Analectic Magazine, Lithography, Naval History and The Star Spangled Banner

The most interesting and important American magazine of the second decade of the 19th century was The Analectic.(as was Joseph Dennie's Portfolio of the first decade) for many reasons- great literature, great history and great illustration.

Begun as an extension of an obscure journal, Select Reviews, it took on a life of its own in January 1813 under its new editor, the reknowned Washington Irving and articles by his brother-in-law, James Kirk Paulding. Irving's interest in the navy was reflected in his reviews and biographical works of such esteemed sailors as Commodore Perry. Irving lost interest in Magazine editorship in 1814 but the magazine continued to thrive, publishing, for the first time nationally, an anonymous military poem set to the music of an old english drinking song (Anacreon in Heaven) "Defense of Fort McHenry" later to be revered as "The Star Spangled Banner" as well as reviews of Lewis and Clark's expedition and an eclectic mix of great topical articles.

The July 1819 issue featured the first American lithogaph, by Bass Otis, here reproduced

The rear wrapper of the issue advertised a number of works by the prior editor and a later series featured early hand-colored engravings and this early view of the capitol in 1820.

Here is a random front wrapper with typically great engraving. I hope you have a better idea now about why wrappers are so important.

While were on landmark buildings, here's the first ever published image of the White House, in a British magazine gloating about their pyrrhic victory in burning it. What goes around, comes around as Uncle Sam said to John Bull!

Enjoy the spring, see you again soon.

Earth Day: First Appearance of Thoreau's Walden

My daughter, Whitney, is visiting from St. Louis and reminded me that today is Earth Day. To commemorate this event, we looked for an appropriate magazine and arrived at Thoreau's "Walden" as a great example of early environmentalism in America.

Many years ago I was driving through Connecticut and happened upon a very remote bookstore. As usual, I asked the proprietor if she had any magazines, and she lead me to the appropriate location in her store. In the stack of old magazines I spotted a few issues of Sartain's Magazine from 1852 - a very rare and late volume. To my joy, unbeknownst to the proprietor, two of the issues were especially interesting to me. The first, from May, contained an article entitled "The Iron Horse" with the author simply identified as "Thoreau." The second issue of interest contained a story entitled "Voyage in a Balloon" by Anne T. Wilbur.

Trying as hard as I could to hide my racing pulse, I enquired as to the price. Seven dollars, each, I was told. I paid the lady and proceeded to enjoy reading the first ever appearance of any part of "Walden" as well as the first American appearance of "Anne T. Wilbur," better known as Jules Verne. Both magazines were in their original wrappers. I have never seen another copy of either.

Another One That Got Away: Fame and Fortune, The Shadow

Fame and Fortune Magazine:
Adventures in Making Money 1929

"The Shadow of Wall Street" by Frank S Lawton

This pulp from the time of the 1929 crash just sold on eBay for $1500. I was outbid. The imagery is fantastic and quite pertinent to the present economic situation. To paraphrase Santayana, those who ignore the past are doomed to relive its mistakes!

For more background information on this publication and "The Shadow" see

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_g1epc/is_tov/ai_2419101094/

"Girly" Pulps and Censorship in Magazines

I just received this rare first issue pulp magazine that I recently won on an eBay auction. It is the 841st first issue pulp in my collection. The universe of pulp magazines is a little over 1000 titles, including digests, one-shots and girly magazines.

There are two comprehensive checklists of pulps. The first, The Adventure House Guide, got me started on all this craziness. John Gunnison, Doug Ellis and John Locke, with the help of a few other advanced collectors put it out in 2000, creating a checklist with a lot of boxes to check off. This self-admitted fanatic, being tired of stamp and coin albums, took it upon himself to try to get the first issue of each and every one. Nine years later I'm 165 titles short and still trying. So far this year I've reduced the number by a grand total of one, so at this rate, if I live the biblical 120 years I'll get the number under 100!

To makes things worse, Tim Cottrill of Bookery Fantasy published his own guide a few years later that included additional titles, mostly of the "girly", semi-pornographic ilk that I just obtained. The first edition is long out of print but the second is readily available and quite valuable for the bibliographic information and prices it contains.

Pulp magazines pushed the envelope of sex and gore in the 1930's. Things calmed down a little in the early 40's when the victorians got involved. The "spicy" titles were changed to "speed" and the overt sado-masochism and racy sexual content got toned down considerably.

One interesting aspect of this that I've never seen discussed are the "star" issues. Many of the spicy titles were actually issued in two versions, one for the newstand and the other, more lurid version for "under the counter" distribution. Pulp collectors are quitw aware of these but the price guides don't reflect which issue have two versions, nor do they address any difference in price (I suspect the racy versions are rarer and, thus, more expensive).

It's not just the cover that's different. All the art inside is as well. So here, for the first time that I can tell, is two versions of a pulp magazine to illustrate my point. They are the first issue, of course, of Spicy Western from 1936:

See what I mean? Amazing stuff.

The issue of censorship in American magazines requires a more comprehensive entry that I will attempt at a later date. It's a beautiful spring day in New Jersey so I'm off to try to hit a little white ball into a four-inch hole. Fore!!

Modern Literary First Appearances in Magazines

Since the economic side of collecting seems to garner great interest among my readers, I thought I'd tell you of a purchase I made today on eBay. The picture on this listing appears to the left. Mademoiselle Magazine, June 1945, price $12.45. Any ideas?

It is the first appearance in print of an important American author. I've never seen it for sale before, but if it was in a catalog of Peter Stern, Ken Lopez or Between the Covers (three of America's finest dealers in modern first editions) it would probably be listed for more than $300 in good condition (this one is not- it's missing the back cover, though still quite scarce).

I also received in the mail two other items for which I paid twelve dollars each on a "buy it now"auction. One 1950's issue of Harper's, the other Atlantic, each containing the first printing of a poem by a highly regarded author/poetess who met with an untimely death. Both magazines are in great shape. I would value each at a minimum of $50.

Modern authors in magazines are fun to collect and, with a little homework, can be profitable as well (though, as I said many times, I collect magazines because I like them and not for monetary gain). There is no reference to go to for guidance.

There are many appearances of J.D. Salinger, Steven King, John Updike, Hunter Thompson and others that are generally off the radar screen to eBay sellers but not astute collectors. Enjoy!

Oh, I almost forgot! The two authors I referred to at the beginning of this post?

Truman Capote and Sylvia Plath.

Great Women in American Magazines: Elizabeth Palmer Peabody

Elizabeth Palmer Peabody is another of the grossly underappreciated women in American History. I came to know her by her connections with American magazines (how else?).





Ms. Peabody was one of the founders of the American transcendentalist movement and is best remembered for her role in pioneering juvenile education. A brief biographical essay follows:
http://www.alcott.net/alcott/home/champions/Peabody.html



When my son Tyson, now 34 and the father of my two grandaughters, was in high school, he told me how impressed he was after reading Henry David Thoreau's monumental essay on civil disobedience "Resistance to Civil Government".

http://www.transcendentalists.com/civil_disobedience.htm

This immediately brought to mind to this incurable collector, the question of where it was first published. To my delight I found it was first delivered as an essay in 1847 and first published in an exceedingly rare magazine, Aesthetic Papers, in 1849. Hence my introduction to the venerable Ms. Peabody who edited the journal.

Of course, the next mission was to obtain a copy. In the days before the internet, finding books was no easy task. I found a copy in an old catalog of M & S Books (Dan Siegel) of Providence, Rhode Island priced at $4500 (a pretty hefty bite in the 1980's when the dollar was worth fifty cents as opposed to today's value of a quarter!). I called Dan and it had been sold.

I then made it known to every major American bookdealer that I'd like to obtain one. No copy showed up for a number of years. Then, one year in the early 90's my customary annual trip to the Boston Book Fair was delayed by a severe snowstorm, causing me to arrive about one hour after the opening. The first dealer I ran into, Rob Roulon of Roulon Miller Books, figuratively punched me in the stomach when he told me that a copy of Aesthetic Papers in original wrappers had been sold to a collector just a few minutes earlier for $1000! As you can imagine, I was not a happy camper.

A few years later I was able to find to the one illustrated above, an ex-lib copy for $1250 (still a pretty good deal). I haven't had a sniff of another one since.

If you read my last blog, I bemoaned the fact that I don't own a copy of the November 18, 1865 issue Saturday Press, that contains the first printing of Twain's "Jumping Frog of Calaveras County". I should also note that two weeks earlier, this obscure magazine first published another blockbuster, Walt Whitman's "Oh Captain, My Caption".

Here we go again! I called Rich West at Periodyssey and he has never held any issue of this magazine. Another holy grail to search for. What the hey, that's what a collector lives for anyhow.
Speaking of transcendendalism, no comprehensive American magazine collection can ignore this important era in our history, which also encompasses the literature of the many utopian communities that flourished at the time. I have quite a few representative magazines but the acknowleged best is The Dial, with contributions by Margaret Fuller (another forgotten female genious) Thoreau and Emerson, to mention only a few. I was able to get a complete bound run from the great Michael Ginsberg and recently obtained another issue in original wrappers from Rich (he may have one or two more- worth owning, 4135271900, I don't get a commission!).



To those who observe, the best of the Easter/Passover season. See you again shortly!

Mark Twain in Magazines

Having just acquired an extremely important and rare periodical that contains twelve early Mark Twain appearances, it is an excellent time to present to you a short treatise about the periodical appearances of America's all-time foremost humorist. I believe that my collection now contains the best representation of Twain periodicals in private hands and, perhaps, anywhere.

The latest piece of the puzzle is The Californian. I could not hope to describe it any better than by pilfering Richard West's characteristically impeccable scholarship in the catalog description of Periodyssey, America's finest dealer in periodicals, from whom I acquired it.

A little bit about collecting here. You will note the catalog price of $7200. The present day economic woes (and, moreso, an ex-wife!) made that number somewhat prohibitive so, after giving him ample time to market the item, I negotiated a deal with Richard that included some cash and my six volumes of Harper's Weekly from 1860-1865. The details are not important but the philosophy is.

As a collector, rarity rules. I have only seen one other copy of The Californian for sale in thirty years and doubt I will see another. The other copy was at the California Book Fair about 15 years ago and, though I was tempted, it was so ridiculously overpriced that I passed on it. For all I know. this could be the same copy. So, despite my having only one Civil War run of the important Harper's Weekly, I know it could be easily replaced.

So win/win. Rich gets an item he can sell for a nice profit and I get an exceedingly important and rare item and free up some shelf space-Sort of like trading a superstar for a couple of prospects.

Ok. Enough pontificating. Now let's get to the good stuff.








The Californian (San Francisco) Vol. 1, No. 1 (May 28, 1864) to Vol. 2, No. 25 (May 20, 1865), comprising 51 issues (lacking the May 27 issue for a complete volume 2), bound in contemporary black half-leather and paper covered boards. Binding skillfully rebacked, handsome, edge wear and scuffing to boards; contents VG with light foxing. The Californian was the first important literary magazine produced west of the Mississippi. Charles Henry Webb, a former New York Times reporter, was its founder and editor. He chose as his assistant a young compositor on the San Francisco Golden Era, Bret Harte. Harte was to become the Californian's chief contributor (39 pieces in these two volumes) as well as editor for three months near the end of 1864. His exposure on the Californian put him in the position in 1868 to become editor of the newly launched Overland Monthly. But the Californian's most celebrated contributor was Mark Twain. While Twain had edited a few short-lived and minor Western newspapers before he walked into The Californian's offices, he was unknown to the literary world. The Californian became the first magazine (aside from one contribution to the Boston Carpetbag twelve years earlier) to publish his work. Bret Harte knew Twain was the real article; he placed most of his contributions on the front page. These two volumes contain twelve of Twain's emblematic essays:

-- October 1, 1864: A Notable Conundrum; First time magazine appearance of Clemen's work under the pseudonym "Mark Twain"; every bit as funny now as it was then. http://www.twainquotes.com/Calif/18641008.html -- October 8, 1864: Concerning the Answer to that Conundrum;-- October 15, 1864: Still further concerning that Conundrum;-- October 22, 1864: Whereas, or Loves Bakery;-- October 29, 1864: A Touching Story of George Washington's Boyhood;-- November 5, 1864: Daniel in the Lion's Den -- and Out Again All Right;-- November 12, 1864: The Killing of Julius Caesar -- Localized;-- November 19, 1864: A Full and Reliable Account of the Extraordinary Meteoric Shower;-- December 3, 1864: Lucretia Smith's Soldier;-- March 18, 1865: An Unbiased Criticism;-- May 6, 1865: The Important Correspondence of Mark Twain Concerning the Occupancy of Grace Cathedral; -- May 13, 1865: Further Correspondence of Mark Twain Concerning the Occupancy of Grace Cathedral.
In 1926, John Howell, the San Francisco bookseller, wrote "Very little is known of the work of Bret Harte and Mark Twain of the sixties, because the files of the publications for which they wrote have largely been destroyed." (Howell. Sketches of the Sixties [San Francisco, 1927]). OCLC isn't helpful because it combines this Californian (1864-1867) with the magazine of the same name that was published from 1880 to 1882, so it is difficult to figure out which institution has which title. The Union List is more straight-forward: it shows only four institutions holding complete volumes 1 and 2. This title is an important piece of Californiana and a cornerstone for any serious Twain collection. $7,200

Add this blockbuster to the next item and you have a real dynamic Twain duo.








Twain's first appearance was way back when he was sixteen, in Benjamin Shillaber's Carpet Bag in 1852, thirteen years prior to "The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County", considered to to be the work that launched his career (which appeared in The Saturday Press in November 1865 that, alas, I do not own). Schillaber's Mrs. Partington, who appeared in this journal, is considered to be the model for Tom Sawyer's Aunt Polly. Amazingly, some scholars disputed that it is Twain's work, but a short story set in Hannibal Missouri and signed S.L.C. leaves little doubt as to who wrote it. Heres a link it is in its entirety for your reading pleasure "The Dandy Frightening the Squatter", the first literary appearance of an American genious.

http://www.dandyism.net/?page_id=563

Twain's original work was published in magazines 178 times in a few dozen different publications, some posthumously. Most notably are the earliest excerpts of "Huckleberry Finn" in December, 1884 in The Century and "Tom Sawyer" in the exceedingly rare humor periodical Wild Oats on August 23rd, 1876 (the only known copy is at the New York Historical Society).








The first publication of "Huckleberry Finn"




One of my favorites is in the first issue of the very rare Kelley's Weekly on November 30, 1867. It contains a three column illustrated story entitled "A Yankee in the Orient. Mark Twain Takes a Turkish Bath." For you Twain scholars out there, my research indicates that this is the earliest appearance of any part of "Innocents Abroad" and that the six illustrations appear nowhere else!












Another favorite is this rare issue of Packard's Monthly that contains a Twain appearance.













The most comprehensive list of Twain Magazine appearances (not included is the Kelley's that I found later) is in a little volume Rich and I put together in 1997, what we lovingly refer to as "BALP", Bilbiography of American Literature in Periodicals available at http://www.periodyssey.com/

So there you have it- a marvelous asssociation with two of America's greatest assets- Mark Twain and its magazine heritage!

See you soon,

SL

Planes, Trains and Automobiles, and Bicycles Too!

As promised, here's the last part of the transportation trio as echoed in the title of popular movie starring the late John Candy. Subsequently, I realized that it would be proper to include bicycles as well.

The first magazine illustration of a train in an American magazine appeared on the first page of this 1825 issue of American Mechanic's Magazine and seven years later Railroad Journal was the first to be devoted exclusively to the "iron horse" and was still being published as of 1965 as Railway Locomotives and Cars.

American folklore and periodical literature is peppered with railroad references and personna and it is interesting to note that the first pulp fiction magazine devoted to a specialized topic, begun in 1906, was Railroad Man's Magazine.

The word "bicycle" was coined in 1869. Prior to this the two-wheeled contraptions were known as velocipedes. According to Frank Luther Mott, whose authoritarian five volume work on American magazines is the starting point for any serious scholarship on the subject, America's first magazine devoted to the subject was the short-lived Velocipedist in 1869. Thereafter, Scientific American had frequent reports of improvements and news until a flurry of periodicals, beginning with American Bicycling Journal, started in 1877, appeared as the popularity and practicality of device blossomed. Perhaps the most popular and successful was Wheelman. Here is the first issue:

Interestingly, Wheelwoman apperaed shoertly afterwards and this might represent the first specialty magazine ever published in America to target women.

Here are a couple of other rare and interesting bicycle related items I've collected over the years:

For now this post concludes the recent transportation theme. I thought about doing another on ships and boats, but that body of literature is so vast, it will be reserved for a later time.

Bon voyage!

See you again shortly.

Aviation Magazines in America

While we're on the subject of transportation, the logical follow-up to my last post on automobiles is aviation. The next post will complete the troika with trains.

The first aviation related article goes waaaaaaaaaay back to 1786, when Boston Magazine published this woodcut of the first balloon flight of the Montgolfier brothers

Now jump ahead 105 years to 1893, when the first American magazine devoted aviation appeared, an exceedingly rare periodical, Aeronautics, published in New York by M.N. Forney and cheifly devoted to the proceedings of The Conference on Aerial Navigation held during the World's Fair in Chicago.

It was followed shortly by Aeronautical Annual, published in Boston by James Means, that had a great influence upon such notables as Wilbur Wright.

My research has found at least 24 aviation magazines that appeared up to 1921. Here is the list first published in my 1996 book.

and here are some of my favorite early magazines from my collection:

The first issue of the weekly aviation magazine:

A fantastic 1911 futuristic cover, not to be outdone by the great futurist Hugo Gernsback a year later!

an early postal title and another concerned with the military uses of aviation:














Even more than the automobile, America was fascinated by airplanes. Aviation pioneers were yesterday's astronauts and they were so treated by the public. The Wright Brothers were the first celebrities of the twentieth century, though the report of their acheivement often met with skepticism in the leading scientific magazine of the day, Scientific American, due to a lack of eyewitness coverage. One of may favorite aviation magazines is this 1910 issue of Greater Dayton, devoted to honoring their most famous denizens. Wilbur Wright died shortly afterwards a victim of the typhoid fever epidemic of 1912. Orville lived until 1948 (the year this blogger was born!).

Charles Lindbergh's 1927 trans-atlantic flight re-fueled the American interest in the romance and adventure of aviation, bringing about dozens of new publications, many of them pulp magazines. Pulps were the cheap sensationalist reading of the day. It is interesting to note that there are no pulp magazines based on automobiles, but over a dozen devoted to flying. Here are a few rare "birds", including the first, Air Stories, not concidentally published shortly after the Lindbergh flight.

and one could not show rare aviation pulps without mentioning the rarest of all, Zeppelin Stories. My collection may be the only one to include both the first issue and the iconic "mother of all wacky pulps" the very rare and very valuable "Gorilla of the Gas Bags" issue.

America's most beloved illustrator, Norman Rockwell also used Lindbergh on a well known cover of the Saturday Evening Post but also on this rare Elks Magazine a year later (probably after being rejected by the Post in favor of the other image)

There is also another interesting Lindbergh magazine connection. His father published this right-wing journal of opinion in 1916! Unfortunately Charles Jr. may have picked up some of his Henry Fordish views about fascism as well.

What Lindbergh did for men, Amelia Earhart did for women. The cover of this very rare pulp magazine was obviously created to take advantage of her celebrity.

As ever, magazines continue to prove their importance, carrying the American reading public from the earliest ballooning flights right through to the space age.

Oops, I almost forgot this one! A very rare aviation magazine published by Douglas Aircraft in 1946, using some of their employees to promote their new products. One of those emplyees went on to achieve iconic status in another field. Do you recognize him/her?