Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 11.djvu/817

 THE LITERARY INTERESTS OF CHICAGO 801

writers, artists, and musicians who at present gather fortnightly at a studio in the Fine Arts Building, and by the very coming to- gether of the artist class for a social hour or two foster profes- sional literary and artistic endeavor.

"Chap-Book posters" were one of the unique artistic products put out by the publisher of this unique magazine. These posters were sent to the news-stands, and influenced buyers of periodicals so that sales ran up as high as 50,000, and averaged 20,000. The posters were so artistic and so fantastic that they became very popular on their own account. Harper's posters, by Pen- field, had previously attracted attention. But there was a rage for Chap-Book posters, and prospective readers often competed in keen bidding for them without buying the periodical they were intended to advertise. Through making many of these posters, Will Bradley helped himself toward achieving a national reputation.

But in a short time the Chap-Book no longer stood out as a unique literary periodical. The force of imitation was soon manifest. Mr. Stone says that at one time there were twenty-six imitators of it at the news-stalls. A disinterested investigator, Frederick Winthrop Faxon, of the Bulletin of Bibliography, Boston, compiled "A Bibliography of Mbdern Chap-Books and Their Imitators," which was first published in the journal with which he is connected, and republished in 1903 as a pamphlet under the title Ephemeral Bibelots. He lists 200 such periodi- cals, and in his introduction says, in part :

The small artistically printed periodicals variously called Chap-Books, Ephemerals, Bibelots, Brownie Magazines, Fadazines, Magazettes, Freak Maga- zines, owe their origin probably to the success of The Chap-Book, which was at once in such great demand that the early numbers were soon out of print and were in demand by collectors at from twenty to fifty times their original price. All sorts of "little magazines" were soon on the news-stands, competing for a part of The Chap-Book's favor. They were, with few ex- ceptions, easily distinguishable by their appearance as well as by their names, which were apparently carefully chosen to indicate the ephemeral character of the publication.

The motive of publication of the genuine chap-books is hard to discover. They sprang up in the most out-of-the-way spots and died young in most