The Atlantic Monthly, No. 1, November, Boston: Phillips, Sampson & Co.
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THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY, No. 1, November, Boston: Phillips, Sampson & Co.1
The long-heralded initial number of the Boston magazine which was to rival the British publications in the higher walks of periodical literature has at length appeared. The list of contributors includes some twenty or thirty of the standard names of American literature, and the style, typography and execution of the work are all that could be desired, while the price, 25 cents, brings it within the reach of all. This is about all the commendation which the present number warrants. We certainly find as yet no traces of the rabid sectionalism which it was said would characterise the monthly, but neither do we find such a collection of articles as the aspirations of the projectors and the reputation of the contributors, warranted us in expecting. Scientific subjects seem tabooed, for fear of dullness; and the tales are very tame, for fear of verging on the “blood and thunder” style of the weekly papers. On the whole, the number is inferior to an average Harper’s Monthly2—though it is only fair to add, that the articles are all original, and that the use of the scissors, to which Harper’s is so prone, is in the Atlantic Monthly avoided. We would not wish, however, to depreciate the work on the strength of a single number, but advise our readers to procure it from the booksellers and judge for themselves of its merits from this and subsequent issues. Certain it is, that with such a list of contributors as is announced, materials are placed at the disposal of the conductors to amply fulfill their intention of making the Atlantic Monthly what it aspires to be, a worthy rival and cotemporary of Blackwood3 and Bentley.4
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3. 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]
4. Bentley's Miscellany was an English literary magazine that ran from 1836–1868. It was created by Richard Bentley (1794–1871). Charles Dickens was the first editor. [back]