It has been very difficult in this discussion, which I fear has
resembled a shot-gun charge rather than a rifle bullet, to keep
the single aim I have had in mind. The history of the periodical
in American literary thinking has not yet been written. The
history of American literature has but just been begun. My object
has been to put the spotlight for a moment upon the typical
American magazine, with just enough of its environment to make a
background. What is seen there can best be summarized by a
comparison. The American weekly is like the serious American play
of the period. It has an over-emphasis upon lesson, bias, thesis,
point. The review is like much American poetry. It is worthy, and
occasionally admirable, but as a type it is weakened by amateur
mediocrity in the art of writing. The family magazine is like the
American short story. It has conventionalized into an often
successful immobility. Both must move again, become flexible,
vigorous, or their date will be upon them. And the family
magazine, the illustrated literary magazine, is the most
interesting vehicle of human expression and interpretation that we
Americans have created.
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