sentences:  Smirnoff thus decided that the South needed a general interest magazine like "The Atlantic Monthly" or "The New Yorker" which focused on regional writers and culture.Smirnoff then began an in-depth study of the history of magazines in America at the University of Mississippi main library and read back issues of American general interest magazines.The name "Oxford American" is a play on "The American Mercury", H. L. Mencken's general interest magazine which Smirnoff long admired.