Paulding and Verplanck wrote for the magazine, signing their articles "P." and "V."
William Darlington (1782-1863), Pennsylvanian, after whom was named the Darlingtonica California (a species of pitcher-plant), went to India as ship's surgeon in 1806, and published in the Analectic Magazine a sketch of his voyage called "Letters from Calcutta."
The Analectic contains a number of valuable portraits. The first lithograph ever made in America is in this magazine for July 1819. It represents a woodland scene—a flowing stream and a single house upon the bank. It was made by Bass Otis, who followed the suggestions of Judge Cooper and Dr. Brown, of Alabama. The drawing was made upon a stone from Munich, presented to the American Philosophical Society by Mr. Thomas Dobson, of Philadelphia. The Analectic Magazine was finally converted into the Literary Gazette and died one year later (December, 1821).[21]
WITTY AND SATIRICAL MAGAZINES.
The Tickler was edited by George Helmbold, and was first issued, September 16, 1807, under the pen-name of "Toby Scratch 'Em." It had for its motto:
"Curst be the verse, how well soe'er it flow,
That tends to make one worthy man my foe,
Give virtue scandal, innocence a fear,
Or from the soft-eyed virgin steal a tear."—Pope.
It was to be issued every Wednesday morning, at the price of four dollars per annum, from 131 South Front Street. The first volume of fifty-two numbers was not completed until February 8, 1809. Helmbold enlisted in the army and was promoted to a lieutenancy at Lundy's Lane. After the war he kept the Minerva Tavern at Sixth and Sansom Streets. He afterward edited the Independent Balance.
The Trangram, or Fashionable Trifler, by "Christopher Crag, Esq., his Grandmother and Uncle," was published in Philadelphia by George E. Blake in 1809. It foreshadowed its wit and its satire in its introductory parody of Macbeth:
"How now, ye cunning, sharp and secret wags,
What is't ye do?
A deed with a double name."
In the first number was an address by "The Publisher to the 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.