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4. “The Fluttering Host of Many-Colored Competitors”: REGIONAL IMITATORS IN THE NORTHEAST, WEST, AND SOUTH
- University Press of Mississippi
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55 4 The Fluttering Host of Many-Colored Competitors” REGIONAL IMITATORS IN THE NORTHEAST, WEST, AND SOUTH An August 1842 puff printed on the inside back cover of the newly launched Boston Miscellany queried, “Why cannot Boston produce a first-rate literary magazine as well as Philadelphia?” Clearly, by the early 1840s Philadelphia’s illustrated monthly magazines of art and literature set the standards against which newcomers sought to compete. This bold writer then answers his own query: “It can, and in this instance it has.” The Boston Miscellany launched in January 1842 with Nathan Hale Jr., son of one of Boston’s famous patriots, as literary editor. Seeking to capitalize on the Hale reputation, and on the desire of Boston readers to patronize a hometown publication, it looked to have every advantage in its favor: elegant embellishments, original literary contributions, an able editor, and supportive publishers. As the proud puffer elaborated, the articles were “good, entertaining and useful.” Furthermore, he continued, “The plates of fashions and pieces of music are as good as those of any other work, and the engravings, especially in the last number, are excellent .” An additional notice published just below this one advised, “Any in New England, who may wish for a literary magazine, had better subscribe for the Miscellany, than import one not half so good from Philadelphia.”1 Similarly, in the inaugural issue of The Columbian Lady’s and Gentleman’s Magazine in January 1844, the editor, John Inman, brother to the painter Henry Inman, explained in a lengthy introduction his rationale for launching yet one more competitor to the field. Inman ventured that the demand for literary production in this country, especially in the periodical channel, exceeds the supply in a very large proportion, and “ 56 REGIONAL IMITATORS IN THE NORTHEAST, WEST, AND SOUTH that new supplies have only to be presented of the right quality, and in the right way, to ensure a hearty welcome and profitable reception. . . . From these premises it is undoubtingly inferred that there is abundant room for another Magazine, notwithstanding the merit and success of those already in being. . . . Another and strong motive has been the feeling that New York, the first city of the Union, should be the home of a periodical owning no superior in either merit or success.2 Cincinnati, the “Athens of the West,” proved to be the prominent western publishing center in this decade. By 1846 some half-dozen monthlies of note had launched, faltered, and failed. The longest-running illustrated monthly to emerge in this decade, the Ladies’ Repository, flourished from 1841 to 1876 (Mott, I, 386–88). Published by the Methodist Book Concern, initially from Cincinnati, then later from both Cincinnati and New York (“Editor’s Table,” January 1846, 32), the magazine relied primarily on literary contributions from Methodist ministers, educators, and religious sympathizers. Although a “ladies” magazine, the editor eschewed tales of “love-sick swains and lasses, and intoxicated dames,” offering instead articles on religion, morals, history, education, geography, science, and book reviews.3 While launched as a magazine explicitly interested in furthering “western” and Methodist interests, by decade’s end the editor could claim to be shepherding a periodical “which circulates in every part of the United States.”4 Thus, readers, editors, and publishers in Boston, New York, and Cincinnati positioned their fledgling monthlies against the older, better-known, and more widely circulated Philadelphia magazines. (Several southern cities also launched literary magazines in this decade; more on these shortly). While the publishers of these regional magazines strived to achieve the success of the Philadelphia pictorials, they necessarily relied on what proved to be sometimes competing strategies: an appeal to sectional interests and regional pride to boost local circulation, balanced against an insistence on promoting an emerging national literature and art to generate subscriptions beyond their cities of origin. None proved successful in displacing the Philadelphia pictorials as industry leaders in the 1840s; however, some produced embellishments notable either for featuring regional vistas, or for introducing engraving subjects “entirely new” to American audiences. This chapter will highlight several regional challengers with notable embellishments: the Boston-based Ladies’ Repository (same name as Cincinnati magazine, but different publisher) and Boston Miscellany; the Eclectic, the Ladies’ Companion and the Columbian (New York); and the Ladies’ Repository (Cincinnati). [100.26.135.252] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 16:06 GMT) REGIONAL IMITATORS IN THE NORTHEAST, WEST, AND SOUTH 57 As noted above, several southern cities—such as Richmond, Charleston...