"One Saturday afternoon in 1857, at a luncheon held at Boston's Parker House Hotel, an elite assemblage of America's brightest literary lights hatched the idea for a new publication—a magazine that would serve as a forum for the best being thought and written in the United States. The group, which included Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, James Russell Lowell, and Oliver Wendell Holmes, named their fledgling venture "The Atlantic Monthly." After obtaining the necessary financial backing and nominating the poet James Russell Lowell to serve as editor, their plans proceeded apace, and the inaugural issue of The Atlantic debuted in November 1857."
The Atlantic, one of my favorite magazines on the racks, is celebrating a birthday with a special issue, as well as a groovy little space on their website, Atlantic Lore, that's a compendium of "Scandals, intriguing facts, greatest hits, and more."
Some tidbits:
- In 1869 The Atlantic published an article by Harriet Beecher Stowe, accusing the poet Lord Byron of carrying on an affair with his half sister.
- Mark Twain's Life on the Mississippi began as an 1875 Atlantic serial.
- One year into the Civil War, the writer Julia Ward Howe visited a Union Army camp and was inspired to write a poem set to the rhythm of "John Brown's Body." The Atlantic paid her $4.00 for her submission, which was titled The Battle Hymn of the Republic. It was given the lead place in the February 1862 Atlantic and soon became a virtual war anthem for the Union army.
So, happy 150th Atlantic. My goal? To get in Atlantic's pages by their 155th birthday.
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