pository of Useful Information_, Phila., 1802, printed for Benjamin
Johnson and Jacob Johnston.

It was followed by the _Juvenile Olio_ in the same year. This magazine
was edited by "Amyntor" a citizen of Philadelphia, and was published by
David Hogan.

Charles Brockden Brown, the most important of Philadelphia writers, the
first professional man-of-letters in America, and the predecessor of all
cis-Atlantic novelists, was born in Philadelphia, January 17, 1771, and
in that city he founded, in 1803-4, the _Literary Magazine and American
Register_.

Brown had been educated until his sixteenth year in the school of Robert
Proud, the historian of Pennsylvania. He then studied law with Alexander
Wilcox, of Philadelphia. His health, which had been ever poor, suffered
still further from enthusiastic attention to the needs of a
belles-lettres club of nine members, and to the law society of his
native city. The _Columbian Magazine_ of August, 1789, contained his
first published article. It was entitled "The Rhapsodist," and was
continued through several numbers of the magazine.

A close friendship sprang up between Brown and Elihu Hubbard Smith, and
Brown made his home in New York, where Smith introduced him to "The
Friendly Club." After the plague visited New York and Smith died of the
fever, Brown returned to Philadelphia to spend the remainder of his
life.

The first number of the _Literary Magazine and American Register_ was
published by John Conrad, who had made a liberal arrangement with the
editor, on Saturday, October 1, 1803. Brown's prospectus, which filled
the first three pages, is so characteristic of the author, and so
interesting as a contemporary comment upon magazines and their purposes,
as to admit of complete quotation.

_The Editor's Address to the Public:_

"It is usual for one who presents the public with a periodical work like
the present, to introduce himself to the notice of his readers by some
sort of preface or address. I take up the pen in conformity to this
custom, but am quite at loss for topics suitable to so interesting an
occasion. I cannot expatiate on the variety of my knowledge, the
brilliancy of my wit, the versatility of my talents. To none of these do
I lay any claim, and though this variety, brilliancy of solidity, are
necessary ingredients in a work of this kind, I trust merely to the zeal
and liberality of my friends to supply me with them. I have them not
myself, but doubt no