Atlantic Monthly, The

Monthly journal of literature and opinion, one of the oldest and most respected of U.S. reviews.

Published in Boston, it was founded in 1857 by Moses Dresser Phillips. It soon became noted for the quality of its fiction and general articles, contributed by distinguished editors and authors such as James Russell Lowell, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry W. Longfellow, and Oliver Wendell Holmes. In the early 1920s it expanded its scope to political affairs, featuring articles by figures such as Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and Booker T. Washington. In the 1970s increasing costs nearly shut down the magazine; it was purchased in 1980 by Mortimer B. Zuckerman and was sold to the National Journal Group in 1999.

* * *

▪ American journal

      American monthly journal of literature and opinion, published in Boston. One of the oldest and most respected of American reviews, The Atlantic Monthly was founded in 1857 by Moses Dresser Phillips and Francis H. Underwood (Underwood, Francis Henry). It has long been noted for the quality of its fiction and general articles, contributed by a long line of distinguished editors and authors that includes James Russell Lowell (Lowell, James Russell), Ralph Waldo Emerson (Emerson, Ralph Waldo), Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth), and Oliver Wendell Holmes (Holmes, Oliver Wendell). In 1869 The Atlantic Monthly created a sensation when it published an article by Harriet Beecher Stowe (Stowe, Harriet Beecher) about Lord Byron (Byron, George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron) and his salacious personal life. Stowe intended the article to “arrest Byron's influence upon the young”; instead, it fascinated young readers, whose outraged parents canceled 15,000 subscriptions.

      In the early 1920s The Atlantic Monthly expanded its coverage of political affairs, featuring articles by such figures as Theodore Roosevelt (Roosevelt, Theodore), Woodrow Wilson (Wilson, Woodrow), and Booker T. Washington (Washington, Booker T). The high quality of its literature—notably, serialized novels, including best-sellers—and its literary criticism have preserved the magazine's reputation as a lively literary periodical with a moderate worldview. In the 1970s increasing publication and mailing costs, far outstripping revenues from subscriptions and meagre advertising sales, nearly shut the magazine down. It was purchased in 1980 by Mortimer B. Zuckerman. The magazine is often referred to as The Atlantic, and issues from April 1981 to October 1993 carried that name until the original was reinstated.

* * *