History Of American Journalism

PREFACE THE first printed account dealing in any way with American journalism was undoubtedly a letter addressed to the president of the Massachusetts Historical Society and published for that society in 1798 as a part of its Proceedings, This letter, entitled A Narrative of the Newspapers Printed in New England, was, though signed A. Z., written by the Rev. John Elliott, D. D., Pastor of the North Church of Boston. Full of errors, it is interesting only in a sense that it marked the beginning of printed literature on American journalism. A continuation of the narrative by the same author was published in the Collec tions of the Massachusetts Historical Society for 1800. In cluded in this second narrative was a shorter letter, sketching the newspapers of Connecticut from 1755 to 1800, from the pen of Noah Webster, who had already achieved fame as a distinguished lexicographer. In 1810 Isaiah Thomas of Worcester, Massachusetts, pub lished his History of Printing in America, in two volumes. But J for these volumes little would be known about many of the early American printers and their papers. The second edition, revised and enlarged in 1878 by the American Antiquarian Society which had been founded by Mr. Thomas, will always be the standard work for the period which it covers. Joseph Tinker Buckingham brought out in Boston in 1850 Specimens of Newspaper Literature, in two small volumes. With one or two exceptions, its contents were limited to the news papers of New England. Though based upon the history by Thomas, it enlarged much of the biography and reprinted many extracts from the newspapers discussed. Two years later, Buck ingham published two volumes, of about the same size asthose already mentioned, entitled Personal Memoirs and Recollections of Editorial Life. The latter work was practically a biography of its author, who was closely associated with the journalism of Boston. viii PREFACE Frederic Hudson, for many years the managing director of The New York Herald, issued in 1873 his Journalism in the Uni ed States. This book, which aimed to cover the period from 1690 to 1872, contains many interesting sketches of editors and their papers, but is so full of errors, and is so biased in its point of view, that it cannot be accepted as an authority even for the period with which Mr. Hudson was most familiar. The United States Government in 1880 issued, in connection with its publications of the census for that year, History and Present Conditions of the Newspaper and Periodical Press of the United States. For the historical part, the book was based upon the works already mentioned and perpetuated their errors. Its statistical matter, being compiled from data furnished to the census, makes it a valuable contribution to journalism history. In 1881 Charles Dudley Warner, a member of the editorial staff of The Courant, of Hartford, Connecticut, published an essay, The American Newspaper, which he had read before the Social Science Association at Saratoga Springs, Now York, on September 6 of that year. Brief as was this booklet, it was a most comprehensive summary of journalism as it then exintcd. Nothing else of general scope, except scattering magazine articles and biographies of individual editors, has appeared to record the developments of American journalism. The author of this book, while acknowledging his indebted ness to the works already enumerated, hasnought in every instance to verify facts as original sources in his attempt to do so he has been greatly assisted by secretaries of state historical societies to whom acknowledgment for courtesies rendered must first be made...