Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 11.djvu/517

 THE LITERARY INTERESTS OF CHICAGO 501

cals of the sixties a drift toward this "family-story" type. In 1872 the Chicago Ledger was founded in direct imitation of the New York Ledger. Concerning the "Popular Story Papers," in a section on "The Weekly Literary Press," Mr. S. N. D. North, commissioner for the special Census Report on "The Newspaper and Periodical Press" (1880), says in part:

The most notable successes attained by American publications not of a purely news character are found in the type of periodical of which Robert Bonner, of the New York Ledger, may be said to have been the fortunate discoverer. Mr. Bonner purchased the Ledger in 1851, and shortly there- after converted it from a commercial sheet into a family newspaper, excluding from its contents everything relating to the business and news of the day, and substituting therefor a series of continued and short stories, not generally of the highest class of fiction. But he attracted public attention to his venture by engaging the best-known literary men of the country to write for the Ledger over their own signatures. It rapidly rose to an enor- mous circulation, which at times has reached as high as 400,000 per issue. The Ledger may be said to be the original of that class of literary publications. The imitations of the Ledger have been numerous, and frequently their publication has been attended with great pecuniary success.

The Chicago Ledger has met with such success.

This paper was begun in connection with a newspaper plate supply business. For about twenty years Samuel H. Williams, a man of ability, was the editor. Like the New York Ledger, the Chicago Ledger, during its first few years, made a leading feature of stories which were literary in the accepted sense of that word. Containing this grade of literature, printed on cheap paper, and sold at $i for fifty-two numbers, it met with immediate favor, especially in the rural districts, during the seventies. By 1879 the Chicago Ledger had a circulation of 10,000, which was a paying start for it.

Little by little, however, the higher class of well-written fiction was dropped. One reason for this was competition intro- duced by the advent of the "Lakeside Library," published by Donnelly, Lloyd & Co., 1875-77. The books of this "library" were tri-monthly pamphlets, the first of the kind, containing cheap reprints of standard fiction, selling at ten cents per copy and attracting millions of readers. The stories of the Chicago