In 1801 Joseph Dennie and John Dickins began to publish, in Philadelphia, The Port Folio, which was destined to live for twenty-six years. Among its contributors were John Blair Linn, author of “The Powers of Genius,” “The Death of Washington,” etc.; Robert H. Rose, author of “Sketches in Verse”; John Sanderson, who wrote a book of Parisian sketches entitled “The American in Paris”; Alexander Graydon; Gouverneur Morris; Joseph Hopkinson, author of “Hail, Columbia,” and of articles on Shakespeare; and Alexander Wilson, poet and ornithologist, whose works were edited by Alexander B. Grosart (Paisley, Scotland, 1876).
From 1803 to 1811, the Anthology Club maintained in Boston a sprightly magazine called The Anthology and Boston Review. The best minds of Boston contributed to it; among them George Ticknor, William Tudor, Joseph Buckminster, John Quincy Adams, Dr. John Sylvester, Edward Everett, and John Gardiner. The magazine never paid expenses; but the contributors cheerfully paid for their pleasure. The club did much to give Boston its literary prestige, and was the forerunner of the famous Boston Athenæum.
The Literary Magazine and American Register (Philadelphia, 1803–1808) was likewise founded by the novelist Brown, who published therein, among other things, his “Memoirs of Carwin, the Biloquist.”
Washington Irving began his literary career with the publication of Salmagundi, which he founded in New York in 1807, in conjunction with his brother William and James Kirke Paulding. The little sheet, in yellow covers, was issued by an eccentric publisher, David Longworth, the front of whose house was entirely hidden by a colossal painting of the crowning of Shakespeare. The magazine was modelled after Addison’s Spectator. Paulding was Launcelot Langstaff and Irving was Pindar Cockloft, the poet. “Our intention,” wrote the editors, “is simply to instruct the young, reform the old, correct the town, and castigate the age; this is an arduous task, and therefore we undertake it with confidence.” The work soon became popular throughout the United States for its clever reproductions of society foibles. After twenty numbers, however, it was discontinued, because, as Paulding said, “the publisher, with that liberality so characteristic of these modern Mæcenases, declined to concede to us a share of the profits, which had become considerable.” Twelve years later, Irving being then in Europe, Paulding attempted a second series (Philadelphia, May to August, 1820), which, though inferior to the first series, still contained some interesting pages.
The Select Reviews and Spirit of the Foreign Magazines, begun by Samuel Ewing in Philadelphia (1809), later became The Analectic Magazine (1812–1821). In 1813–1814 Irving was its editor and contributed to it some biographies of heroes of the War of 1812 and some of the essays afterwards collected in “The Sketch Book.” Other contributors were Gulian C. Verplanck, James K. Paulding, Alexander Wilson, and William Darlington. The Analectic published in July, 1819, the first lithograph made in America.
The Portico (Baltimore, 1815–1819) numbered among its contributors John Neal, whose lengthy review of Byron appeared as a serial. Neal continued to write for The Portico “until he knocked it on the head, it is thought, by an article on Free Agency.”
The Idle Man (New York, 1821–1822) was edited by Richard H. Dana the elder; in it were printed his novels “Tom Thornton” and “Paul Felton” and some contributions from Bryant and from Washington Allston.
The New York Mirror, a weekly, was begun in 1823 by General George P. Morris and Samuel Woodworth, the author of “The Old Oaken Bucket.” Woodworth soon gave way to Theodore S. Fay and he in turn (1831) to Nathaniel P. Willis. Morris and Willis conducted it with great success until 1842. Fay contributed “The Little Genius,” satirical letters on New York society, and “The Minute Book,” letters from Europe. Willis spent some years abroad as foreign correspondent of the paper (1832–1836), his letters being eagerly read and widely copied. Morris and Willis subsequently conducted The New Mirror (New York, 1843–1844), which in October, 1844, became a daily, and The Home Journal (New York, from 1846 on), which as Town and Country still continues.
The Atlantic Magazine (New York, 1824–1825), edited by Robert C. Sands, was continued till 1826 as The New York Review and Athenæum Magazine. In its later form it was edited by Henry J. Anderson and William Cullen Bryant. In it appeared many of Bryant’s poems and some of his prose, as well as contributions by Longfellow, Dana, Willis, Bancroft, and Caleb Cushing. In March, 1826, the Review was merged with The New York Literary Gazette. In July this was in turn combined with The United States Literary Gazette, which had been founded in Boston in 1825 and edited by Theophilus Parsons, the new title being The United States Review and Literary Gazette. James G. Carter, and later Charles Folsom, were the Boston editors, and Bryant was the New York editor. The periodical did not long survive.
The American Monthly Magazine (New York, 1829–1831) was established and edited by Nathaniel P. Willis, who enlisted a number of younger writers, such as Richard Hildreth, Park Benjamin, Isaac McLellan, Albert Pike (“Hymns to the Gods”), Rufus Dawes, and Mrs. Sigourney. In 1831 the Magazine was absorbed by The New York Mirror, of which Willis now became an associate editor.