Introduction
The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine
.
New York: The Century Company,
1881-1930.
The Century
continued
Scribner's Monthly
,
after the magazine broke with Charles Scribner's publishing house in
1881. Under the editorship of Josiah Gilbert Holland,
Scribner's Monthly
had established itself as one of America's premier illustrated
magazines, reaching a circulation of well over 100,000 and publishing
important fiction, essays, and poetry. As
Scribner's
and
The
Century
, the magazine prided itself on its non-regional,
broadly American outlook, on the quality of its artwork and typography,
and on its ability to attract the best-known authors of the day.
Richard Watson Gilder led
The Century
through its period of greatest success, from 1881 until Gilder's death
in 1909. The magazine eventually folded in 1930 after more than a decade of
steady decline.
Gilder had worked on
Scribner's
from its beginnings in 1870,
and had assumed editorial duties even before he became editor-in-chief
of the new
Century
in 1881.
The
Century
published some of the best
work of the Gilded Age, including fiction by Howells, Twain, James,
Jack London, Stephen Crane, Bret Harte, Kate Chopin, and Joel Chandler
Harris, and poetry by Walt Whitman, Longfellow, Lowell, and others.
Always its illustrations were of the highest quality as well,
surpassing even
Harper's
and
The Atlantic
Monthly
. Lavishly illustrated
serial essays such as Edward King's
The Great South
and the collection of reminiscences by Civil War
generals such as Grant, McClellan, Hill, and Longstreet, entitled
Battles and Leaders of the Civil War
contributed much to the development of national
understanding and reconcilliation.
By 1890, the magazine's circulation had passed the
200,000 mark, although its decline began soon thereafter. Improved
printing technologies allowed cheaper magazines to fulfill the public's
desire for illustrations, and Gilder responded by placing greater
emphasis on nonfiction in
The Century
.
This trend continued after Gilder's death in 1909, and by the end of
the Great War the magazine had become primarily a news journal. It
merged with the
Forum
in 1930, drawing to a close its influential history.
Bibliographic
Chielens, Edward, ed.
“Scribner's Monthly”
.
American Literary Magazines: The Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries
.
New York:
Greenwoood Press, 1986. pp.
364-369.
Mott, Frank Luther.
, A History of American
Magazines
. Cambridge, MA: Belknap
of Harvard U.P., 1966-1970. pp.
457-480.
Smith, Herbert F.
Richard Watson Gilder
. New
York: Twayne Publishers,
1970. pp.19-30.