Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-09-04
EASTERN MAGAZINES.
THE PERIODICAL LITERATURE OF THE
PAST AND PRESENT.
Dead Montnlies Once Famous-Peculiari.
ties of the Galaxy-HaIper's Success
-Fitz-James oBrien.
New YORK. August 26. 1850.

SLT1Clly literary HlOutulleS nave uOb, DIS q
rule, been palmy in the Metropolis. Most
of them have died early without achieving
any distinction, having had very little in
tellectual or financial capital to sustain
them. The number that has succumbed
to suppressing fate is larger than is gener-
ally thought but so little impression have
the majority made upon the public mind
| that, if their names were mentioned, they
would not be recognized except by the few
persons who tax their memory with all
sorts of literary ventures, and therefore
remember the liberal proportion of failures.
The literary standard has risen greatly here
and in the country at large during
the last twenty years, and the critical
faculty has been much developed. Maya
zines, such as .Saytam's, Graham and the
like, that used to be thought very clever,
and were entirely acceptable, would have
no excuse for existence to-day and would
not and could not be sustained They
were admired and read with ayidity in
their time, which shows that they were as
good as their public demanded Literary
taste and execution nave advanced re-
markably in this country within twenty
five or thirty years. We now have some
thing We can call our own, though it is not
very long since we were, in the main, a
nation OF imitators and reproducers. True
we have had Irving and Paulding, Halieck
and Poe, Dana and Hawthorne, Bryant and
Emerson, Longfellow and Whittier, and
some of these we have still. But some of
them have not been appreciated uutil re-
Gently, and others were esteemed beyond
their merit The comparatively young
writers like Stedman, Howells, Harte,
Helen Hunt, Aldrich, De Forest, Henry
James, Jr., Constance Fenimore Wool
son, Rebeeca Harding Davis, Charles Dud-
ley Warner, Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, Joa-
quin Muller, Trowbridge, Gail Hamilton,
Mark Twain, Edward Eggleston and many
others have gained distinction since the
civil war, and these represent the republic
in letters more nearly than the older heads
When Emerson, Longfellow, Lowell,
Holmes and Whittier have gone, we shall
have their natural successors IN younger
men who have already demonstrated that
they are legitimate heirs. 1t is these who
are the chief and most frequent contribu-
tors to the leading magazines, and who are
fairly and fully abreast of the time.
DEPARTED MoSTHLIEs.
The monthly which in It's day-in the
early part of It's life, at least-best repre-
sented the literature of the land was the
KnickerBocker, begun in December, 1892,
by Charles Fenno Hoffman, once a popular
poet and novelist, who is still living,
though he became insane some eighteen
years ago, and has since been an inmate of
an insane asylum. 1t passed for short
time INTO the hands of Rev. Timothy
Flint, and then into those of the late Louis
Gaylord Clark, who for nearly quarter of
a century conducted it with marked ability.
The cleverest pens Of the day filed its
pages, and the editors relation to his con
tributors was Of the most genial and salts
factory character They shed luster on
HIM that yielded him renown out Of keep
ing with his talent; but he was so amiable
and pleasant that it was impossible not to
like and in some manner overrate him. In
1865 the principal writers for the monthly
published handsome octave volume CON
tanning original sketches by them, along
with their portraits. It was named the
. Kuickerbocker Galaxy" and was sold
for the purpose of buying cottage for the
kind editor at Piermont, on the Hudson,
where he lived plainly though comfortably
at the time of his death. The magazine
continued too long for its fame Other
monthlies, like the Atlintic and PutnGm's,
were started, and drew off many of the
Knickerbocker contributors, so that the
older periodical existed for some years on
its past reputation, and at It's decease was
scarcely missed.
The rightful successor of the Knicker-
booker was Putndms, the best magazine we
ever had here, one that has not been sur
passed since, so far as its first issue was
concerned. Founded in 1852 by the late
| George p. Putnam, the publisher, most
estimable and widely cultured man, though
not OF a practical turn, it had for editors
| Parke Goodwin, George William Curtis and
| Charles F. Briggs, and the ablest native
authors for its contributors. Excellent as
it was, Putnam failed, and consequently
the magazine was disposed of to Dix, Ed
wards & Co., who also failed, and, after an
earnest effort to carry on the periodical, it
expired In the sixth year of its age. Some
of Godwin's best political essays, Grant
Whites Shakespeares Scholar, Curtis
'Prue and l" and Potiphar Papers, and
other literary works that attracted much
attention, and sold largely in book form,
appeared originally in PutRamS. George
z. Putnam revived the magazine after the
war, but it was feeble and uninteresting
with the former, and naturally did not last
very long.
The last defunct monthly of note was
the GALAXY by many ranked as the highest
of our periodicals, and at times certainly
brilliant 1t was the most independent of
the magazines, allowing writers more lati-
tude in expression of opinion than is COM
mon with publishers. 1t was very uneven,
some numbers being particularly good and
others in no wise remarkable. The GALAXY
was not hoary with age. 1t hourished, or
endured, twelve years, never having made
or lost any money to speak of. It's demise
was wholly unanticipated even by
the publishers who had put the
next (the February number) partly into
| type when they suddenly decided to give
| it up. They assumed to turn it over to
the editors, VIM. G. and Frank P. Church,
who were its founders, and they sold it.
that is, the subscription list-to the At
ldntic. The explanation is that Sheldon &
Co., having been looking over the accounts
of the year, and making a general review
of their affairs, found that the GALAXY had
not been profitable, and that it was not
likely to be. Hence they relinquished it
all the more willingly, as it had caused
| them first and last no little trouble. They
and the editors had never agreed they
being orthodox and the editors inclined to
heterodoxy, and holding also very different
views on other subjects. The death of the
GALAXY is regretted by good many people,
though they do not pretend that it should
have been continued for their pleasure at
the cost of the publishers. Magazines are
precautions property at best, and they are
generally unremunerative. Those who
want to set them up are commonly men
more hopeful than discreet or experienced.
QUEER PERIODICAL.
No monthly ever issued here has occa-
stoned authors more vexation and trouble
than the GALAXY did. Most of the time it
had no system MSS. were allowed to &C.
-. l.NA la \