Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 9, No. 54, April, 1862

Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 9, No. 54,
April, 1862

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Title: Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 9, No. 54, April, 1862
Author: Various
Release Date: April 21, 2004 [EBook #12097]
Language: English
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THE
ATLANTIC MONTHLY.
A MAGAZINE OF LITERATURE, ART, AND POLITICS.
VOL. IX.--APRIL, 1862.--NO. LIV.

LETTER TO A YOUNG CONTRIBUTOR.
My dear young gentleman or young lady,--for many are the Cecil

Dreemes of literature who superscribe their offered manuscripts with
very masculine names in very feminine handwriting,--it seems wrong
not to meet your accumulated and urgent epistles with one
comprehensive reply, thus condensing many private letters into a
printed one. And so large a proportion of "Atlantic" readers either
might, would, could, or should be "Atlantic" contributors also, that this
epistle will be sure of perusal, though Mrs. Stowe remain uncut and the
Autocrat go for an hour without readers.
Far from me be the wild expectation that every author will not
habitually measure the merits of a periodical by its appreciation of his
or her last manuscript. I should as soon ask a young lady not to
estimate the management of a ball by her own private luck in respect to
partners. But it is worth while at least to point out that in the treatment
of every contribution the real interests of editor and writer are
absolutely the same, and any antagonism is merely traditional, like the
supposed hostility between France and England, or between England
and Slavery. No editor can ever afford the rejection of a good thing,
and no author the publication of a bad one. The only difficulty lies in
drawing the line. Were all offered manuscripts unequivocally good or
bad, there would be no great trouble; it is the vast range of mediocrity
which perplexes: the majority are too bad for blessing and too good for
banning; so that no conceivable reason can be given for either fate, save
that upon the destiny of any single one may hang that of a hundred
others just like it. But whatever be the standard fixed, it is equally for
the interest of all concerned that it be enforced without flinching.
Nor is there the slightest foundation for the supposed editorial prejudice
against new or obscure contributors. On the contrary, every editor is
always hungering and thirsting after novelties. To take the lead in
bringing forward a new genius is as fascinating a privilege as that of the
physician who boasted to Sir Henry Halford of having been the first
man to discover the Asiatic cholera and to communicate it to the public.
It is only stern necessity which compels the magazine to fall back so
constantly on the regular old staff of contributors, whose average
product has been gauged already; just as every country-lyceum
attempts annually to arrange an entirely new list of lecturers, and ends
with no bolder experiment than to substitute Chapin and Beecher in
place of last year's Beecher and Chapin.

Of course no editor is infallible, and the best magazine contains an
occasional poor article. Do not blame the unfortunate conductor. He
knows it as well as you do,--after the deed is done. The newspapers
kindly pass it over, still preparing their accustomed opiate of sweet
praises, so much for each contributor, so much for the magazine
collectively,--like a hostess with her tea-making, a spoonful for each
person and one for the pot. But I can tell you that there is an official
person who meditates and groans, meanwhile, in the night-watches, to
think that in some atrocious moment of good-nature or sleepiness he
left the door open and let that ungainly intruder in. Do you expect him
to acknowledge the blunder, when you tax him with it? Never,--he feels
it too keenly. He rather stands up stoutly for the surpassing merits of
the misshapen thing, as a mother for her deformed child; and as the
mother is nevertheless inwardly imploring that there may never be such
another born to her, so be sure that it is not by reminding the editor of
this calamity that you can allure him into risking a repetition of it.
An editor thus shows himself to be but human; and it is well enough to
remember this fact, when you approach him. He is not a gloomy despot,
no