 Cover sheet of an 1804 issue | |
| Editor | Joseph Dennie |
|---|---|
| Editor | Nicholas Biddle |
| Editor | John Elihu Hall |
| Categories | Politics and literature |
| Frequency | Weekly |
| Founded | 1800 |
| First issue | January 3, 1801 |
| Country | United States |
| Based in | Philadelphia |
The Port Folio was an American literary and political magazine that was published in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from 1801 to 1827.
The Port Folio was first co-published in 1801 by Joseph Dennie and Asbury Dickins. Dickins dropped as co-publisher, and Dennie remained the editor from 1802 to 1812. [1] Dennie wrote under the pen name of Oliver Oldschool.
Many other contributors to the magazine wrote under pseudonyms, including members of the Federalist Party. [2] Paul Allen (February 15, 1775 – August 18, 1826), a graduate of Brown University, was hired about 1800 as an editor. [3]
In 1808, Dennie lost financial control to the publishers Bradford and Inskeep although he was kept on as editor at a salary. In 1809, the paper was re-organized as a monthly, and a new prospectus was issued that de-emphasized politics. In 1810, Dennie dropped the Oliver Oldschool pseudonym and wrote under his own name. Dennie died in 1812. [4]
After Dennie's death, Nicholas Biddle, who was already a literary contributor and patron, became editor but only until 1814. Charles Jared Ingersoll, a nonpracticing lawyer, was also a contributor and patron. [5]
From 1816 to 1827, the editor was John Elihu Hall. The paper had been floundering since Joseph Dennie died in 1812. John Hall, James Hall and Sarah Ewing Hall had all written works for The Port Folio under Dennie, and John Hall continued to rely heavily on James and Sarah while he was editor though John Neal was also a contributor early in that period. [6] However, Hall was never able to resurrect the original reputation that the journal had, and it folded in 1827. [7]
Charles Brockden Brown was an American novelist, historian, and editor of the Early National period.
Royall Tyler was an American jurist, teacher and playwright. He was born in Boston, graduated from Harvard University in 1776, and then served in the Massachusetts militia during the American Revolution. He was admitted to the bar in 1780, became a lawyer, and fathered eleven children. In 1801, he was appointed a Justice of the Vermont Supreme Court. He wrote a play, The Contrast, which was produced in 1787 in New York City, shortly after George Washington's inauguration. It is considered the first American comedy. Washington attended the production, which was well-received, and Tyler became a literary celebrity.
George Clinton Jr. was an American politician and lawyer who served as a U.S. representative from New York from 1805 to 1809.
Blackwood's Magazine was a British magazine and miscellany printed between 1817 and 1980. It was founded by the publisher William Blackwood and was originally called the Edinburgh Monthly Magazine. The first number appeared in April 1817 under the editorship of Thomas Pringle and James Cleghorn. The journal was unsuccessful and Blackwood fired Pringle and Cleghorn and relaunched the journal as Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine under his own editorship. The journal eventually adopted the shorter name and from the relaunch often referred to itself as Maga. The title page bore the image of George Buchanan, a 16th-century Scottish historian, religious and political thinker.
Edward Coote Pinkney was an American poet, lawyer, sailor, professor, and editor. Born in London in 1802 when his father was serving as ambassador to the Court of St. James, Pinkney returned with his family to the United States when he was eight. They returned to Maryland, where he was privately schooled.
William Courtney Dowling is University Distinguished Professor of English and American Literature emeritus at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, specializing in 18th-century English literature, literature of the early American Republic, and Literary Theory.
The Portico: A Repository of Science & Literature (1816–1818) was a short-lived Baltimore literary journal founded and edited by Stephen Simpson and Tobias Watkins. The monthly journal was formed to publish the members of a small Baltimore literary society, called the Delphian Club. The Portico's contributors include John Pierpont, a poet, and John Neal, a poet, novelist, and journalist who went on to write for English periodicals such as Blackwood's Magazine and to serve as editor of several American papers.
Thomas Boylston Adams was the third and youngest son of second United States president John Adams and Abigail (Smith) Adams. He worked as a lawyer, a secretary to his brother John Quincy Adams while the latter served as United States ambassador to the Netherlands and Prussia, the business manager of and a contributor to the political and literary journal Port Folio, and a Massachusetts chief justice.
Logocracy is the rule of, or government by, words. It is derived from the Greek λόγος (logos)—"word" and from κράτος (kratos)—to "govern". The term can be used either positively, ironically, or negatively.
Joseph Dennie was an American author and journalist who was one of the foremost men of letters of the Federalist Era. A Federalist, Dennie is best remembered for his series of essays entitled The Lay Preacher and as the founding editor of The Port Folio, a journal espousing classical republican values. Port Folio was the most highly regarded and successful literary publication of its time, and the first important political and literary journal in the United States. Timothy Dwight IV once referred to Dennie as "the Addison of America" and "the father of American Belles-Lettres."
A copybook, or copy book is a book used in education that contains examples of handwriting and blank space for learners to imitate.
The Columbian Institute for the Promotion of Arts and Sciences (1816–1838) was a literary and science institution in Washington, D.C., founded by Dr. Edward Cutbush (1772–1843), a naval surgeon. Thomas Law had earlier suggested of such a society "at the seat of government." It was the first "learned society" established in Washington and was organized on June 28, 1816, sixteen years after the city was occupied, and less than two years after the invasion by the British troops. The second article of its constitution states: "The Institute shall consist of mathematical, physical, moral and political sciences, general literature and fine arts."
Asbury Dickins was a United States government official who served as Secretary of the United States Senate from 1836 until shortly before he died in 1861.
Sarah Ewing Hall was an American educator, poet, and essayist of Christian literature.
John Elihu Hall was an American lawyer, writer and publisher who was born and lived for most of his life in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with important parts of his career spent in Maryland.
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.
American literary nationalism was a literary movement in the United States in the early-to mid 19th century, which consisted of American authors working towards the development of a distinct American literature. Literary figures such as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, William Cullen Bryant and William Ellery Channing advocated the creation of a definitively American form of literature with emphasis "on spiritual values and social usefulness." Longfellow wrote that "when we say that the literature of a country is national, we mean that it bears upon it the stamp of national character." Many authors of the time also advocated tying the literature to religion. These demands were also couched in a perceived contrast between the English author as a "well-off amateur writer ... who writes in his spare time for personal amusement" and the American as a "professional author, writing out of economic necessity".
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.
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.