2487681967

New Notes on C. A. Bristed, Poe, and Baudelaire

Courtesy Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, The University of Texas at Austin

1848 in Blackwood s Magazine, Bristed surveys the problems of periodical literaturę for English readers, citing American demand for good periodicals, but regretting the poor ąuality of “crude essays filled out with commonplaces.” (Quarterlies such as The Knickerbocker in New York City had been an exception to the norm.) Bristed suggests that critics of taste, education, courage, and independence would solve the problem, but that most con-tributors are unpaid. Thus, periodicals are without a stable corps of writers and, conseąuently, a unifying tonę. Regionalism domi-nates American periodicals, and publishers are without sufficient Capital. He then adds “The Southern Literary Messenger was established to write up ‘the peculiar institutions,’ and therefore only suited to and intended for the southem market; but there was a time when, under the management of Mr. E.A. Poe, an erratic

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