The American Review: A Whig Journal

The American Review, alternatively known as The American Review: A Whig Journal and The American Whig Review, was a New York City-based monthly periodical that published from 1844 to 1852. Published by Wiley and Putnam, it was edited by George H. Colton, and after his death, beginning with Volume 7, by James Davenport Whelpley. As of Volume 10, July 1849, the proprietors of the journal were Whelpley and John Priestly.

The American Review: A Whig Journal
Title page of an 1845 issue of the American Review
CategoriesGeneral interest
FrequencyMonthly
First issue1844 (1844)
Final issue1852 (1852)
CompanyWiley & Putnam
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

History

The first issue of American Review was dated January 1845, though it was likely published as early as October 1844, and intended to promote the Whig candidate Henry Clay, running in the presidential election of 1844. Clay was opposed by James K. Polk, the Democratic Party’s candidate, who had the support of the Democratic Review.[1]

In December 1844, Edgar Allan Poe was recommended as an editorial assistant by James Russell Lowell, though Poe was not hired.[2] In May 1846, Poe reviewed Colton's work in The Literati of New York City, published in Godey's Lady's Book. Poe described Colton's poem "Tecumseh" as "insufferably tedious" but said that the magazine was one of the best of its kind in the United States.[2]

The American Review had the distinction of being the first authorized periodical to print "The Raven" in February 1845. It was printed with the pseudonym "Quarles".[3] Another well-known poem by Poe, "Ulalume," also was first published (anonymously) in the American Review. Other works by Poe published in the American Review include "Some Words with a Mummy" and "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar."[4]

The American Review ceased publication in 1852, unable to continue paying its contributors.[5]

See also

Other American journals that Edgar Allan Poe was involved with include:

References
  1. Mott, Frank Luther. A History of American Magazines. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1930: 89.
  2. Sova, Dawn B. Edgar Allan Poe: A to Z. New York: Checkmark Books, 2001: 10. ISBN 0-8160-4161-X
  3. Silverman, Kenneth in its Volume One issue Edgar A. Poe: Mournful and Never-ending Remembrance. New York: Harper Perennial, 1991: 530. ISBN 0-06-092331-8
  4. Silverman, Kenneth. Edgar A. Poe: Mournful and Never-ending Remembrance. New York: Harper Perennial, 1991: 294. ISBN 0-06-092331-8
  5. Donald Frank Andrews, The American Whig Review, 1845-1852: its History and Literary Contents (University of Tennessee, 1977).
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