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.