Thus the magazine flourished in
the mid-century while the American novel declined.
A notable instance of this vigor was the effect of the growing
magazine upon the infant short story. Our American magazine made
the development of the American short story possible by creating a
need for good short fiction. The rise of our short story, after a
transitional period when the earliest periodicals and the
illustrated Annuals sought good short stories and could not get
them, coincides with the rise of the family magazine. It was such
a demand that called forth the powers in prose of the poet, Poe.
And as our magazine has become the best of its kind, so in the
short story, and in the short story alone, does American
literature rival the more fecund literatures of England and
Europe.
That a strong and native tendency made the American magazine is
indicated by the effect of our atmosphere upon the periodical
which the English have always called a review. Import that form,
as was done for _The North American_, _The Atlantic Monthly_, _The
Forum_, or _The Yale Review_, and immediately the new American
periodical begins to be a little more of a magazine, a little more
miscellaneous in its content, a little less of a critical survey.
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