Transatlantic influences in periodical editing: from Francis Jeffrey’s Edinburgh Review to Horace Greeley’s New-York Tribune

Oliver, S

Abstract

In the 2 April 1836 number of the New-Yorker the editor Horace Greeley, who was just 25 years old and in the early stages of his career, remarked on the relevance of British Periodicals to the North American public. He singled out
the Edinburgh Review for particular tribute: ‘We believe the general opinions and spirit of “the Edinburgh” are more consonant with the feelings and tastes of the educated classes of this country than those of either of its rival
Quarterlies.’ 1 There are some key words in that brief declaration. Greeley’s concern with ‘opinions,’ ‘spirit’ and ‘taste,’ and the pointed emphasis he places on their location within the nation’s ‘educated classes,’ suggests an area of common ground between him and the editors of the Edinburgh, though his publications were of a very different format and style. Looking back over thirty-four years of the Edinburgh,and forwards to an American age of journal publication and literary growth, Greeley was poised at a turning point in which the transatlantic tables of influence were about to be dramatically revised.
This article cannot account for of all of the British and North American periodicals that were significant to transatlantic relations during the first half of the nineteenth century. Rather I highlight some crucial networks of reciprocity and exchange. We can then begin to see a clearer picture of how a distinctive, American journal tradition emerged out of the influence of the British periodicals, and especially from those based in Edinburgh or with mainly Scottish contributors. Lastly, I emphasise the manner in which stylistic and critical methodologies formed a literary bridge across the ‘Great Divide’ of the Atlantic Ocean, forming a highway of connections.

Citation

Oliver, S. (2005). Transatlantic influences in periodical editing: from Francis Jeffrey’s Edinburgh Review to Horace Greeley’s New-York Tribune. Symbiosis, 9(1), 45-62

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Apr 1, 2005
• Deposit Date: Nov 26, 2009
• Journal: Symbiosis
• Print ISSN: 0334-5114
• Publisher: Springer Verlag
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 9
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 45-62
• Keywords: Transatlantic studies; reviewers; periodicals; Language and Literature; Federalism; Scottish Enlightenment; American Register; Analectic Magazine; Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine; Boston Quarterly Review; Brownson’s Quarterly Review; Burton’s Gentleman
• Publisher URL: http://www.symbiosisonline.org.uk/
• Related Public URLs: http://www.humanities-ebooks.co.uk
• Additional Information: Projects : Transatlantic Periodicals project