The Philadelphia Magazines and their Contributors 1741-1850 Part 13

His few personal wants and the necessary comforts of his age are fully provided by Mr. George W. Childs, whose liberal hand, prompted by his generous heart, never wearies in doing deeds of generosity.

Mr. Graham has told me in detail the story of his magazine. He was the owner and editor of _Atkinson's Casket_, when, in 1841, William E.

Burton, the actor, came to him with the request that he should buy the _Gentleman's Magazine_, of which Burton had been the proprietor for four years. Burton explained that money was needed for his new theatre, that the magazine must be sold, that it numbered thirty-five hundred subscribers, and that it would be sold outright for thirty-five hundred dollars. Graham, who at that time had fifteen hundred subscribers to his own magazine, accepted the offer, and the _Gentleman's Magazine_ was transferred to him. "There is one thing more," said Burton, "I want you to take care of my young editor." That "young editor," who in this manner entered the employ of George Graham, was Edgar Allan Poe. Mr.

Graham bears clear and willing testimony to the efficient service rendered by Poe to the new magazine, which, now combined with the _Casket_, took the name of its new owner. He found little in Poe's conduct to reprove, nor does he remember any cause beyond envy and malice for Griswold's truculent slanders. A quarrel of an hour led to Poe's dismissal, but the friendly relations between the wayward poet and his former employer remained unsevered. From New York, Poe sent Graham the ma.n.u.script of a story for which he asked and received fifty dollars.

The story remained unpublished for a year, when Poe again appeared in the editorial room and begged for the return of the ma.n.u.script, that he might try with it for the prize of one hundred dollars offered for the best prose tale. Graham showed his "love and friending" for the author by surrendering the story, and the judges awarded to Edgar Poe the prize for the "Gold-Bug."

After the dismissal of Poe, the magazine, still under Graham's management, was edited by Ann Stephens and Charles J. Peterson, until Rufus Wilmot Griswold sat in the responsible chair. James Russell Lowell was a subordinate editor of the magazine as early as 1843, and in April of that year communicated to Nathaniel Hawthorne the desire of the editor, Edgar Allan Poe, that he too should become a contributor. In 1845 Lowell was married and continued to reside with his wife in Philadelphia. The following letter was the first written by Mrs. Lowell from Philadelphia to her friend Mrs. Hawthorne:

PHILADELPHIA, Jan. 16, 1845.

MY DEAR SOPHIA:--I wished to write to you before I left home, but in the hurry of those last hours I had no time, and instead of delicate sentiments could only send you gross plum-cake, which I must hope you received. We are most delightfully situated here in every respect, surrounded with kind and sympathizing friends, yet allowed by them to be as quiet and retired as we choose; but it is always a pleasure to know you can have society if you wish for it, by walking a few steps beyond your own door.

We live in a little chamber on the third story, quite low enough to be an attic, so that we feel cla.s.sical in our environment; and we have one of the sweetest and most motherly of Quaker women to antic.i.p.ate all our wants, and make us comfortable outwardly as we are blest inwardly. James's prospects are as good as an author's _ought_ to be, and I begin to fear we shall not have the satisfaction of being so _very_ poor after all. But we are, in spite of this disappointment of our expectations, the happiest of mortals or spirits, and cling to the skirts of every pa.s.sing hour, although we know the next will bring us still more joy.

Your most happy and affectionate

MARIA LOWELL.

"Nathaniel Hawthorne and his Wife," Vol. I, p. 283.

The house so happily described, and in which Lowell so pleasantly lived while he wrote for _Graham's_ and won a high place on its "canonized bead-roll," was the old house, still standing at the northeast corner of Fourth and Arch Streets, which had been built for the residence of William Smith, editor of the _American Magazine_ (1757-8).

Griswold introduced James Fenimore Cooper to Mr. Graham in the editorial sanctum, and Graham bought from him his lives of the naval commanders, and engaged him to write a serial story. Cooper wrote "The Isles of the Gulf," afterward known as "Jack Tier," and received eighteen hundred dollars for it; "though," says Graham, "the money might as well have been thrown into the sea, for it never brought me a new subscriber."

Longfellow's "Spanish Student" appeared for the first time in _Graham's Magazine_, and Longfellow also contributed "Nuremberg" (June, 1844), "The a.r.s.enal at Springfield" (May, 1844), "Dante's Divina Commedia"

(June, 1850), "Childhood" (March, 1844), "Belfry of Bruges" (Vol. 22).

Poe published here "The Murders of the Rue Morgue," three chapters on Autography (Nov., Dec., 1841-Jan., 1842), a review of Horne's "Orion"

(March, 1844), "Dreamland" (June, 1844), "To Helen," "Israfel," "A Few Words about Brainard," "Life in Death," "The Mask of the Red Death"

(May, 1842), numerous reviews of new books, and "The Conqueror Worm"

(Vol. 22).

After Griswold left the _Magazine_ Mr. Graham a.s.sumed more of the literary management, and engaged E. P. Whipple to write the editorial reviews of the more important books, which he continued to do until 1854.

Nathaniel Hawthorne included many of his early contributions to this magazine in his "Twice-Told Tales." "The Earth's Holocaust" appeared in May, 1844.

George D. Prentice wrote verses. "f.a.n.n.y Forester" (Mrs. Judson) sent some brilliant sketches, and Phoebe and Alice Cary, and Grace Greenwood were faithful correspondents. From the South came verses and prose tales by William Gilmore Simms. Other captain jewels in Graham's carcanet were the gifts of Miss Sedgwick, Frances S. Osgood, N. P.

Willis ("it was very comfortable that there should have been a Willis"), James K. Paulding, Park Benjamin, W. W. Story, Geo. W. Bethune, Mary Lockhart Lawson, Charles Fenno Hoffman, Alfred B. Street and Albert Pike.

Among the Philadelphians who rendered frequent aid to the editor were Joseph C. Neal, Richard Penn Smith, Dr. J. K. Mitch.e.l.l, Robert Morris and Thomas Dunn English, the author of "Ben Bolt," who would seem to have tasted the fountain of eternal youth, and has gone to Congress in 1890 a jolly, thriving candidate.

William Henry Herbert (Frank Forester) furnished a number of sporting sketches and other articles.

The circulation of _Graham's Magazine_ when at the top of popularity was thirty-five or thirty-seven thousand. Mr. Graham sold out in 1848, but bought back the property in 1849. He finally parted with it in 1854.

Washington Irving alone, among the far-shining men of letters in the country, had no connection with _Graham's_. The _Knickerbocker Magazine_ of New York found place for all that the facility of his pen could create, and guarded jealously the productions of their "crack writer."

_Graham's Magazine_ began with volume eighteen, being the addition of the ten volumes of Atkinson's _Casket_, and the seven volumes of Burton's _Gentleman's Magazine_. This first volume, 1841, contained Poe's "Descent into a Maelstrom" and his "Murders in the Rue Morgue."

The twenty-first volume, 1842, presents the name of Rufus W. Griswold upon the cover. The thirtieth volume was edited by Graham alone; the thirty-second by Graham and Robert T. Conrad; the thirty-fifth by Graham, Joseph R. Chandler and Bayard Taylor; the fiftieth by Charles G.o.dfrey Leland. On the first of January, 1859, _Graham's Magazine_ became the _American Monthly_.

On March 15, 1838, John Greenleaf Whittier became editor of the _Pennsylvania Freeman_, published at 31 North Fifth Street. He was successor to Benjamin Lundy.

Graham's particular patent of n.o.bility is the fact that he was the first of American publishers to pay fair prices to American authors.

The _Lady's Amaranth_ was another venture of 1838, and was issued from No. 274 Market Street.

Adam Waldie was the publisher of the _American Phrenological Journal and Miscellany_, begun in November, 1838.

The _Philadelphia Reporter_ was called into being in 1838, at No. 45 North Sixth Street, but no physic could prolong its sickly days, and it was discontinued in a few months' time.

The _Christian Observer_ was a weekly Presbyterian journal commenced in 1838, and was for many years published from No. 134 Chestnut Street.

The _Baptist Record_ was a religious publication continued from 1838 to 1857.

The _American Phrenological Journal_ was issued from No. 46 Carpenter Street from 1838 to 1841.

The _Farmer's Cabinet_, devoted to agriculture, was published from 1838 to 1850.

The _Ladies' Companion_ was published by Orrin Rodgers for two years following 1838.

Rodgers also published the _Medico-Chirurgical Review_, about 1838. Its life, however, was short.

_Peterson's Ladies' National Magazine_.--It was George R. Graham who first suggested to his friend, Charles J. Peterson, then editor of the _Sat.u.r.day Evening Post_, the publication of a fashion journal, patterned upon the popular French periodicals. _Peterson's Magazine_ is now (1891) in its fiftieth year, and is still the best and most popular publication of its cla.s.s. Its circulation has been as high as one hundred and sixty-five thousand. It is to-day a stock company, of which Mrs. C. J.

Peterson is President. The same glittering row of writers who contributed to _Graham's_ helped also in the making of _Peterson's_.

Frances Hodgson Burnett published her first story, "Ethel's Sir Lancelot," in _Peterson's_ for November, 1868. The story filled five pages. Mrs. Frank Leslie thinks that Mrs. Burnett's first literary work was for Frank Leslie in 1867 or 1868, and that she received her first check in payment for an article in _Frank Leslie's Magazine_. Mrs.

Leslie says that Mrs. Burnett was then living in Knoxville with her brother who was a civil engineer.

Mr. Peterson died March 4, 1887. The following editorial note appeared in _The Philadelphia Inquirer_ of Monday, March 7, 1887:

CHARLES J. PETERSON.

"No man was ever more beloved by his friends--and among them were those who were great and good in all that const.i.tutes intellectual greatness and moral goodness--than Charles J. Peterson, whose death occurred on Friday night last. He was one of that group of men who half a century ago began to make Philadelphia famous as the literary centre of the country. Liberally educated, trained to the law, he turned naturally to literature, to which his brilliant mind, his ripe scholarship, his fervid imagination, his refined taste directed and impelled him. He survived nearly all of those who had but a brief while before or after him entered upon the world of letters in this city. At that time the best literary thought of the nation was expressed through the medium of _Graham's Magazine_, of which Mr. Peterson was the editor. Among his learned and brilliant a.s.sociates were James Russell Lowell, Edgar Allan Poe, Dr. Rufus Griswold, Dr. Bird, Richard Penn Smith, Professor J. K.

Mitch.e.l.l, Judge Conrad, Morton McMichael and Louis A. G.o.dey. Of all these men with whom Mr. Peterson worked and lived upon the most intimate terms of literary companionship Mr. Lowell now alone survives. Fifty years ago they were the names which gave to American literature distinction, and made Philadelphia the most prominent centre of genius and talent. Among his contemporaries Mr. Peterson held distinguished rank, and had he continued his literary career there can be no doubt that he would have continued to hold it even in the army of writers who in recent years have become so famous.

"But Mr. Peterson put aside writing to become a publisher, in which he achieved remarkable and deserved success, and subsequently he wrote but infrequently, and then only brief brochures intended solely for private circulation among his friends, but which showed the fertility of his mind, his rare fancy, fine taste and ripe judgment.

"But while Mr. Peterson was commonly known as an author, editor and publisher, he was best known by those who enjoyed the happiness and privilege of his acquaintanceship, friendship or more affectionate relations, as a man of the n.o.blest character, the tenderest sensibilities, the most refined and gentle qualities. Advancing age, a great and sorrowful loss, that of an only son by sudden death, induced him to withdraw from the society that had always welcomed his presence, but in his seclusion he did not grow misanthropical or morbid. His faith in G.o.d and men seemed to grow stronger and greater the nearer he approached the end, and in dying he was close to both. His nature was most generous and affectionate; and age, which so often dulls and hardens the finest characters, left his brilliant and gentle to the end. He was a man of large benevolence, giving largely to those who in his wise judgment were worthy, and his bounty to authors and old a.s.sociates who had struggled and fallen by the way was measured only by their needs. He was a good citizen and a good man; those who knew him best loved him best. We can speak of him only as he was in that part of his daily life with which all who happily knew him were familiar. His life within his own home, which was his own, and into which we would not intrude, was n.o.blest of all, full of refinement, love and chivalric devotion. His loss will most be felt there, though there is no friend who shared his friendship upon whom it will not fall heavily and sorrowfully."

The _Botanic Medical Reformer and Home Physician_ was published monthly by H. Hollemback and Co., and edited by Dr. Thomas Cooke. It was begun May 7, 1840.

The _Philadelphia Repository_ (1840-1852) was begun by William Henry Gilder (1812-1864) father of Richard Watson Gilder, editor of the _Century Magazine_. The first William Henry, grandfather of Richard Watson, laid the corner-stone of Girard College. William Henry the second continued to edit the _Repository_ about one year; he subsequently published in Philadelphia the _Literary Register_, a quarterly review.

The _Literalist_ was published from 1840 to 1842 at No. 67 South Second Street. James Rees edited the _Dramatic Mirror and Literary Companion_, August 14, 1841, at No. 15 North Sixth Street.

The _Young People's Book_ (September, 1841-August, 1842) was published at No. 101 Chestnut Street, and was edited by John Frost, professor of history in the Central High School.