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American Periodicals: A Journal of History, Criticism, and Bibliography 13 (2003) 1-2



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From the Editors' Chairs

In a journal devoted to the history of American magazines and newspapers, it seems fitting to pause to celebrate a significant event in the history of American Periodicals itself: the retirement of its founding editor, James T. F. Tanner, and its move to a new home at The Ohio State University. This issue has been prepared by the new editors, Susan Williams, Steven Fink, and Jared Gardner, and published by the Ohio State University Press. But it has also been very much a collaborative effort with Professor Tanner and his editorial team at the University of North Texas, who had accepted several of the articles and also arranged for the contributions of Kim Martin Long, the journal's long-time bibliographer, and of the book reviews edited by Patricia Okker. We are grateful for all of their efforts. We are also delighted to report that Professor Okker has agreed to continue her work as book review editor as we continue the transition to our new editorial home.

The first issue of American Periodicals appeared in the fall of 1991, shortly after, and in tandem with, the founding of the Research Society for American Periodicals (RSAP) at the American Literature Association Conference on May 24, 1991. In the inaugural issue, Professor Tanner heralded the arrival of a scholarly journal dedicated exclusively "to the interdisciplinary study of American periodicals (both magazines and newspapers) of all chronological periods, from the seventeenth century to the present" as "the most exciting development in American scholarship in recent decades" (iii-iv). The first twelve years of the journal's history have given ample evidence of the excitement of the field, with essays that have ranged across a wide variety of topics, from the history of magazine covers to teaching periodicals, from studies of individual authors to magazines as cultural agents. The RSAP and all readers of the journal are grateful to Professor Tanner for his energy, his vision, and his stewardship of the journal over twelve years, even at times of decreasing university support for such work.

The new editorial team itself testifies to the intellectual and scholarly excitement generated by the journal, by the RSAP, and by the important scholarship in the field over the last decade, since all three of us have been inspired by this work to move toward periodical studies in our own research. Having first focused on other aspects of American literature and culture, we are all currently engaged in research on [End Page 1] various aspects of periodical history: Steven Fink on antebellum writers and periodical editors Margaret Fuller, Lydia Maria Child, Caroline Gilman, Ann Stephens, Caroline Kirkland, and Sarah Hale; Jared Gardner on early American periodicals and citizenship; and Susan Williams on constructions of authorship in nineteenth-century periodicals. As a group, we also bring to the journal editorial and advisory experience on a number of other journals, including ELH, PMLA, and Prose Studies. We are grateful to the RSAP Board for appointing us editors of the journal, and to our department chair, Valerie Lee, and the Dean of the College of Humanities, Michael Hogan, for their support in bringing the journal to Ohio State.

As we assume responsibility for the journal, we hope to build on Professor Tanner's legacy while also giving the journal some new features. This issue will be the last one to be issued in an annual format; beginning next year, with volume 14, the journal will be published twice a year. We will continue to include essays on all aspects of the history and criticism of American periodicals, and we also have in mind a few special features, including a series of reprints from the archives (beginning with a series of periodical manifestos entitled "Editors on Editing"), an occasional list of dissertations in progress on American periodicals, and theoretical overviews of the current state of periodical studies, including its relation to digital media. We welcome your contributions to these particular features and your suggestions for others.

This inaugural...

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