Frequency | Monthly |
---|---|
Publisher | W.C. and F. P. Church |
Founder | W.C. and F. P. Church |
Founded | 1866 |
First issue | May 1, 1866 |
Final issue | 1878 |
Country | United States |
Based in | New York City |
Language | English |
Galaxy Magazine, or The Galaxy, was an American monthly magazine founded by William Conant Church and his brother Francis P. Church in 1866. [1] [2] [3] [4] In 1868, Sheldon and Company gained financial control of the magazine and it was eventually absorbed by The Atlantic Monthly in 1878. [2] [5] Notable contributors to the magazine include Mark Twain, Walt Whitman, Ion Hanford Perdicaris and Henry James. [2] [4] [6] [7]
In 1861, after the start of the Civil War, William Church served as a war correspondent for the New York Evening Post [8] and later for The New York Times . [9] [10] In 1863, after leaving the war behind, William and his brother started the Army and Navy Journal , and in 1866 they started Galaxy magazine. Oliver Wendell Holmes, who had named The Atlantic Monthly, may have named the new magazine. [11]
The Church brothers published and edited the magazine for two years from 1866 to 1868. The publishing house of Sheldon and Company took over publishing in 1868, and ten years later in 1878 Sheldon ceased publication of the magazine and it was absorbed into The Atlantic. [12] [13] Francis Church later went to work as an editorial writer for the New York Sun , where he wrote the Christmas editorial commonly referred to as "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus." [4]
After the magazine went into publication in 1866, besides the Church brothers working as editors, Frederic Beecher Perkins, a well known librarian and an experienced editor, was an office editor and Richard Grant White was an editorial contributor who wrote special articles for the magazine. [11] As departments were added to the Galaxy, other writers were added. George E. Pond, who had been associate editor of the Army and Navy Journal, wrote an editorial column (mainly political) called "Drift-Wood" under the name of "Phillip Quilibet", and S.S. Conant, who was editor of Harper's Weekly, wrote and critiqued for the Galaxy's fine arts department. [11] James F. Meline contributed reviews of French and German books, while Professor E.L. Youmans, edited the "Scientific Miscellany" from 1871 to 1874. Carl Benson, in private life known as Charles Astor Bristed, wrote for the department called "Casual Cogitations". [11]
The Galaxy published many of Henry James's early short stories, including "A Day of Days" (1866), "A Light Man" (1869) and "Madame de Mauves" (1874). [14] Mark Twain wrote a column called "Memoranda" for the magazine from 1870 to 1871. Twain's introductory column announced that his department would carry "ample dissertations upon political economy". [15] Twain went on to contribute over eighty pieces to the Galaxy, which paid him $20 per page for his monthly column, more than double its regular rate. [4] [16]
In December 1866, The Galaxy published the first biographical essay of the poet Walt Whitman, written by his friend John Burroughs, titled "Walt Whitman and His Drum-Taps." [17] [18] The magazine went on to publish four poems by Whitman, A Carol of Harvest (1867), Brother of All with Generous Hand (1870), Warble for Lilac-Time (1870), and 0 Star of France (1871). The Galaxy also printed the beginnings of Whitman's essay Democratic Vistas in two articles. The first part titled Democracy, was published in December 1867 and the second part, Personalism, appeared in May 1868. Edward F. Grier wrote about the poet: "Whitman's position as a Galaxy author was important to his personal fortunes and his literary reputation. The Galaxy was respectable, it was popular, and it paid generously. It also provided a venue where Whitman could join with other writers in exploring the meaning of literary nationalism and cultural democracy for the new era." [18]
Walter Whitman Jr. was an American poet, essayist, and journalist. He is considered one of the most influential poets in American literature. Whitman incorporated both transcendentalism and realism in his writings and is often called the father of free verse. His work was controversial in his time, particularly his 1855 poetry collection Leaves of Grass, which was described by some as obscene for its overt sensuality.
"Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus" is a line from an editorial by Francis Pharcellus Church. Written in response to a letter by eight-year-old Virginia O'Hanlon asking whether Santa Claus was real, the editorial was first published in the New York newspaper The Sun on September 21, 1897.
Francis Pharcellus Church was an American publisher and editor. In 1897, Church wrote the editorial "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus". Produced in response to eight-year-old Virginia O'Hanlon's letter asking whether Santa Claus was real, the widely republished editorial has become one of the most famous ever written.
Bret Harte was an American short story writer and poet best remembered for short fiction featuring miners, gamblers, and other romantic figures of the California Gold Rush. In a career spanning more than four decades, he also wrote poetry, plays, lectures, book reviews, editorials, and magazine sketches.
The Atlantic is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science.
William Dean Howells was an American realist novelist, literary critic, and playwright, nicknamed "The Dean of American Letters". He was particularly known for his tenure as editor of The Atlantic Monthly, as well as for the novels The Rise of Silas Lapham and A Traveler from Altruria, and the Christmas story "Christmas Every Day," which was adapted into a 1996 film of the same name.
Thomas Bailey Aldrich was an American writer, poet, critic, and editor. He is notable for his long editorship of The Atlantic Monthly, during which he published writers including Charles W. Chesnutt. He was also known for his semi-autobiographical book The Story of a Bad Boy, which established the "bad boy's book" subgenre in nineteenth-century American literature, and for his poetry.
Argosy was an American magazine, founded in 1882 as The Golden Argosy, a children's weekly, edited by Frank Munsey and published by E. G. Rideout. Munsey took over as publisher when Rideout went bankrupt in 1883, and after many struggles made the magazine profitable. He shortened the title to The Argosy in 1888 and targeted an audience of men and boys with adventure stories. In 1894 he switched it to a monthly schedule and in 1896 he eliminated all non-fiction and started using cheap pulp paper, making it the first pulp magazine. Circulation had reached half a million by 1907, and remained strong until the 1930s. The name was changed to Argosy All-Story Weekly in 1920 after the magazine merged with All-Story Weekly, another Munsey pulp, and from 1929 it became just Argosy.
The Sun was a New York newspaper published from 1833 until 1950. It was considered a serious paper, like the city's two more successful broadsheets, The New York Times and the New York Herald Tribune. The Sun was the first successful penny daily newspaper in the United States, and was for a time, the most successful newspaper in America.
Justin Daniel Kaplan was an American writer and editor. The general editor of Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, he was best known as a biographer, particularly of Samuel Clemens, Lincoln Steffens, and Walt Whitman.
The New-York Commercial Advertiser was an American evening newspaper. It originated as the American Minerva in 1793, changed its name in 1797, and was published, with slight name variations, until 1904.
William Winter was an American dramatic critic and author, born in Gloucester, Massachusetts. He graduated from Harvard Law School in 1857, then chose literature as his field of endeavor, and moved to New York City (1859), where he became literary critic of the Saturday Press, then (1861–65) of the New York Albion, and for more than 40 years (1865–1909) was a drama critic of the New York Tribune.
The Overland Monthly was a monthly literary and cultural magazine, based in California, United States. It was founded in 1868 and published between the second half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century.
William Conant Church was an American journalist, author and soldier. He was publisher of several newspapers and magazines in association with his father and brother. He was the co-founder and second president of the National Rifle Association of America.
Fanny Fern, was an American novelist, children's writer, humorist, and newspaper columnist in the 1850s to 1870s. Her popularity has been attributed to a conversational style and sense of what mattered to her mostly middle-class female readers.
Munsey's Magazine was an American magazine founded by Frank Munsey. Originally launched in 1889 as Munsey's Weekly, a humorous magazine, edited by John Kendrick Bangs, it was not successful, and by late 1891 had lost $100,000. Munsey converted it to a general illustrated monthly in October of that year, retitled Munsey's Magazine and priced at twenty-five cents. Richard Titherington became the editor, and remained in that role for the rest of the magazine's existence. In 1893 Munsey reduced the price to ten cents : this brought him into conflict with the American News Company, which had a near-monopoly on magazine distribution, as they were unwilling to handle the magazine at the cost Munsey asked for. Munsey started his own distribution company and was quickly successful: the first issue at ten cents began with a print run of 20,000 copies but eventually sold 60,000, and within a year circulation had risen to over a quarter of a million issues.
The Californian was a San Francisco literary newspaper published weekly from May 28, 1864 until February 1, 1868.
Montgomery Schuyler AIA, was a highly influential critic, journalist and editorial writer in New York City who wrote about and influenced art, literature, music and architecture during the city's "Gilded Age." He was active as a journalist for over forty years but is principally noted as a highly influential architecture critic, and advocate of modern designs and defender of the skyscraper.
Gregory Anthony Perdicaris was a Greek American statesman, lawyer, professor, author, and entrepreneur. Perdicaris raised awareness about Greece in the United States during the Greek War of Independence and was in Greece during the critical early years. He was the first Consul of the United States for Greece. He is known for incorporating dozens of companies in the United States. Perdicaris and partners built the municipal framework for gas and electric companies. He was associated with Dewing v. Perdicaries, 96 U.S. 193 (1877), the Supreme Court case dealing with Confederate Sequestration. He was a prominent resident of Trenton, New Jersey.
Ion Hanford Perdicaris was an author, professor, lawyer, painter, and playwright. He was a humanitarian and human rights activist. He fought for the rights of Moors, Arabs and slaves. He was active in the anti-slave movement in the United States and abroad namely in Morocco. Ion fought to change the Protégé system in Morocco. Ion became an international celebrity because of the Perdicaris Incident.
With his brother Francis Pharcellus (1839–1906), he established the Galaxy in 1866.