The Philadelphia Magazines and their Contributors 1741-1850Smyth, Albert Henry
History
The Philadelphia Magazines and their Contributors 1741-1850
Smyth, Albert Henry
American periodicals -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia
The _Friends' Review_ was the creation of the Orthodox Friends, in
1847. Its first editor was the mathematician, Enoch Lewis, who continued
to direct it until his death, in 1856. A remarkable literary incident is
associated with the issue of January, 1848. In that month Elizabeth
Lloyd (Howell), widow of Robert Howell, of Philadelphia, contributed
anonymously to the _Review_ a poem, entitled "Milton's Prayer for
Patience," in which the Miltonic manner was so deftly imitated, that
even the very elect in criticism were deceived by it, and the poem was
actually printed in the Oxford edition of Milton as Milton's own lament
for his loss of sight.
Most of the Philadelphia magazines of the last fifty years have been
enriched by the busy hand of Mr. John Sartain, and two of the most
interesting of the city's periodicals were owned and edited by him. Mr.
Sartain, who has won the highest place in the history of American
engraving, was born in London, England, October 24, 1808. He came to
America in 1830, and settled in Philadelphia at the persuasion of Thomas
Sully. No living engraver has accomplished as much work as this untiring
and skilful artist. But it is not as an artist or an interpreter of art
alone that he has won high honor; his literary labors, though less
conspicuous and less splendid, are significant and interesting.
_Campbell's Foreign Monthly Magazine_ began September 1, 1843. It was
published monthly for one year by James M. Campbell, of 98 Chestnut
Street, when it was bought outright by Mr. John Sartain, who changed the
title to _Campbell's Foreign Semi-Monthly, or Select Miscellany of
European Literature and Art_ (September, 1843, to September, 1844).
Sartain engraved a plate for each number, and compiled a laborious
miscellany of the latest intelligence in art, science and letters. Many
famous bits of literature appeared for the first time in America in this
magazine. "The Bridge of Sighs," "The Song of the Shirt" (Vol. V, p.
211), "The Haunted House" (Hood), "The Pauper's Funeral" and "The Drop
of Gin" (Vol. V, p. 138) were first published in these pages.
In 1848 Mr. Sartain purchased the _Union Magazine of Literature and
Art_, edited in New York by Caroline Matilda Kirkland, the American Miss
Mitford. The name of the magazine was changed, and _Sartain's Union
Magazine_ appeared in January, 1849, edited by Mrs. Kirkland and
Professor John S. Hart, of the Central High School. For a few months Dr.
Reynell Coates acted as editor, but in the third year of its history Mr.
Sartain assumed complete charge of his magazine. In 1852 it again
returned to New York, when it was merged into the _National Magazine_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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