§3. "Salmagundi". XX. Magazines, Annuals, and Gift-books, 1783–1850. Vol. 16. Early National Literature, Part II; Later National Literature, Part I. The Cambridge History of English and American Literature: An Encyclopedia in Eighteen Volumes. 1907

The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes (1907–21).
VOLUME XVI. Early National Literature, Part II; Later National Literature, Part I.

XX. Magazines, Annuals, and Gift-books, 1783–1850.

§ 3. Salmagundi.

In this early time the different types of periodical were not sharply differentiated, yet it is possible to distinguish a few heavy and ambitious reviews, modelled on the British quarterlies, several literary miscellanies, which followed as nearly as might be the traditions of The London Magazine and The Gentleman’s Magazine, and the more popular “Museums” and “Instructors” which contained interesting anecdotes and information gathered from all sources. Most of the more serious magazines gave summaries of current events. Few, if any, confined themselves to original articles, and some reprinted serially English works of a much earlier day. Such titles as The American Museum, or Repository of Ancient and Modern Fugitive Pieces, Prose and Poetical (Philadelphia, 1787), The Universal Asylum and Columbian Magazine (Philadelphia, 1790), The Omnium Gatherum (Boston, 1809) are significant. Salmagundi (New York, 1807) written by Washington Irving, William Irving, and James K. Paulding, was the only notable periodical essay which was published independently. As a rule the many imitators of The Spectator contributed their effusions to some newspaper or magazine.