In the conduct of _Harper's
Monthly_ with its wide range of attractive material, he has done the
world a service, high and fine. For the first thirty years of this
service Mr. Alden seems to have devoted himself to the task of
securing and organizing the material to be printed. In 1900 he added
to the departments of the magazine an "Editor's Study," and begged "an
audience speaking in his own name." Here he discusses from month to
month such topics as the shiftings of popular taste, the story with a
purpose, the volunteer contributor, rejected manuscripts, the
"dullards of the college world for whom a Jowett or a Mark Hopkins is
superfluous," and the present outlook of literature.
That such a career was possible for Mr. Alden--the career of an
indefatigable editor, keenly alive to the various needs of the reading
public, with an office in a great New York business establishment,
bethumped without by the roar of elevated trains and confused within
by the noise of incessant printing presses--no one who knew him in
Williamstown from 1853 to 1857 had the slightest conception.
Pages:
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244