Chapter Three
Literary Magazines of the Early Nineteenth Century
Joseph Dennie and the Port Folio
The North American Review
Washington Irving
Transcendentalist Magazines
William Cullen Bryant and the Annuals
Mr. Poe Invents the Short Story
At the turn of the 19th century, Americans had been publishing magazines for six decades, a period in which about 90 magazines were launched, the majority closing within a year. The number of launches increased significantly toward the end of the 18th century, but the survival rate remained low: 55 magazines appeared in the decade of the 1790s, but only three were doing business on January 1, 1800. In other words, as the new century began, publishers’ enthusiasm to bring magazines to market was on a rising curve, but the public’s enthusiasm to buy them remained equivocal... Read more
Port Folio
In 1801 Joseph Dennie launched what may have been America's most popular and most interesting magazine to date.
The North American Review
Great pedigree... long history. The NAR was among the most influential American magazines of the 19th century
Washington Irving
Irving said he was "unfitted for any periodically recurring task." But he was well suited to work at several periodicals.
William Cullen Bryant and the Annuals
Books made to be given away... seldom read and always judged by their covers. They provided welcome income to some of America's greatest writers.
Edgar Allen Poe and the Lure of the Magazine
Poe was the master of the short story... and his life with magazines? What a tale!