Description
Book SynopsisIn 1939 Frank Luther Mott received a Pulitzer Prize for Volumes II and III of his History of American Magazines. In 1958 he was awarded the Bancroft Prize for Volume IV. He was at work on Volume V of the projected six-volume history when he died in October 1964. He had, at that time, written the sketches of the twenty-one magazines that appear in this volume. These magazines flourished during the period 19051930, but their biographies are continued throughout their entire lifespanin the case of the ten still published, to recent years. Mott's daughter, Mildred Mott Wedel, has prepared this volume for publication and provided notes on changes since her father's death. No one has attempted to write the general historical chapters the author provided in the earlier volumes but which were not yet written for this last volume. A delightful autobiographical essay by the author has been included, and there is a detailed cumulative index to the entire set of this monumental work. The period 19051930 witnessed the most flamboyant and fruitful literary activity that had yet occurred in America. In his sketches, Mott traces the editorial partnership of H. L. Mencken and George Jean Nathan, first on The Smart Set and then in the pages of The American Mercury. He treats The New Republic, the liberal magazine founded in 1914 by Herbert Croly and Willard Straight; the conservative Freeman; and Better Homes and Gardens, the first magazine to achieve a circulation of one million without the aid of fiction or fashions. Other giants of magazine history are here: we see serious, shaggysolid, pragmatic, self-contained Henry Luce propel a national magazine called Time toward its remarkable prosperity. In addition to those already mentioned, the reader will find accounts of The Midland, The South Atlantic Quarterly, The Little Review, Poetry, The Fugitive, Everybody's, Appleton's Booklovers Magazine, Current History, Editor & Publisher, The Golden Book Magazine, Good Housekeeping, Hampton's Broadway Magazine, House Beautiful, Success, and The Yale Review.
Trade ReviewMott is like Gibbon. You cannot think of the history of the Roman Empire without thinking of Gibbon, and you cannot think of the history of the magazine in our country without thinking of Mott… Those who begin by consulting Mott for a particular point commonly find themselves reading on and on. Higher tribute cannot be paid to a standard history or a standard book of reference. -- Howard Mumford Jones
Table of ContentsForeword by Howard Mumford Jones Editorial Note by Mildred Mott Wedel Sketches of Magazines 1. The American Mercury 2. Appleton's Booklovers Magazine 3. Better Homes and Gardens 4. Current History 5. Editor & Publisher 6. Everybody's Magazine 7. The Freeman 8. The Fugitive 9. The Golden Book Magazine 10. Good Housekeeping 11. Hampton's Broadway Magazine 12. House Beautiful 13. The Little Review (Portion by John T. Frederick, 172--178) 14. The Midland 15. The New Republic 16. Poetry (Portion by John T. Frederick, 231--235) 17. The Smart Set 18. The South Atlantic Quarterly 19. Success 20. Time 21. The Yale Review Unfinished Story; or, The Man in the Carrel (Mott's account of A History of American Magazines) Bibliography of Mott's Writings on American Magazines Index to the Five Volumes
