[Edgar Allan Poe]

[Published in The Broadway Journal, March 1^st, 1845 (1:9)]

[Edited and Annotated by Laura Penalver for the University of Arizona Antebellum Magazine Edition Project, February 27, 2015.]

[Editor's Note]

Whatever may be the merits or demerits, generally, of the Magazine literature of America, there can be no question as to its extent or its influence. The topic--Magazine literature--is therefore, an important one. In a few years its importance will be found to have increased in geometrical ratio.¹The whole tendency of the age is Magazine-ward. These quarterly reviews²have never been popular. Not only are they too stilted (by way of keeping up a due dignity), but they make a point, for the same reason, of discussing only topics which are caviare³ to the many, and which, for the most part, have only conventional interest, even with the few. Their issues, also, are at too long intervals⁴: their subjects get cold before being served up. In a word, their ponderosity is quite out of keeping with the movement--with the rush of age. We now demand the light artillery of the intellect: we need the curt, the condensed, the pointed, the readily diffused-in place of the verbose, the detailed, the voluminous, the inaccessible. On the other hand, the lightness of the artillery must not degenerate into pop-gunnery⁵-by which character we may designate the character of the greater portion of the newspaper press; whose sole legitimate object is the discussion of ephemeral matters in an ephemeral manner. Whatever talent may be brought to bear upon our daily journals, (and in many cases this talent is very great) still the imperative necessity of catching, current calamo⁶, every topic as it flits before the eye of the public, must, of course, materially narrow the limits of their power. The bulk, and the period issue of the Monthly Magazine, seem to be precisely adapted, if not to all literary wants of the day, at least to the largest and most imperative, as well as the most consequential portion of them.

 With these views, we shall, of course, regard attentively all that concerns our Magazines. It is our design to treat this class of journals with a consideration to which hitherto they have been unaccustomed. We propose neither to be laud nor to abuse them; but in regarding them as the most important arenas for our literary men, we shall be pardoned for sweeping them clean of all that is adventitious.

Keeping these intentions in mind, as points to be accomplished in the future, we shall content ourselves, this week, with a few observations, at random, on the March number of Graham’s Magazine⁷-reserving its general character, as well as the general character of its class, for more deliberate investigation hereafter.

The two first plates are capitally designed and engraved; the “Dacota Woman and the Assiniboin Girl⁸,” in especial, is worthy of all commendation. No annual has been issued in America which might not have been proud of these illustrations. The third plate, called the “Love-Letter,” is disgraceful in every respect. The flesh of the woman in sheep’s wool, and the hand holding the love-missive, has the air of having been carved by a very small child, with a dull knife, from a raw potato. The essay on Egotism is well written and pointed. Miss Sedgwick’s “Incidents at Rome” is only mediocre; it has little either of force or novelty. Mr. Simms’ “Boatman’s Revenge”⁹is a spirited tale, by one of our best narrators of similar things-a man whose literary interests have suffered by too pertinacious a residence in the South. Mr. Simms is full of fault, but he has a true vigor which more than redeems it. The division of his present story into chapters is without meaning, and has a stiffness which is objectionable. “Serenading^10" is only so-so. “Lucy Dutton,” by Fanny Forrester, is gracefully told. “Foreign Mysteries,” by Grund, and “Carry Carlisle” by Mrs. Osgood¹,are the best contributed prose articles in the number; the latter piece embodying also some of the best poetry. The editorial criticisms¹²of “Graham” are in general vigorous and pungent- but the notice of “Lowell’s Conversations”¹³ in the present number, by no means does justice, we think, to the very great and peculiar abilities of the author reviewed.

Editor’s Note

When first published in The Broadway Journal, this review was anonymous. It was not till until sometime later that it became known that Poe himself, the co-editor of The Broadway Journal , had written it. Although Poe considered himself an equal editing partner to Charles Briggs, Briggs himself was often quoted as saying to other credible writers that he did not like the confrontational and rude nature in which Poe wrote reviews, and had mixed feelings about having his name associated with the journal (Silverman). Briggs admits however, that Poe brought a great deal of attention to the journal with his criticisms and his ideas. One of these ideas, evident in the first paragraph of this article, is the argument Poe makes for the superiority of Monthly Magazines in meeting the needs of the people. Poe’s argument that the quarterly reviews could not keep up with the constant production and reproduction of information at this time (a result of the rush of print culture), ties into the fact that the quarterly’s  quarterlies were followed and intended for an elite audience, not the general public. Poe seemed to believe Monthly Magazinesmonthly magazines to be a perfect potential generator of an American identity that was being stifled by the publishers in Europe, who copyrighted American work, making it difficult for magazine writers in the States to flourish. Poe joined the American Copyright Club in 1843 (Silverman), and was one of the few who promoted Graham’s decision to copyright each issue of Graham’s Magazine. It seems fitting then, that his review of Graham’s Magazine is delivered alongside the context of this controversial argument.