 | |  |
II
It has been noted that the Album was "with a few trifling exceptions, [to] be totally devoted to Original matter," and that it was to be "open
In make-up the twenty-six issues of the Album do not vary much. The "eight large octavo pages" of each number usually contain an installment of a continued story, one or two essays or sketches in the Spectator tradition, four or five short poems, and perhaps a book review and a complete story, more often than not with an "exotic" setting. Although the prospectus claimed scientific as well as literary interests, the Album is actually entirely literary, there being not a truly "scientific" article in the volume.[17] In this respect—and in the even more surprising respect that it completely ignores politics—the Album is a rarity among early Southern periodicals.
"A.B.C." had "surmised" that the Album would be modeled upon the "Ladies' Literary Gazette, of New-York"[18] —by which he unquestionably meant the New-York Mirror, and Ladies' Literary Gazette, then edited and published by George Pope Morris. And once again that conjecture proved to be remarkably accurate: both the Mirror and the Album were eight-page weeklies "of a very miscellaneous nature,"[19] although the Mirror's pages were of quarto size. Both emphasized the American character of their work; both scorned everything political; and both made a definite bid for women readers. The Album (as its name suggests) was in many ways a "ladies' gazette"—its pages abound with "Epistles to the Ladies" and with sentimental poems, stories, and essays designed to make the female heart flutter. In rejecting a contribution by "Malvina" in the third number, the editors made a statement implying that the Album's reading audience was composed largely of women: ". . . however we may ourselves
A periodical of exclusively literary interests nearly always experiences financial difficulty; the young editors' statement that they expected no "pecuniary recompense" indicates their realization of this truth and underlines the sincerity of their "desire of furthering the Literary character" of their state. Exactly how much the Album was able to accomplish was of course restricted to the amount of interest and support given it by the city of its origin. And in view of the fact that the Album was admittedly a literary miscellany in a political-minded section, was edited by inexperienced hands, and lacked even the attraction of European reprints or translations,[22] it seems surprising that it survived for as long as six months.
The editors evidently had an overabundance of material for their opening number,[23] and in the second they tried to establish a criterion for contributors in a notice "To Correspondents." "Orlando," for example, was told that he "is too trite" and that the "want of interest in his communication prevents its insertion." Another correspondent, "M.G.A.," was found "inadmissible" because he "has not been sufficiently careful" in the exercise of judgment; ". . . a laxity on our part," the editors concluded, "would only tend to make him more careless."[24]
Apparently the editorial staff of the Album recognized the importance of maintaining critical standards, for such comments as these appear rather frequently in the early numbers. On one occasion, after making some cynical remarks about the "rage for Poetry," the audacious young editors tactlessly offered advice to potential writers of poetry for the Album. "Let the example he [the would-be poet] takes as a model," the editorial reads, "be a great one—and let him follow, not imitate. Never be content with the bare symphony of sweet sound, but even sacrifice ear to nerve. . . ." In conclusion the editors stated that these "remarks are intended for a considerable number of our metrical correspondents, who are particularly
Such cocksureness did not endear the journal to all its correspondents. In an editorial entitled "Ourselves" in the August 20, 1825, number, the editors disclosed that their policy was bitterly resented by some of the authors whose offerings had been rejected:
The "Young Gentlemen" then took to task one "Vernon," a correspondent who evidently had belligerently protested when his contribution had been refused. "If, in the rejection of his verses of which he so virulently complains," the editors wrote, "he concieves [sic] that we have acted with any discriminate favor, he is at liberty to submit his effusion to the public eye through any other vehicle; it shall not disgrace ours."[26]
After this untactful blast at vain would-be contributors, the Album apparently was willing to let its case rest, usually refraining from editorial comment in the later numbers. Perhaps this reduction in criticism of rejected articles simply means a decrease in the number of contributions; certainly it does not indicate a significant change in policy, for the editors on occasion still ridiculed the attempts of certain of their correspondents. In the November 19 issue, for instance, a brief critical notice—seemingly an imitation of Jeffrey's "slashing" humor—reads in part: ". . . we cannot publish EVERY THING; we are conscious already of having admitted much more, than our sober judgment could recommend or approve."[27]
Even the admission that too many inferior pieces had already been accepted confirms the belief that the Album had not (intentionally, at least) lowered its standards. One reason, perhaps, why the editors could afford to use some kind of measuring stick on the offerings of their correspondents is that they filled a large portion of their periodical with their own writings. Depending as it did upon untried editors and correspondents, the Album of course contains little of real literary worth, but there is no decline in general
| | |