English Language and Literature ETDs

Publication Date

Summer 8-22-1944

Abstract

The short story is a peculiarly American contribution to the field of literature. Harper's New Monthly Magazine, while at the beginning presenting stories mainly from English authors, did not refuse them from other sources, and French as well as German writers were included among the contributors.

During the first decade covered by this study, the author [of a short story] was rarely mentioned, and a great deal of research was involved to ascertain this information. After 1860 due credit was given the author in every instance. Despite their many imperfections, these early stories did form a bridge from the heavy sentimental tale to the realistic story of the succeeding decades.

Contrary to popular opinion, the majority of the stories appearing in Harper's New Monthly Magazine were not by British authors, and this analysis shows that of the authors selected, approximately two-thirds were American.

It is commendable also that controversial subjects were excluded from Harper's New Monthly Magazine. Its policy from the first was to bring the best reading available to all of its subscribers without offending any of them, and undoubtedly accounts for its enviable position as pre-eminently a home and family magazine.

Degree Name

English

Level of Degree

Masters

Department Name

English

First Committee Member (Chair)

Thomas Matthews Pearce

Second Committee Member

Dane Farnsworth Smith

Third Committee Member

Frank Driver Reeve

Language

English

Keywords

Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Short Story, Sentimentalism, Realism, Charles Dickens, Herman Melville, Jacob Abbott, Fitz-James O'Brien, Caroline Chesebro, Thomas Bailey Adlrich

Document Type

Thesis

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