III.

19th-Century Periodicals

Monthly or quarterly reviews, usually partisan in politics, and with articles contributed by eminent authors and politicians, were introduced in Britain early in the 19th century. Of these, two became outstanding. The Edinburgh Review (1802-1929), founded in support of the Whig Party, was one of the most influential critical journals of its day and numbered among its contributors the English writers Sir Walter Scott, Thomas Carlyle, Matthew Arnold, and William Hazlitt. Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine (1817-1981), a Tory publication, was early in its career noted for its serialization of Scottish fiction and its satirical commentaries on Scottish affairs.

One of the most important serious periodicals in the United States in the 19th century was the North American Review (1815-1940; revived in 1964). Editors during its long and illustrious career included such literary figures as James Russell Lowell, Charles Eliot Norton, and Henry Adams; contributors included Henry James, H. G. Wells, and Mark Twain. Among the European equivalents of such periodicals were the French Revue des Deux Mondes (Review of Two Worlds, 1829) and the German Literarisches Wochenblatt (Literary Weekly, 1820-1898).

Popular weeklies and monthlies, some illustrated and selling for only a few pennies each, made their appearance in Britain in the second quarter of the 19th century; they included The Mirror (1822-1849), a twopenny illustrated magazine, and the Cornhill Magazine (1860-1939). The Cornhill, first edited by English novelist William Makepeace Thackeray, was the first sixpenny monthly to publish fiction regularly in serial form; these serials included novels by the editor and contemporaries such as Elizabeth Gaskell and Anthony Trollope.

Only 16 periodicals were published in the Americas before the American Revolution (1775-1783). But about 100 periodicals, most of them short-lived, were issued in the last quarter of the 18th century. By the mid-19th century, 600 periodicals of various types were being printed in the United States. Many of these, patterning themselves after English monthlies and quarterlies, were intended for general audiences and featured essays on the arts, history, and politics.

The number of journals for special audiences also increased, including—as in England—monthlies and weeklies for women. Godey's Lady's Book (1830-1898), for example, with its hand-colored fashion illustrations (now prized by collectors), was vastly influential in setting the style in clothing, manners, and taste. Youth's Companion (1827-1929) and later St. Nicholas (1873-1940) were among several children's magazines published. Religious journals appealing to the antislavery and temperance movements were numerous.

Another group was composed of the serious monthly and quarterly literary reviews, such as Graham's Magazine (1826-1858) and The Southern Literary Messenger (1834-1864), both of which writer and critic Edgar Allan Poe was connected with; and The Dial (1840-1844), the journal of the New England transcendentalists, edited first by author Margaret Fuller and subsequently by poet and essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson. Family magazines such as the Saturday Evening Post (1821-1969; revived as a quarterly in 1971) became vastly popular with the general public.

The first modern illustrated magazines appeared during the middle and latter part of the 19th century. The more successful included the weekly Illustrated London News (1842), which was important for its coverage, over more than a century, of significant events. L'Illustration in France (1843-1944), Die Woche (The Week, 1899-1940) in Germany, and Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper (1855-1922) and Harper's Weekly (1857-1916) in the United States followed suit. The last two were especially notable for their pictures of the American Civil War (1861-1865), drawn by staff artists. The painter Winslow Homer, for example, contributed to Harper's Weekly from 1858 to 1876, and Thomas Nast, best known for his political caricatures, worked both for Harper's and for the Illustrated London News. By the end of the 19th century, however, photography and the development of halftone illustration had replaced artists' renderings.

Other important British periodicals of the second half of the 19th century include the Fortnightly Review (1865-1954; issued monthly after 1866) and the weekly humor magazine Punch (1841), one of the most famous of its kind. Its brand of witty comment—in cartoons and articles—on British life had counterparts in later publications in other nations. The genre includes the German Simplicissimus (1896-1944; 1956-1967), although its thrust was more decidedly satirical; the artists who contributed to it include the German American painter and illustrator George Grosz. In the 20th century The New Yorker (1925) successfully adopted this formula with a unique mix of cartoons, objective reporting, and short fiction by trend-setting writers.

Improvements in illustration and printing techniques during the 19th century resulted in lower production costs and introduced a new era of mass circulation, especially in the United States. Federal laws were passed providing inexpensive mailing rates. Increasingly, also, magazine publishers relied on revenue from the advertising their publications carried. The number, variety, and readership of attractively designed periodicals grew enormously. Harper's New Monthly Magazine (1850; later Harper's Magazine) led the revolution, with serialized fiction by popular English authors and many woodcut illustrations. Rival illustrated monthlies soon followed—among them, Scribner's Monthly (begun in 1870), afterward issued as the Century (1881-1930), and Scribner's Magazine (1887-1939). Of the unillustrated periodicals, the leading examples—both still being published—were the literary magazine The Atlantic (formerly The Atlantic Monthly, 1857), edited by eminent writers and critics, including William Dean Howells; and the political magazine The Nation (1865).

At the same time, a number of illustrated periodicals that were inexpensively produced and priced and of great popular appeal throughout the United States were founded. They included Cosmopolitan (1886), McClure's Magazine (1893-1933), and Munsey's Magazine (1889-1929). McClure's and Munsey's, along with Collier's (1883-1957), were among the most influential of the so-called muckraking periodicals, so named for their manner of exposing government and business corruption in the decade between 1902 and 1912. In Canada, illustrated periodicals included Canadian Illustrated News (1869-1883), Saturday Night (1887), and Maclean’s (1905), which eventually became one of the country’s most important magazines.

Women's magazines gained strength in the late 1800s. Readers could choose among Ladies' (later Woman's) Home Companion (1873-1957), McCall's Magazine (1876), Ladies' Home Journal (1883), Good Housekeeping (1885), and Vogue (1892).