Putnam's Magazine

Putnam's Monthly Magazine of American Literature, Science and Art was a monthly periodical published by G. P. Putnam's Sons featuring American literature and articles on science, art, and politics. It had three incarnations: first, edited by Charles Frederick Briggs from January 1853 to September 1857 (whereupon it merged with Emerson's United States Magazine); then, edited by C. F. Briggs, Edmund Clarence Stedman and Parke Godwin from January 1868 to November 1870 (whereupon it merged with Scribner's Monthly); then, edited by Jeannette Gilder and Joseph Gilder from October 1906 to April 1910 (whereupon it merged with the Atlantic Monthly).

The 1853-1857 and 1868-1870 versions of the magazine have continuous volume numbers, despite the eleven-year publication hiatus. The 1906-1910 version restarts numbering at Volume 1.

First Incarnation of Putnam's Magazine (1853–1857)

The first incarnation of Putnam's ran from January 1853 to September 1857. It was founded by George Palmer Putnam, who intended it to be a vehicle for publishing the best of new American writing; a circular that Putnam sent to prospective authors (including Herman Melville) announced that the magazine would be 'as essentially an organ of American thought as possible'. Putnam saw an opportunity to create a magazine that would compete with the successful Harper's New Monthly Magazine, which drew much of its content from British periodicals. As publishing only American writing would distinguish Putnam's from Harper's and give the former unique status in the marketplace, Ezra Greenspan has argued that the magazine's literary nationalism was ‘a shrewd mixture of ideological altruism and publishing acumen’.Frederick Law Olmsted served as its editor in its final two years.

Charles Ives

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Charles Edward Ives (/aɪvz/; October 20, 1874 – May 19, 1954) was an American modernistcomposer. He is one of the first American composers of international renown, though his music was largely ignored during his life, and many of his works went unperformed for many years. Over time, he came to be regarded as an "American original". He combined the American popular and church-music traditions of his youth with European art music, and was among the first composers to engage in a systematic program of experimental music, with musical techniques including polytonality, polyrhythm, tone clusters, aleatoric elements, and quarter tones, foreshadowing many musical innovations of the 20th century.

Sources of Ives' tonal imagery are hymn tunes and traditional songs, the town band at holiday parade, the fiddlers at Saturday night dances, patriotic songs, sentimental parlor ballads, and the melodies of Stephen Foster.

Biography

Ives was born in Danbury, Connecticut in 1874, the son of George Ives, a U.S. Army bandleader in the American Civil War, and his wife, Mary Parmelee. A strong influence of his may have been sitting in the Danbury town square, listening to George's marching band and other bands on other sides of the square simultaneously. George's unique music lessons were also a strong influence on him; George took an open-minded approach to musical theory, encouraging him to experiment in bitonal and polytonal harmonizations. It was from him that Ives also learned the music of Stephen Foster. He became a church organist at the age of 14 and wrote various hymns and songs for church services, including his Variations on "America", which he wrote for a Fourth of July concert in Brewster, New York. It is considered challenging even by modern concert organists, but he famously spoke of it as being "as much fun as playing baseball", a commentary on his own organ technique at that age.