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Blackwood’s Magazine

About This Item

  • Title: Blackwood’s Magazine
  • Date: 7 October 1857
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
  • Whitman Archive ID: per.01201
  • Source: Brooklyn Daily Times, 7 October 1857: 2. Our transcription is based on a digital image of a microfilm scan of the original issue. Microfilm of original issue held at Pennsylvania State University Libraries. For a description of the editorial rationale behind our treatment of the journalism, see our statement of editorial policy.
  • Editorial note: This piece is unsigned, as was the case for most of Whitman's journalism. However, this editorial is part of a series of texts that deal with a coherent theme that has been identified by the Whitman Archive journalism team as likely authored by Whitman. This decision is based on a combination of historical and (auto)biographical accounts, similarity to contemporary Whitman writings, a history of scholarly attribution, extant clippings retained by Whitman, computational stylometric analysis, and, in some cases, manuscript evidence in Whitman’s hand.
  • Contributors to digital file: Thara Michaelis Cassandra Jannel Simms Stefan Schöberlein Karie Cobb
  • Cite this page: Whitman, Walt. "Blackwood’s Magazine." The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 16 July 2024. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org>.
  • Source File: per.01201.xml (TEI)
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BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE.—

We have received the September number of Leonard Scott & Co.’s1 reprint of this first-class serial. Blackwood2 maintains the even tenor of its way, and rarely evinces the least falling off in point of ability. “Military Education,” the leading article, is timely and well-written. Bulwer’s3 new novel, “What will he do with it?” is continued. We shall want to read more of this before pronouncing on its merits. Its tone is quite in the vein of the “Caxtons.” “The Book and the Rocks” is an exceedingly orthodox reconciliation of the Mosaic account with geological discoveries. “Scenes of Clerical Life,” and “New Sea Side Studies” are rather heavy reading. “Memoranda from the Manzanares,” is lively and entertaining, giving a capital picture of Spanish life. “The Bengal Mutiny,” which winds up the number, is an excellent resume of the Indian question.

Notes:

1. Leonard Scott & Co. was a New York publishing company created by Leonard Scott (1810–1895) that focused on reprinting British magazines. [back]

2. Blackwood's Magazine, or Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, was a monthly magazine created by William Blackwood in 1817. Though it was published in Scotland it quickly attracted a wide readership in Great Britain and the U.S., especially for its fiction offerings. For more information, see David Finkelstein, The House of Blackwood: Author-Publisher Relations in the Victorian Age? (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2002). [back]

3. Edward Bulwer-Lytton (1803–1873), was an English writer and politician. His novel The Caxtons: A Family Picture (1849) was a breakout hit at the time. Whitman once accused Lytton of plagiarizing a book titled Zicci, stating it was the exact same as the novel Zanoni. Both novels, however, were written by Lytton. Whitman described the controversy in a number of Aurora editorials. See "The Great Bamboozle!—A Plot Discovered!" (March 28, 1842), and "More Humbug" (April 4, 1842). [back]

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