North American Review - History

History

Until the founding of the Atlantic Monthly in 1857, the NAR was the foremost publication in New England and probably the entire United States. For all its lasting impact on American literature and institutions, however, the Review had no more than 3000 subscribers in its heyday.

The NAR's first editor, William Tudor (1779-1830), and other founders had been members of Boston's Anthology Club, and launched The North American Review to foster a genuine American culture. In its first few years the NAR published poetry, fiction, and miscellaneous essays on a bi-monthly schedule, but in 1818 it became a quarterly with more focused contents intent on improving society and on elevating culture. The NAR promoted the improvement of public education and administration, with reforms in secondary schools, sound professional training of doctors and lawyers, rehabilitation of prisoners at the state penitentiary, and government by educated experts.

The NAR's editors and contributors included several literary and political New Englanders as John Adams, George Bancroft, Nathaniel Bowditch, William Cullen Bryant, Lewis Cass, Edward T. Channing, Caleb Cushing, Richard Henry Dana, Sr., Alexander Hill Everett, Edward Everett, Jared Sparks, George Ticknor, Gulian C. Verplanck, and Daniel Webster.

Between 1862 and 1872, its co-editors were James Russell Lowell and Charles Eliot Norton. Henry Adams also later served as an editor. Although the Review did not often publish fiction, it did serialize The Ambassadors by Henry James.

In 1876, Allen Thorndike Rice purchased the NAR for $3000 and made himself the editor. He continued as editor until his death in 1889. In 1899, George Harvey (former managing editor of the New York World) purchased the NAR, made himself editor and kept control until 1926, except for 1921-1924, when he was United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom. In 1924, circulation had fallen to 13,000, and the monthly reverted to a quarterly. In Fall 1926, NAR was sold to Walter Butler Mahony. Joseph Hilton Smyth purchased the NAR from Mahony in September 1938, but publication was suspended in 1940, when Smyth was found to be a Japanese spy, pleading guilty in 1942 to receiving $125,000 from 1938-1941 to establish or buy publications for the purpose of spreading Japanese propaganda.

Poet Robert Dana rescued the NAR in 1964, resuming its operation and serving as editor-in-chief from 1964-68. During these years, the NAR was based at Cornell College, where Dana taught at the time. To revive the NAR, Dana successfully negotiated arrangements with Claiborne Pell, at the time Senator from Rhode Island, who asserted that he had the rights to the magazine.

When the NAR moved from Cornell College to the University of Northern Iowa in 1968, its editor was Robley Wilson. The current editors (since 2000) are Grant Tracey and Vince Gotera.