In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

173 THE AKRON OFFERING. September, 1849. From the Democratic Review.1 Which is the Fortunate Man?2 By Miss Annie Middleton.3 “So Robert Hunt has taken himself off?” said Lewis Maynard, joining a group of students assembled on the College grounds at S——. “I don’t wonder; what a deuced pretty rage he got into in the class this morning.” 1. The literary organ of New York City’s “Young America” movement, the United States Magazine, and Democratic Review was edited by John L. O’Sullivan (1813–95) and published the works of many antebellum writers who are well known today. As William Charvat summarizes the movement, “they were for labor unions, universal education, literary nationalism, cheap books, and literature for the people; they were against the banking interests, monopoly, and aristocratic British cultural influence ” (74). There is much scholarship concerning “Young America” and The Democratic Review; for a start, see Robert D. Sampson, John L. O’Sullivan and His Times (Kent: Kent State University Press, 2003); Edward L. Widmer, Young America: The Flowering of Democracy in New York City (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999); and John Stafford, The Literary Criticism of “Young America” (Berkeley : University of California Press, 1952). Charvat’s summary comes from his review of Stafford in Modern Language Notes 69, no. 1 (January 1954): 74, JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/3039729. 2. The source for this selection is The United States Magazine, and Democratic Review 19, no. 97 (July 1846): 46–55. The story was printed originally—in The Democratic Review and in The Akron Offering and—with only a few paragraph breaks. See illustration on p. 21. In this text I have inserted paragraph breaks, especially to separate lines of dialogue. It is otherwise too difficult for a modern reader to make sense of the story. See preface, p. xv. 3. Not much is known about “Miss Annie Middleton.” Census records suggest this was a common name. Annie Dewolf Middleton of the prominent Charleston family was married and thus not a “Miss” in the 1840s, and her daughter Annie was not born until 1847. This Annie Middleton published a number of short stories in the 1840s, mainly in The Democratic Review and The Columbian Lady’s and Gentleman’s Magazine, an elegant New York City production. Another tale for the Democratic Review, “Scenes from the Life of Diderot,” also features unparagraphed dialogue. See United The Akron Offering 174 “Why, I did not notice it—what did he do?” exclaimed a youth who had lately entered. “Do!” echoed the first speaker—“that’s the beauty of it, he never does anything. If he would hurl a book at the tutor’s head, or knock somebody down in his wrath, it would be finishing the thing in a fine manly way. Instead of that he turns red, then pale, trembles, clenches his hand, and is completely topsy-turvy for the rest of the day.” “What was he angry at this morning?” returned the boy, who had before addressed him. “Why he’s been trying for the valedictory ever since he entered college, and that great bully, George Addington, (is he anywhere near?) has been determined that he shall not succeed; and as he is too lazy and too stupid to oppose him by studying, is purposed to do it by teasing; so ridicules, mocks, and sneers at Robert, till he is just fit for the lunatic asylum. I’d fight him if I was beat to a jelly for it, or else be cool and indifferent, and take no notice of his batteries, for he’d stop soon enough if he saw it did not tease. But Robert Hunt is too cowardly for the first, and too much a States Magazine, and Democratic Review 20, no. 105 (March 1847): 227–31, Google Books, http://books .google.com/books?id=A4VUAAAAYAAJ. Evidently many editors and readers of the 1840s were not troubled by paragraphs that include dialogue from more than one character. A close reader of American literary periodicals of the 1830s and 1840s will find many such examples; the practice was more common than we might expect today, perhaps because antebellum writers and readers of fiction had more experience reading fiction in handwritten manuscript. Paragraph breaks were often abandoned in manuscript to save space on what might be expensive paper. Middleton’s published fiction has paragraphed dialogue in some places and unparagraphed dialogue in others. For example, two Middleton stories for The Columbian, “Much...

Share