 | |
| Type | Weekly literary newspaper |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1839/1842 |
| Ceased publication | 1862 |
| Headquarters | Manhattan, New York City |
| OCLC number | 9439488 |
Brother Jonathan was a weekly publication operated by Benjamin Day from 1842 to 1862, and was the first weekly illustrated publication in the United States. [1] [2]
Benjamin Day founded the first penny newspaper in the United States, The New York Sun , in 1833. [3] He sold the paper to his brother-in-law, Moses Yale Beach, in 1838. [4]
After trying a few other publishing ventures, in 1842 Day formed a partnership with James G. Wilson to publish the weekly Brother Jonathan in quarto format, [5] focusing on reprinting English fiction (where no royalties were paid to the authors). However, the exact origins of the publication are a bit more complex, as Rufus Wilmot Griswold and Park Benjamin, Sr., who started the Evening Tattler in 1839, started publishing Brother Jonathan in folio format [5] in July 1839, and it appears that Day and Wilson soon took over those publications. [6] [7] [8] The January 1, 1842 edition of Brother Jonathan is still listed as Volume 1, No. 1, despite the prior issues.
In May 1843, Ann S. Stephens and her husband purchased the paper and invited critic and activist John Neal to become chief editor. [9] During his term as editor, which lasted for the rest of that year, [10] he used Brother Jonathan to publish his most influential statement on women's rights, the Rights of Women speech, [9] as well as articles and short stories that argued for suffrage, property rights, equal pay, and better workplace conditions for women. [11] The History of Woman Suffrage remembered that "Mr. Neal's lecture, published in The Brother Jonathan, was extensively copied, and ... had a wide, silent influence, preparing the way for action. It was a scathing satire, and men felt the rebuke." [9]
Brother Jonathan became popular throughout the United States, and reportedly grew to a circulation of between 60–70,000. [4]
The title was a reference to Brother Jonathan, a common cultural reference (at the time) to a fictional character personifying New England, similar in appearance to Uncle Sam. While editor, Neal argued in the publication for Brother Jonathan to be the national emblem of the US. [12] Almost two decades earlier in 1825 he had published a novel of the same name also in reference to the same fictional character. [13]
Day kept the annual subscription price at $1 throughout the publication's existence, but stopped publishing in 1862 as paper prices rose, returning subscription fees with a note that he "would not publish a paper that could not be circulated for $1 a year." [4]
Brother Jonathan is the personification of New England. He was also used as an emblem of the United States in general, and can be an allegory of capitalism. His too-short pants, too-tight waistcoat and old-fashioned style reflect his taste for inexpensive, second-hand products and efficient use of means.
John Neal was an American writer, critic, editor, lecturer, and activist. Considered both eccentric and influential, he delivered speeches and published essays, novels, poems, and short stories between the 1810s and 1870s in the United States and Great Britain, championing American literary nationalism and regionalism in their earliest stages. Neal advanced the development of American art, fought for women's rights, advocated the end of slavery and racial prejudice, and helped establish the American gymnastics movement.
John Pierpont was an American poet, who was also successively a teacher, lawyer, merchant, and Unitarian minister. His poem The Airs of Palestine made him one of the best-known poets in the U.S. in his day. He was the grandfather of J. P. Morgan.
The Westminster Review was a quarterly British publication. Established in 1823 as the official organ of the Philosophical Radicals, it was published from 1824 to 1914. James Mill was one of the driving forces behind the liberal journal until 1828.
The Portland & Ogdensburg Railroad was a railroad planned to connect Portland, Maine to Ogdensburg, New York. The plan failed, and in 1880 the Vermont section was reorganized and leased by the Boston & Lowell Railroad. In 1886, the Maine and New Hampshire section was reorganized as the Portland & Ogdensburg Railway. That part was leased to the Maine Central Railroad in 1888, and in 1912 the Maine Central leased the eastern part of the Vermont section from the Boston & Maine Railroad, the successor to the B&L.
Elizabeth Oakes Smith was an American poet, fiction writer, editor, lecturer, and women's rights activist whose career spanned six decades, from the 1830s to the 1880s. Most well-known at the start of her professional career for poems such as "A Corpse Going to a Ball", which appeared in The Neapolitan in 1841, and "The Sinless Child", which appeared in the Southern Literary Messenger in 1842, her reputation today rests on her feminist writings, including Woman and Her Needs, a series of essays published in the New-York Tribune between 1850 and 1851 that argued for women's spiritual and intellectual capacities as well as women's equal rights to political and economic opportunities, including the franchise and higher education.
Eliza Farnham was a 19th-century American novelist, feminist, abolitionist, and activist for prison reform.
James Brooks was an American educator, lawyer, and politician who represented New York City in the United States House of Representatives for seven nonconsecutive terms between 1849 and his death in 1873. Though initially a member of the Whig Party, he later joined the Democratic Party and, as a critic of the Abraham Lincoln administration, rose to become its leader in the House at the end of the American Civil War. He died in office in 1873 while under scrutiny and formal censure for attempted bribery in connection to the Credit Mobilier scandal.
Horatio Hastings Weld was an American author, newspaper editor and minister. In 1845 he became an Episcopal minister.
The Boston Miscellany of Literature and Fashion was a monthly literary and fashion magazine published in Boston, Massachusetts from 1842 to 1843. It also published book reviews and music.
A History of New York, subtitled From the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty, is an 1809 literary parody on the early history of New York City by Washington Irving. Originally published under the pseudonym Diedrich Knickerbocker, later editions that acknowledged Irving's authorship were printed as Knickerbocker's History of New York.
The bibliography of American writer John Neal (1793–1876) spans more than sixty years from the War of 1812 through Reconstruction and includes novels, short stories, poetry, articles, plays, lectures, and translations published in newspapers, magazines, literary journals, gift books, pamphlets, and books. Favorite topics included women's rights, feminism, gender, race, slavery, children, education, law, politics, art, architecture, literature, drama, religion, gymnastics, civics, American history, science, phrenology, travel, language, political economy, and temperance.
Articles by American writer John Neal (1793–1876) influenced the development of American literature towards cultural independence and a unique style. They were published in newspapers, magazines, and literary journals and are part of his bibliography. They include his first known published work and pieces published in the last decade of his life. The topics of these works reflect the Neal's broad interests, including women's rights, feminism, gender, race, slavery, children, education, law, politics, art, architecture, literature, drama, religion, gymnastics, civics, American history, science, phrenology, travel, language, political economy, and temperance.
The Yankee was one of the first cultural publications in the United States, founded and edited by John Neal (1793–1876), and published in Portland, Maine as a weekly periodical and later converted to a longer, monthly format. Its two-year run concluded at the end of 1829. The magazine is considered unique for its independent journalism at the time.
The Delphian Club was an early American literary club active between 1816 and 1825. The focal point of Baltimore's literary community, Delphians like John Neal were prodigious authors and editors. The group of mostly lawyers and doctors gathered weekly to share refreshments and facetious stories, with many of their works being published in The Portico magazine. The club's structure and terminology were inspired by classical antiquity and comical verbosity. Sixteen men claimed membership over the club's nine-year run, with no more than nine serving at a time. Edgar Allan Poe satirized the group in his unpublished Tales of the Folio Club in the 1830s.
Seventy-Six is a historical fiction novel by American writer John Neal. Published in Baltimore in 1823, it is the fourth novel written about the American Revolutionary War. Historically distinguished for its pioneering use of colloquial language, Yankee dialect, battle scene realism, high characterization, stream of consciousness narrative, profanity, and depictions of sex and romance, the novel foreshadowed and influenced later American writers. The narrative prose resembles spoken American English more than any other literature of its period. It was the first work of American fiction to use the phrase son-of-a-bitch.
Rachel Dyer: A North American Story is a Gothic historical novel by American writer John Neal. Published in 1828 in Maine, it is the first bound novel about the Salem witch trials. Though it garnered little critical notice in its day, it influenced works by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, John Greenleaf Whittier, and Walt Whitman. It is best remembered for the American literary nationalist essay, "Unpublished Preface", that precedes the body of the novel.
Logan, a Family History is a Gothic novel of historical fiction by American writer John Neal. Published anonymously in Baltimore in 1822, the book is loosely inspired by the true story of Mingo leader Logan the Orator, while weaving a highly fictionalized story of interactions between Anglo-American colonists and Indigenous peoples on the western frontier of colonial Virginia. Set just before the Revolutionary War, it depicts the genocide of Native Americans as the heart of the American story and follows a long cast of characters connected to each other in a complex web of overlapping love interests, family relations, rape, and sexual activity.
Brother Jonathan: or, the New Englanders is an 1825 historical novel by American writer John Neal. The title refers to Brother Jonathan, a popular personification of New England and the broader United States. The story follows protagonist Walter Harwood as he and the nation around him both come of age through the American Revolution. The novel explores cross-cultural relationships and highlights cultural diversity within the Thirteen Colonies, stressing egalitarianism and challenging the conception of a unified American nation. It features mixed-race Anglo-Indigenous characters and depicts them as the inheritors of North America. The book's sexual themes drew negative reactions from contemporary critics. These themes were explicit for the period, addressing female sexual virtue and male guilt for sexual misdeeds.
American Writers is a work of literary criticism by American writer and critic John Neal. Published by Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine in five installments between September 1824 and February 1825, it is recognized by scholars as the first history of American literature and the first substantial work of criticism concerning US authors. It is Neal's longest critical work and at least 120 authors are covered, based entirely on Neal's memory. With no notes or books for reference, Neal made multiple factually inaccurate claims and provided coverage of many authors that modern scholars criticize as disproportionate to their role in American literature. Scholars nevertheless praise the staying power of Neal's opinions, many of which are reflected by other critics decades later, notably "Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses" by Mark Twain. Theories of poetry and prose in American Writers foreshadowed and likely influenced later works by Edgar Allan Poe and Walt Whitman. Neal argued American literature relied too much on British precedent and had failed to develop its own voice. He offered sharp criticism of many authors while simultaneously urging critics not to offer writers from the US undeserved praise, lest it stifle the development of a truly distinct American literature. Poe's later critical essays on literature reflected these strictures.