Literary magazine

“ When we determined to increase the amount of reading matter—to give our readers 112 pages in every number—we felt assured that the resources at our command, and the intimate acquaintanceship with the taste of our readers which years of editorial efforts on their behalf have given us, would enable us to present a Magazine of far higher literary value than any which had preceded it. ”

“ In the periodicals just mentioned, beginning with The Atlantic, the popular literary magazine has reached its highest point of development, not only in the United States, but in the world. Especially important has been the impetus given to developing the art of illustration, and the support given to the obsolescent art of wood-engraving by The Century and Harper's ”

“ The modern magazine is a distinctly new product. When the slow, thick stream of book-making first began to spread and filter out through the new channels of periodic publication, a magazine was a serious literary production. ”

“ Our sets of monthlies, bi-monthlies, and semi-monthlies only run back a hundred or two years, therefore—to the joy of librarians, to whom, be it confessed, they bring misery untold.
But in the East, where printing has existed so long that the memory of man goes not to the contrary, it is almost impossible to say how far back was the introduction of the monthly literary magazine. ”

“ English Without a Master. A Course of Lessons in the English Language. Price 2s.
[Pg 30]
Price One Shilling, Monthly,
THE NATIONAL MAGAZINE.
A Journal devoted to Literature and Art, and equally an organ of both—an Art Magazine, but not one to which Literature is merely incidental; a Literary Magazine, but not one to which Art is a mere adjunct.
Attractiveness of subject and of treatment is studied in every department. Tales by acknowledged authors occupy considerable space; reviews; essays; varieties of travel and adventure; humorous sketches ”

“ Few men can write and publish at their own expense a magazine of high character, of pure literary taste, sound morals, and sound theology, able in literary and scientific merit, in genius, instruction, and amusement, to compete successfully with the best magazines going, and there is at this moment no public formed to hand large enough to sustain such periodical, and even the men to write it have in some sort to be created, or at least to be drawn out. ”

“ Now there is no doubt that your publication could be one of the best 'escape mechanisms' in the literary field; however, it becomes monotonous to an extreme after the first two issues. The remedy is simple: you need only to vary your menu slightly. Your authors display enough ingenuity and skill; your field, that of the uncanny, is interesting; in fact, you lack only the quality of variety to elevate your magazine far above the pulp class. Why not let the reader have some reasonable doubt as to whether the 'fair-haired boy' will conquer the nasty villain or monstrosity. ”

“ Lawrence to the Gulf of Mexico, that are as yet innocent of books, but have nevertheless contributed largely and well to the growing stock of American literature. How many more who are bringing themselves into notice by their monthly efforts in the pages of some popular magazine. In fact, the magazine is the true channel into which talent should direct itself for the acquisition of literary fame. ”

“ The reader of Magazines has of late years been harried by a direct, by an enfilading, and a ricochetting fire of new adventures, some honestly and avowedly frivolous, others portentously literary, a few loftily artistic. ”

“ Half of them are written in the same style, the American Magazine or, let us say, Saturday Evening Post style, and might have been written by the same brisk, ingenious hand.”
“The circumstances under which the book is spun out at the public over the heads of the rejecting editors are an indictment of the magazine editors of the whole country. ... And it is a mighty good thing that somebody has had the spirit and the confidence in the American public to make such a test of its intelligence. ... Some of the thirteen stories reach a much higher level of literary quality than do others. ”

“ In both our "popular" and our "literary" magazines, freer fiction would follow upon better criticism. The readers of the "literary" magazines are already seeking foreign-made narratives, and neglecting the American short story built for them according to the standardized model. The readers of the "popular" magazines want chiefly journalism (an utterly different thing from literature) ; and that they are getting in good measure in the non- fiction and part-fiction sections of the magazines. But they also seek, as all men seek, some literature. ”

“ The Nineteenth Century.—Of the literary magazines established before 1850, only one or two have survived.436 Yet we now begin to see the periodicals exhibiting greater vitality; and gradually they come to deal more and more with native literature and to exhibit a greater self-reliance on the part of American writers. ”

“ It gives fiction that is varied and original and verse that is worth reading, and it is besides a guide to the best literature of the day. It is not a periodical of protest or smartness, but a magazine that stands for energy, honesty and accomplishment. ”

“ They employ excellent talent when special topics are treated, and rise to occasions of war or other excitement through graphically written and highly illustrated articles. Indeed, one of their most impressive features is the high degree to which they have carried the art of illustration. Toward the close of the century, periodical literature has been greatly expanded and popularized by the introduction of the cheap magazine. ”

“ The medium of magazine publication, towards which some critics, and some poets too (a fact which can hardly be justified) , and a considerable portion of the reading public have a disparaging opinion, is deserving of better repute for the general high quality of poetic art that is published. Not many years ago it was a favorite exercise of the reviewer, when noticing the average book of verse which happened to include selections reprinted from various magazines, to term the work “magazinable,” or the poet a “magazine poet.” ”

“ While the ordinary magazines must minister to a large public little interested in poetry, this magazine appeals to and will develop a public primarily interested in poetry as an art, potentially the highest, most complete human expression of truth and beauty. Thus it offers to poets a chance to be heard by their own audience, in their own place, without the limitations imposed by the popular magazines. And to lovers of poetry it offers each month a sheaf of new verse in delicate form uninterrupted by prose articles demanding a different mood. ”

“ But this is not "another fiction magazine," Amazing Stories is a new kind of fiction magazine! It is entirely new—entirely different—something that has never been done before in this country. Therefore, Amazing Stories deserves your attention and interest.
There is the usual fiction magazine, the love story and the sex-appeal type of magazine, the adventure type, and so on, but a magazine of "Scientifiction" is a pioneer in its field in America. ”

“ Unlike most of our ordinary historic reviews, they have a permanent value: they are not condemned, as some very good English work of the kind is, to be the padding of popular magazines,— the ever uncut leaves that interpose between the two sensational stories by which the magazine lives,— but they are put together and stored up for the days when either the writers or some who have profited by the reading of them can use them in more continuous, more consolidated, work. ”

“ My first essays in fiction were magazine stories. I suppose I have written over four-score of these, and they always seemed to find a good deal of favour with the leading provincial journals. I sold a story called 'Man [oe] uvring' for a very nice little sum to a French editor for translation into L'Etoile, and I was very much pleased when I got a requisition for a tale from the Lady's Magazine in Philadelphia, but of later years I have written about five-and-twenty three-volume novels. ”

“ Do you know, Miss Thorne, I think there's a great deal of joyous excitement attached to the pursuit of literature. You send out a story, fondly believing that it is destined to make you famous. Time goes on, and you hear nothing from it. You can see your name 'featured' on the advertisements of the magazine, and hear the heavy tread of the fevered mob, on the way to buy up the edition. In the roseate glow of your fancy, you can see not only your cheque, but the things you're going to buy with it. Perhaps you tell your friends, cautiously, that you're writing for such and such a magazine. ”

“ More than one writer may be moved to write about a woman going on the stage to escape the ennui of married life, but a magazine that has published a story of this variety is not likely to want another for a year or so. ”

“ Hence, if the editor is more keenly alert for one thing than for another, it is for the new writer. The frequency of the new note in his magazine is his salvation; for just in proportion as he can introduce that new note is his success with his readers. A successful magazine is exactly like a successful store: it must keep its wares constantly fresh and varied to attract the eye and hold the patronage of its customers. ”

“ Indeed, many critics feel that poetry is coming nearer than either the novel or the drama to the actual life of to-day. The magazine Poetry, ever since its foundation in October, 1912, has encouraged this new spirit in the art, and the anthology is a further effort on the part of its editors to present the new spirit to the public. ”

“ It's about time for me to concede that your or "our" magazine is the best I have read. Ten issues have come into my hands and I am perfectly well satisfied with the line of fiction that you publish. I have read about fifty different magazines on the market, and I am sure that Astounding Stories is the best of them all. I have followed the magazine for seven months and that is the best amount of reading any magazine can boast for me. ”

“ As the means through which the writer most readily reaches the heart of the general public, and in consequence as the most important of aids in the establishment of morals and the formation of character, fiction still remains a principal feature in the Magazine. Two Serial Stories accordingly run through its pages; supplemented by short Stories, Novelettes, and narrative or dramatic Sketches: whilst Essays, Social, Biographical, and Humorous; Scientific Discoveries brought to the level of popular comprehension, and treated with a light touch ”

“ There's no sense in criticizing a magazine as some Readers do. I think if the Editor could make his magazine any better, he would do it without hesitation.—Charles Strada, 503 Olive Street, Kansas City, Mo.
Cummings and Wagner
Dear Editor:
Astounding Stories is in my estimation the best magazine on the market. Words are feeble when an accurate description of the pleasure that I receive from every issue of Astounding Stories is needed. However, I will say that next to my extreme appreciation of classical music, I rate Astounding Stories as being the best outlet of my emotions. ”

“ On the other hand, the periodicals which live upon love of fiction and curiosity are too light for the use of people who are living on purpose and for some proper ends. The popular magazine is too light. It is, at best, like dress worn to be looked at rather than for comfort and warmth. ”

“ A Work of Fiction by some novelist of highest position will run through the pages of the Magazine, and will be illustrated by artists of known excellence. With a full sense of what is involved in their promise, and with a firm resolution to abide by their pledges, the Publishers undertake to spare no exertion that is necessary to secure the highest class of contributions, to place the Magazine in the first rank of serials, and to fit it to take its place on the table and on the shelves of all classes of cultivated Englishmen. ”

“ I like your magazine. By this, I do not mean that it is the best Science Fiction periodical, for it assuredly is not; but it is the most reliable. I am sure when I pick up your magazine that I shall find therein consistently interesting stories. I have yet to find a story that failed to hold my attention; on the other hand, I have yet to find a masterpiece. Of all the Editors, you have shown yourself the shrewdest judge of public taste, but also the least interested in the advancement of Science Fiction. ”

“ We are about to exhibit to our countrymen a new monthly collection, to which the well-deserved popularity of the first undertaking of this kind, has now made it almost necessary to prefix the name of Magazine. There are, already, many such periodical compilations, of which we do not envy the reception, nor shall dispute the excellence. If the nature of things would allow us to indulge our wishes, we should desire to advance our own interest, without lessening that of any other ”

“ Hiram M. Greene, to judge from the host of letters I have received from readers who have not read the best magazines in the past because, as many of them state, they feared that they were too “high-brow,” but who have been convinced, by the introduction to the best contemporary fiction afforded them weekly in the supplement to their Sunday newspaper, that such periodicals as Harper’s Magazine and Scribner’s Magazine have many qualities to commend them to the untrained reader. ”