United States Magazine and Democratic Review (Washington, DC) V. 1-5, 1837-40 [Very Good] [Hardcover]

Description

Vol. 1, No. 1 (October-December 1837) to Vol. 5, No. 6 (June 1839), comprising eighteen issues in all, bound in four volumes (volumes 3 and 4 bound together) of matching half-leather and marbled boards. Leather is scuffed and worn, but bindings are sound and attractive. VG, with foxing. These volumes contain eight early short stories by Hawthorne (all of which later appeared in his Twice-Told Tales) and one profile. Other distinguished contributors included William Cullen Bryant five poems and one profile) and John Greenleaf Whittier (two poems). Of the nonfiction, the 1839 volumes contain two articles on the newly discovered process of making pictures using the sun. The first is a four-page article in the May issue, taken from the February issue of an unidentified French journal. The second is a short piece in the June issue about experiments similar to Daguerre’s done by Professor Locke of the Medical College of Ohio. In all likelihood, more Americans learned about the photographic process for the first time by reading the article in the May issue than from any other single source. The Democratic Review, as it was generally called, was Democratic with a capital ""D,"" defending Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren against all comers. Mott says of it, “The combination of literature of real excellence with vigorous articles on political, economic, and social questions made the Democratic Review.an important periodical, [perhaps] the most brilliant periodical of the time."" (Mott/1/683)