We had one in the early
days of the Republic, when _The North American Review_ was founded. It
is noteworthy that we are developing another now and have seen _The
Yale Review_, the late lamented _Unpartisan Review_, and others join
_The North American_, fringed, so to speak, by magazines of excerpt
(of which much might be written), such as _The Review of Reviews_,
_Current Opinion_, and _The Literary Digest_, in which the function
of the review is discharged for the great community that insists
upon reading hastily.
The review has come to its own with the war and reconstruction;
which, considering its handicaps, is another argument that the
family magazine should heed the sharpening of the American
intellect. But, except for the strongest members of the family, it
is still struggling, and still dependent for long life upon
cheapness of production rather than breadth of appeal.
The difficulty is not so much with the readers as the writers. The
review must largely depend upon the specialist writer (who alone
has the equipment for specialist writing), and the American
specialist cannot usually write well enough to command general
intelligent attention.
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