The Southern Literary Messenger, 1834-1864

The Southern Literary Messenger enjoyed an impressive thirty-year run (1834-1864) and was, in its time, the South's most important literary periodical. Published in Richmond, Virginia, the monthly magazine was originally edited by Edgar Allan Poe and is remembered for publishing poems, fiction, and essays by the nation's leading authors - both male and female, northern and southern - including William Gilmore Simms, Paul Hamilton Hayne, Joseph G. Baldwin, John Pendleton Kennedy, Mary E. Lee, and Caroline Lee Hentz. In 1905, Benjamin Blake Minor (1818-1905), editor of the ""Messenger"" during the 1840s, wrote the only book-length study of the magazine. Minor recounts in detail the relationships he forged with notable authors and includes excerpts from correspondence with Poe and others. Most important, Minor identifies and discusses hundreds of lesser contributors who might otherwise remain anonymous. He also describes the struggles the magazine's editors endured as they published essays on the divisive issue of slavery. Minor's authoritative account of the journal's history and influence is augmented in this edition with a new introduction by Wells that places Minor's account in historical context.