Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 11.djvu/399

 THE LITERARY INTERESTS OF CHICAGO 383

first printer and the printer of several of Chicago's first peri- odicals, talks vividly of the first arrival of Harper's New Monthly Magazine. That was in 1850, when Harper's was founded. Getting copies from W. W. Dannenhower, who two years later started publication of the Literary Budget, Mr. Fergus sold them at an eight-cent profit. By 1854 the Literary Budget contained notices of Putnam's Magazine, Graham's Magazine, and Knicker- bocker Magazine, which latter, by its very name, showed its sectionalism. The Atlantic Monthly, with its emphasis on the Atlantic idea, was not begun until 1857, the same year that saw the advent of the Chicago Magazine: The West as it Is. In an article on "American Periodicals," October i, 1892, the Dial, a recognized authority, says :

It is a little surprising that the eastern magazines should so long have exemplified the provincial spirit. Until about twenty years ago they rarely took cognizance of the existence of any country or population west of the Alleghanies.

In the founding of magazines and literary journals in early Chicago is perhaps to be seen an example of the principle " imita- tion," made so much of by the French sociologist, Tarde. And his " invention " and " adaptation " may be found in some of the developments and in the westernization of these periodicals. Western sectionalism was the counterpart, in magazinedom, of New England and Knickerbocker sectional spirit.

Nevertheless, more than one of these pro-western publishers expected an eastern circulation. " Devoted to western subjects consequently more interesting to distant readers and equally so to western people" this quiet assumption is quoted from No. I, Vol. I, of Sloan's Garden City. It appeared in 1853. By 1857 Chicago and the West found themselves leaping forward in such a rapid pace of growth that self-confident boasting became a char- acteristic of the city and section. " We believe failure was never yet wedded to Chicago," declared the editor of the Chicago Magazine: The West as it Is, in his " Introductory," which appeared during March of that year. Then, concerning the breadth of the field for circulation, he went on to say :