Whittier. and most of the notable Ameri can men of letters; Harper's Yew Monthly Maga zine (New York, 1850), an illustrated monthly of high standing and wide popularity; Scribner's Monthly (New York), an illustrated monthly founded in 1870 by Dr. J. G. Holland (a- editor). Roswell Smith, and Charles Scribner, and from 188] published, with Richard \Vatson Gilder as editor, as The Century Magazine: The Galaxy, incorporated with the .Ithintic Monthly in 1878 (New York. 1860—) ; Lippin Magazine (Philadelphia, 1.868—) ; Scrilb suer•'.s Magazine (New York, 1887-1, an illus trated monthly; The Yew England Magazine, illustrated (1889—): The Cosmopolitan. illus trated (New York, 1886—) : and Meclurc's Magazine, illustrated (New York, 1893—). In the periodicals just mentioned. beginning with The Atlantic. the popular literary magazine has reached its highest point of development. not only in the United States, but in the world. Espe cially important has been the impetus given to developing the art of illustration, and the sup port given to the obsolescent art of wood-engrav ing by The Century and Harper's: it may almost be said that the art was revived by these peri odieals.
Of American reviews less need be said. Al though some of these are excellent, they 41n not. as a whole. compare favorably with timse that have been published in England and on the Conti nent. Their history begins with The American Re view of History and Politics (Philadelphia. 1811 13). a quarterly founded by Robert Walsh. This was soon followed by The North American Review (Boston, 1815), which has continued until the present day; among its editors have been many eminent men—A. P. Peabody, 1-1. Adams. Dana, Edward Everett, Sparks, Bowen, Lowell, and Norton. Among later publications of the kind— overlooking those that were merely ephemeral— are: Thr Soulturn Quarterly Ji view, first pub lished 1828-32 (Charleston. revived 1842-551 ; The United States Magazine and Democratie Re view (New York. 1837-52), later The United States Review (1.~53-55); The Yew Englander New Haven. 1843-92) ; The 1nt(rn5tion111 rieze (New York, 1874-831 ; The Forum. (1S80-1; The Arena (1S90),