Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 11.djvu/541

 THE LITERARY INTERESTS OF CHICAGO $2$

In America Mr. Thompson was strong in writing castigations. His supreme interest was in political questions, and he made them all hinge on one that of immigration.

Mr. Taylor had just come home to Chicago from Cornell University, where he had been connected with the undergraduate journals. Today he laughingly says : " Having been on the col- lege papers, I thought I could set the world on fire." Mr. Taylor was not greatly interested in political and sociological questions. His supreme interest, as an editor, was in literary form.

Although the endeavor to combine the literary and political interest was a striking phenomenon in America, during the first few months a remarkably strong, cosmopolitan literary character in a large part of its contents was the feature which attracted wide attention. The greatest array of contributions from noted American authors ever secured for a Chicago periodical was spread in the pages of America during the first few weeks of its publication. Some, also, were from England. The file in the Chicago Public Library would please any reader fond of the works of American authors. A poem by James Russell Lowell, contributions from Charles Dudley Warner and Julian Haw- thorne, and an instalment of a serial by Frank R. Stockton are among the contents of the first number. Hawthorne conducted a department of literature for many weeks, and was succeeded in that by Maurice Thompson. Andrew Lang, the English essayist, was a frequent contributor. Swinburne was among the authors of poems. Poetry by Holmes, Scollard, Morris, McGrath, Riley, Garland, and Waterloo was printed. Eugene Field wrote his "Little Boy Blue" for America. Ella Wheeler Wilcox and Louise Chandler Moulton were among the contributors. The aim of Mr. Taylor was not to secure material with which to make the popular type of magazine, but to get for America the best of the current American literary output. Fabulous prices were paid for these contributions. For Bret Harte's "Jim" the sum of $500 was given. Mr. Taylor is said to have sunk from $50,00x3 to $100,000 in the America venture; and a good part of that sum went for manuscripts. America's outlook over American litera-