_ was also commenced in 1831. It was a
continuation of the _Lutheran Intelligencer_, founded in March, 1826,
which was the first Lutheran periodical issued in America.
The _Philadelphia Liberalist_, edited by Rev. Zelotes Fuller, was issued
weekly after June 9, 1832.
The _Atlantic Journal and Friend of Knowledge_ was edited in
Philadelphia in 1832 by Constantine Samuel Rafinesque. The editor was a
celebrated botanist, who was born in Constantinople in 1784, and died in
Philadelphia, September 14, 1842. His father had been a Philadelphia
merchant. Rafinesque became professor of botany in Transylvania
University, Lexington, Ky. Eight numbers only of the _Atlantic Journal_
appeared.
The _Cholera Gazette_, July 11, 1832-November 21, 1832, a weekly paper,
was published by Carey, Lea and Blanchard. It was edited by George
Washington Dickson, a popular negro minstrel, who published in New York,
in 1839, another weekly called the _Polyanthus_.
The _North American Quarterly Magazine_ was begun in Philadelphia, in
1833, by Sumner Lincoln Fairfield, the author of "The Cities of the
Plain." Fairfield was born in Warwick, Mass., June 25, 1803. The sad
story of his life of sickness and distress was told by his wife (Jane
Frazee) in 1846. She collected the money that made the existence of the
magazine possible, and her pertinacity and courage kept the magazine
alive for five years. Concerning the origin of the enterprise she
writes:
"I returned to my home after having obtained the number of eight
signatures, amounting to forty dollars. My husband took little notice of
my success for a time. I paid the house rent and secured the comforts of
a home. Each day I set apart for my visits five or six hours. In this
way I soon laid aside the means sufficient to issue the first number of
the _North American Quarterly Magazine_. When I had accumulated the sum
of seven hundred dollars I gave it into the hands of Mr. Fairfield. He
seemed amazed at my success. He found a dwelling to rent on Tenth, near
Chestnut Street. To this pleasant abode we immediately repaired. In a
very short time the work was out, and once more my heart rejoiced"
(Autobiography of Jane Fairfield, p. 97).
Fairfield always contended that Bulwer stole from him the plot of his
"Last Days of Pompeii." The story as told by Mrs. Fairfield is as
follows: "His great poem, 'The Last Night of Pompeii,' was finished in
1830, and soon after its publication my husband sent c
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