From the Editors' Chairs

With this issue, after thirteen years as an annual, American Periodicals begins publishing two issues a year. This expansion of the journal mirrors the development of the field, as periodical studies continues to discover new archives, methodologies, and theoretical frameworks—as well as an ever-growing body of younger scholars bringing new energies and ideas to the field. This first issue of 2004 reflects and represents these forces that have worked to expand and deepen the study of American periodicals.

For example, in this issue we begin what we expect will become a frequent feature of American Periodicals: a review-essay on new digital archives and resources for periodical studies, presented here by Cynthia Patterson. We are also pleased to inaugurate a new regular feature: "From the Periodical Archives," a collection organized thematically and historically from the periodical archives to serve as both a teaching and a research resource. This issue features a selection of editorial manifestos from the "Golden Age" of American periodicals. We invite suggestions and contributions for future editions of "From the Periodical Archives."

The essays themselves continue to showcase the range of periodical studies through the original and unique perspectives each author brings to her or his subject. Mark Kamrath considers the eighteenth-century "oriental tale," arguing for the ways in which these tales afford us access not only to Western orientalist fantasies but also to seemingly irrecoverable sites of erotic pleasures and agency for women readers and writers in the new republic. Sohui Lee reads Nathaniel Hawthorne's stories in the Democratic Review, offering a reconsideration of the ways in which his work and his politics were both shaped by his negotiations with this influential journal. Jennifer Phegley takes on one of the most challenging topics in nineteenth-century American periodical study, arguing that the prevalent piracy and Anglophilia of the period, as exemplified in the pages of Harper's magazine, must be paradoxically understood as a concerted nationalist project. And finally Charles Johanningsmeier reads a tale by Frank Norris in the context of the fierce debates over the Sunday newspapers that disseminated countless pieces of fiction at the turn of the century.

If these features point to some of the most interesting directions currently taken in American periodical studies, we are soliciting for our next issue contributions for a special issue devoted to the "State of the Field"—meditations on the historiography, theory and methodology defining this vibrant area of study. We hope our readers will consider contributing their own insights to this special issue. And we look forward to continuing to expand and develop American Periodicals in conjunction with the Research Society for American Periodicals and with input and insights from all of our readers.

Susan Williams, Steve Fink, and Jared Gardner
Columbus, Ohio
February 2004