Text: C. F. Briggs (?), Literary, Broadway Journal (New York), January 25, 1845, vol. 1, no. 4, p. ??

[page 60, column 2, continued:]

ILLUSTRATED MAGAZINES.

GODEY’S MAGAZINE AND LADY’S BOOK, Edited by Mrs. Sarah J. Hale, Morton M’Michael and Louis A. Godey, presents an imposing array of editors; but when taken in consideration with the list of contributors, they are truly formidable. No less than ten ladies and six gentlemen, besides the editors, have helped to fill the forty-six pages of this magazine. Probably a much greater number of writers than was ever employed an a single number of any of the great Reviews. Hut the great marvel is that so many writers should have been able to produce so small an amount of readable matter. The only article in the Magazine that will ever be rend a second time, except by the writers of them, is the New Arabian Nights’ Tale by Mr. Poe. The idea of this tale is a very happy one, and it afforded the author wide scope for displaying his exact knowledge and lively imagination; [page 61:] two qualities that we rarely find united in the same person. Scheherazade tells a new story, more wondrous than any that she had related before, a continuation of Sinbad's adventures, wherein are related some of the modem discoveries in science, which startle the king more than any of the doings of the Genii. At last, when the narrator tells of women who wear artificial humps on their backs, he grows impatient, and believing that his Queen is imposing upon his credulity, orders her to be bow-strung. There are four engravings, two in mezzotint, and two in line, one of them an old design of Corbould's from a worn-out plate, and the other a very sweetly tinted picture of a sleeping child.

GRAHAM’S MAGAZINE OF LITERATURE AND ART, Edited by the proprietor, Geo. R. Graham, has but five ladies and thirteen gentle. men, for contributors to the February number. It has three engravings, in line, and a something which is called a portrait of Edgar A. Poe. It is poor as a work of art, nal something much worse as a portrait. It is a gross wrong to Mr. Poe, and a fraud upon the purchasers of the Magazine. It bears no more resemblance to that gentleman than to any other of Mr. Graham's contributors. But if it were much worse that it is, which is hardly conceivable, it would be amply compensated by the fine sketch of Mr. Poe's genius, by Lowell, which accompanies it. The other engravings, excepting two wretched wood cuts, are very commendable specimens of art; that of the Blackfeet Indians, is the best that we have ever seen in this Magazine. There are some remarks on domestic architecture, which, not being attributed to any Contributor, we suppose are from the Editor's pen; we have rarely seen so many mistakes crowded into so small a space. The writer thinks that Gothic Architecture is best adapted to our use, because, “its dim religious light accords best with a christian people.” A plenty of light we should think accorded best with christian feelings; and a plenty of windows., and large ones too, is one of the marked characteristics of the so-called Gothic style of Architecture. It was only in l’agan Temples, that a dim religious light was considered necessary.

THE COLUMBIAN LADY’S AND GENTLEMAN’S MAGAZINE, Edited by John Inman and Robert A. West, contains four engravings of which we have already given an opinion. The plate of fashions for February presents some very curious figures, particularly the gentleman in a pink cravat, light green coat, dove colored trowsers and yellow kids. A fashion plate, to be of any value, should be as exact as a table of logarithms. By what process Mr. Post gets his fashions for February three months in advance, we do not know, but we think it would be rather unsafe for any of the ladies and gentlemen in the upper circles to have their dresses made in the style of his plate, without further advices from Paris. Trifles light as air, are to the fashionable confirmation strong enough, when coming from Par a; but we have doubts whether the firmans of Mr. Post have much weight in the fashionable world. The contributors to this number, are seven ladies and seven gentlemen. We see many names in both lists of great reputation, but it was our sole design in this notice, to speak of these periodicals, in reference to their decorations, and we are not therefore prepared to pronounce judgment upon the merit of their papers.

These three magazines arc so nearly alike, that if the covers were changed, it would not easy to distinguish one from the other. They all have nearly the same contributors and the same embellishers. There are two of Chapman's designs in the Columbian, and one in Graham; and both have engravings from the same hands. Magazines of this class are peculiar to the United States. Nothing like them can be found in either England or France, saving La Belle Assemblee, which, if published now, must have a very limited circulation. They tell a humiliating story for the public taste, and our attainments in art. Illustrated periodicals in England, France and Germany, arc very abundant and very cheap. But it would be difficult to find one in either country so poor in artistic design as either of these magazines. The only method of illustration that Las been employed for many a year in Europe, in periodicals, has been by wood cuts. And it is the only style of art that can be fitly employed with letter press. In the infancy of the art, copper plates were employed from necessity; but since the art of wood engraving has reached the perfection which has distinguished it for the last twenty years, it has gradually superseded all other kinds of illustration; and steel engravings in a printed book are beginning to wear as incongruous an appearance as the gilding in old missals.

These three magazines give us twelve plate engravings, without an original thought, or a subject of the least interest, excepting the view of Dr. Rose's Villa, in Graham. They must have cost a good deal of [column 2:] money, and we have no doubt that, the half of it expended in the encouragement of wood engraving from original designs, would have procured illustrations which would have given double the satisfaction that these smooth inanities will do. Once let the public get a taste of good wood cuts, and these trifles will soon vanish. We trust that the undertaking of our artists, to get out an illustrated edition of Bryant's Poems, which we gave a hint of in our lust number, will give the world an evidence that we can do something worth having in this important department of art.