The Knickerbocker, or New-York Monthly Magazine, was a literary magazine of New York City, founded by Charles Fenno Hoffman in 1833, and published until 1865 under various titles, including:
- The Knickerbacker: or, New-York monthly magazine, from January through June 1833,
- The Knickerbocker: or, New-York monthly magazine, from 1833 through 1862,
- The Knickerbocker monthly: a national magazine, from 1863 through February,1864,
- The American monthly knickerbocker, from March through December 1864,
- The American monthly, from January through June 1865, and
- The Fœderal American monthly from July through October, 1865.
Its long-term editor was Lewis Gaylord Clark, whose "Editor's Table" column was a staple of the magazine.
Contents |
History
Hoffman, along with fellow members of the Eucleian Society, was the founding editor of The Knickerbocker in 1845, though he helmed only three issues.[1] Clark bought the magazine in April 1834 and served as editor until 1861.[2] By 1840, The Knickerbocker was the most influential literary publication of its time.[3] The year before, Washington Irving had reluctantly joined the staff at a salary of $2,000 a year and would stay on staff until 1841.[4] Irving disliked magazine work, specifically because of its monthly deadlines and space constraints. However, in his "Geoffrey Crayon" persona, he justified his choice in his debut issue: "I am tired... of writing volumes... there is too much preparation, arrangement, and parade... I have thought, therefore, of securing to myself a snug corner in some periodical work, where I might, as it were, loll at my ease in my elbow chair."[5]
The circle of writers who contributed to the magazine and populated its cultural milieu are often known as the "Knickerbocker writers" or the "Knickerbocker group". The group included such authors as William Cullen Bryant, James Kirke Paulding, Gulian Crommelin Verplanck, Fitz-Greene Halleck, Joseph Rodman Drake, Robert Charles Sands, Lydia M. Child, Nathaniel Parker Willis, and Epes Sargent.[6] Other writers associated with the group include Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Oliver Wendell Holmes, James Russell Lowell, Bayard Taylor, George William Curtis, Richard Henry Stoddard, Elizabeth Clementine Stedman, John Greenleaf Whittier, Horace Greeley, James Fenimore Cooper, Fitz Hugh Ludlow and Frederick Swartwout Cozzens. The Knickerbocker was one of the earliest publications of its type to pay its contributing writers.[7]
Content
The Knickerbocker was devoted to the fine arts in particular with occasional news and editorials. Full-length biographical sketches were also printed on such artists as Gilbert Stuart, Hiram Powers, Horatio Greenough, and Frederick Styles Agate.[8]
The Knickerbocker printed the earliest-known reference to the joke "Why did the chicken cross the road?"[9]
Further reading
- Spivey, Herman Everette. "The Knickerbocker Magazine, 1833-1865: A Study of its History, Contents, and Significance." Ph.D. dissertation, University of North Carolina, 1936.
- Mott, Frank Luther. A History of American Magazines, volume 1 (1741-1850). Harvard University Press/Belknap, 1930. ISBN 0-674-39550-6.
References
- ^ Pattee, Fred Lewis. The First Century of Literature: 1770–1870. New York: Cooper Square Publishers, 1966: 493
- ^ Miller, Perry. The Raven and the Whale: The War of Words and Wits in the Era of Poe and Melville. New York: Harvest Book, 1956: 11–12.
- ^ Miller, Perry. The Raven and the Whale: The War of Words and Wits in the Era of Poe and Melville. New York: Harvest Book, 1956: 12.
- ^ Miller, Perry. The Raven and the Whale: The War of Words and Wits in the Era of Poe and Melville. New York: Harvest Book, 1956: 13.
- ^ Jones, Brian Jay. Washington Irving: An American Original. New York: Arcade, 2008: 333. ISBN 978-1-55970-836-4
- ^ Nelson, Randy F. The Almanac of American Letters. Los Altos, California: William Kaufmann, Inc., 1981: 30. ISBN 086576008X
- ^ Callow, James T. Kindred Spirits: Knickerbocker Writers and American Artists, 1807–1855. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1967: 104.
- ^ Callow, James T. Kindred Spirits: Knickerbocker Writers and American Artists, 1807–1855. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1967: 102.
- ^ The Knickerbocker, or The New York Monthly. March 1847: 283.
External links
- The Knickerbocker at Internet Archive (scanned books original editions color illustrated)
- The Knickerbacker v. 1 at Google Book Search
- The Knickerbocker v. 2 at Google Book Search
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