



Produced by Ron Swanson





THE SOUTHERN LITERARY MESSENGER:

DEVOTED TO EVERY DEPARTMENT OF LITERATURE AND THE FINE ARTS.


Au gré de nos desirs bien plus qu'au gré des vents.
                                      _Crebillon's Electre_.

As _we_ will, and not as the winds will.


RICHMOND:
T. W. WHITE, PUBLISHER AND PROPRIETOR.
1834-5.




SOUTHERN LITERARY MESSENGER.

VOL. I.]  RICHMOND, AUGUST, 1834.  [NO. 1.

T. W. WHITE, PRINTER AND PROPRIETOR.  FIVE DOLLARS PER ANNUM.




PUBLISHER'S NOTICE.


In issuing the first number of the "SOUTHERN LITERARY MESSENGER," the
publisher hopes to be excused for inserting a few passages from the
letters of several eminent literary men which he has had the pleasure
to receive, approving in very flattering terms, his proposed
publication. Whilst the sentiments contained in these extracts
illustrate the generous and enlightened spirit of their authors, they
ought to stimulate the pride and genius of the south, and awaken from
its long slumber the literary exertion of this portion of our country.
The publisher confidently believes that such will be the effect. From
the smiles of encouragement, and the liberal promises of support
received from various quarters--which he takes this opportunity of
acknowledging,--he is strongly imboldened to persevere, and devote his
own humble labors to so good a cause. He is authorised to expect a
speedy arrangement either with a competent editor or with regular
contributors to his work,--but, in the mean time, respectfully solicits
public patronage, as the only effectual means of ensuring complete
success.


FROM WASHINGTON IRVING.

"Your literary enterprise has my highest approbation and warmest good
wishes. Strongly disposed as I always have been in favor of 'the
south,' and especially attached to Virginia by early friendships and
cherished recollections, I cannot but feel interested in the success of
a work which is calculated to concentrate the talent and illustrate the
high and generous character which pervade that part of the Union."


FROM J. K. PAULDING.

"It gives me great pleasure to find that you are about establishing a
literary paper at Richmond,--and I earnestly hope the attempt will be
successful. You have abundance of talent among you; and the situation
of so many well educated men, placed above the necessity of laboring
either manually or professionally, affords ample leisure for the
cultivation of literature. Hitherto your writings have been principally
political; and in that class you have had few rivals. The same talent,
directed to other pursuits in literature, will, unquestionably, produce
similar results,--and Virginia, in addition to her other high claims to
the consideration of the world, may then easily aspire to the same
distinction in other branches that she has attained in politics.

       *       *       *       *       *

"Besides, the muses must certainly abide somewhere in the beautiful
vallies, and on the banks of the clear streams of the mountains of
Virginia. Solitude is the nurse of the imagination; and if there be any
Virginia lass or lad that ever seeks, they will assuredly find
inspiration, among the retired quiet beauties of her lonely retreats.
Doubtless they only want a vehicle for their effusions,--and I cannot
bring myself to believe that your contemplated paper will suffer from
the absence of contributors or subscribers.

       *       *       *       *       *

"If your young writers will consult their own taste and genius, and
forget there ever were such writers as Scott, Byron, and Moore, I will
be bound they produce something original; and a tolerable original is
as much superior to a tolerable imitation, as a substance is to a
shadow. Give us something new--something characteristic of yourselves,
your country, and your native feelings, and I don't care what it is. I
am somewhat tired of licentious love ditties, border legends, affected
sorrows, and grumbling misanthropy. I want to see something wholesome,
natural, and national. The best thing a young American writer can do,
is to forget that any body ever wrote before him; and above all things,
that there are such caterpillars as critics in this world."


FROM J. FENIMORE COOPER.

"The south is full of talent, and the leisure of its gentlemen ought to
enable them to bring it freely into action. I made many acquaintances,
in early youth, among your gentlemen, whom I have always esteemed for
their manliness, frankness, and intelligence. If some, whom I could
name, were to arouse from their lethargy, you would not be driven to
apply to any one on this side the Potomac for assistance."


FROM J. P. KENNEDY.

"I have received your prospectus, along with your letter of the 1st
instant. It gives me great pleasure to perceive so just an estimate of
the value of literary enterprise as that indicated by your announcement
of the 'Southern Literary Messenger.' A work of this kind is due to the
talents of your noble state, and I doubt not will be received with a
prompt encouragement."


FROM JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.

"Your design is so laudable, that I would gladly contribute to its
promotion; but the periodical literature of the country seems to be
rather superabundant than scanty. The desideratum is of quality rather
than quantity."


FROM PETER A. BROWNE.

"Although you could not have chosen one less able to assist you, owing
to my numerous professional engagements, which deprive me of the
pleasure of dipping into the other sciences, or literature, I am
willing to contribute my mite, and sincerely wish you success."




  For the Southern Literary Messenger.

SOUTHERN LITERATURE.


It is understood that the first number of the "Messenger," will be sent
forth by its Publisher, as a kind of pioneer, to spy out the land of
literary promise, and to report whether the same be fruitful or barren,
before he resolves upon future action. It would be a mortifying
discovery, if instead of kindness and good will, he should be repulsed
by the coldness and neglect of a Virginia public. Hundreds of similar
publications thrive and prosper north of the Potomac, sustained as they
are by the liberal hand of patronage. _Shall not one be supported in
the whole south?_ This is a question of great importance;--and one
which ought to be answered with sober earnestness by all who set any
value upon public character, or who are in the least degree jealous of
that individual honor and dignity which is in some measure connected
with the honor and dignity of the state. Are we to be doomed forever to
a kind of vassalage to our northern neighbors--a dependance for our
literary food upon our brethren, whose superiority in all the great
points of character,--in valor--eloquence and patriotism, we are no
wise disposed to admit? Is it not altogether extraordinary that in this
extensive commonwealth, containing a white population of upwards of six
hundred thousand souls--a vast deal of agricultural wealth, and
innumerable persons of both sexes, who enjoy both leisure and
affluence--there is not one solitary periodical exclusively literary?
What is the cause? We are not willing to borrow our
political,--religious, or even our agricultural notions from the other
side of Mason and Dixon's line, and we generously patronize various
domestic journals devoted to those several subjects. Why should we
consider the worthy descendants of the pilgrims--of the Hollanders of
Manhattan, or the German adventurers of Pennsylvania, as exclusively
entitled to cater for us in our choicest intellectual aliment? Shall it
be said that the empire of literature has no geographical boundaries,
and that local jealousies ought not to disturb its harmony? To this
there is an obvious answer. If we continue to be _consumers_ of
northern productions, we shall never ourselves become _producers_. We
may take from them the fabrics of their looms, and give in exchange
without loss our agricultural products--but if we depend exclusively
upon their _literary_ supplies, it is certain that the spirit of
invention among our own sons, will be damped, if not entirely
extinguished. The value of a _domestic_ publication of the kind,
consists in its being at once accessible to all who choose to venture
into the