Uploaded June 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
The beautifully written and bold introduction to the first issue of “The Pioneer: A Literary and Critical Magazine” January, 1843 by American Romantic fireside poet, critic, editor, and diplomat James Russell Lowell. This introduction set the tone for the magazine and was widely praised in its time for being bold, manly, and original. The Boston Bay State Democrat said: "The Introduction, by one of the editors, probably Mr. Lowell, is bold and manly; and if the strong, clear, and somewhat original ideas, there expressed, are lived up to in the future conduct of the work, we predict for it a wide and honorable popularity in the literary world."
The Boston Daily Mail said: "The new literary and critical Magazine called 'the Pioneer,' recently issued in this city by J. R. Lowell and Robert Carter, is in many respects one of the most valuable and desirable of all the light American monthlies. Its contents are of a high, manly, vigorous and instructive character, while they have no lack of interest. The first number of the Pioneer affords a fair promise of future excellence." The Boston Transcript added: "the endeavor of the conductors will be to preserve a healthy and manly periodical literature. This is admirable in intention and intellectually charitable in purpose, and we hope the age itself will evince a popular leaning, if we may so speak, towards this kind of publication. The namby-pamby is too much relished at present by the young members of the family circle; the love-tale is read with a spirit that evinces a sickly sensibility; and 'sketches' have become so common-place, that they no longer 'hold the mirror up to nature,' nor impart freshness to the mind or fancy." The New York Tribune stated: "The introduction to his magazine is written earnestly and modestly — and gives most hopeful promise of the excellent manner in which the undertaking will be followed up."
Lowell and Robert Carter founded the "The Pioneer" in 1843. The periodical was distinguished by the fact that most of its content was new rather than material that had been previously published elsewhere, and by the inclusion of very serious criticism, which covered not only literature but also art and music. Lowell wrote that it would "furnish the intelligent and reflecting portion of the Reading Public with a rational substitute for the enormous quantity of thrice-diluted trash, in the shape of namby-pamby love tales and sketches, which is monthly poured out to them by many of our popular Magazines." William Wetmore Story noted the journal's higher taste, writing that "it took some stand & appealed to a higher intellectual Standard than our puerile milk or watery namby-pamby Mags with which we are overrun". The first issue of the journal included the first appearance of "The Tell-Tale Heart" by Edgar Allan Poe. Lowell was treated for an eye disease in New York shortly after the first issue, and in his absence Carter did a poor job of managing the journal. The magazine ceased publication after three monthly numbers beginning in January 1843, leaving Lowell $1,800 (~$60,744 in 2024) in debt. Poe mourned the journal's demise, calling it "a most severe blow to the cause—the cause of a Pure Taste".
The beautifully written and bold introduction to the first issue of “The Pioneer: A Literary and Critical Magazine” January, 1843 by American Romantic fireside poet, critic, editor, and diplomat James Russell Lowell. This introduction set the tone for the magazine and was widely praised in its time for being bold, manly, and original. The Boston Bay State Democrat said: "The Introduction, by one of the editors, probably Mr. Lowell, is bold and manly; and if the strong, clear, and somewhat original ideas, there expressed, are lived up to in the future conduct of the work, we predict for it a wide and honorable popularity in the literary world."
The Boston Daily Mail said: "The new literary and critical Magazine called 'the Pioneer,' recently issued in this city by J. R. Lowell and Robert Carter, is in many respects one of the most valuable and desirable of all the light American monthlies. Its contents are of a high, manly, vigorous and instructive character, while they have no lack of interest. The first number of the Pioneer affords a fair promise of future excellence." The Boston Transcript added: "the endeavor of the conductors will be to preserve a healthy and manly periodical literature. This is admirable in intention and intellectually charitable in purpose, and we hope the age itself will evince a popular leaning, if we may so speak, towards this kind of publication. The namby-pamby is too much relished at present by the young members of the family circle; the love-tale is read with a spirit that evinces a sickly sensibility; and 'sketches' have become so common-place, that they no longer 'hold the mirror up to nature,' nor impart freshness to the mind or fancy." The New York Tribune stated: "The introduction to his magazine is written earnestly and modestly — and gives most hopeful promise of the excellent manner in which the undertaking will be followed up."
Lowell and Robert Carter founded the "The Pioneer" in 1843. The periodical was distinguished by the fact that most of its content was new rather than material that had been previously published elsewhere, and by the inclusion of very serious criticism, which covered not only literature but also art and music. Lowell wrote that it would "furnish the intelligent and reflecting portion of the Reading Public with a rational substitute for the enormous quantity of thrice-diluted trash, in the shape of namby-pamby love tales and sketches, which is monthly poured out to them by many of our popular Magazines." William Wetmore Story noted the journal's higher taste, writing that "it took some stand & appealed to a higher intellectual Standard than our puerile milk or watery namby-pamby Mags with which we are overrun". The first issue of the journal included the first appearance of "The Tell-Tale Heart" by Edgar Allan Poe. Lowell was treated for an eye disease in New York shortly after the first issue, and in his absence Carter did a poor job of managing the journal. The magazine ceased publication after three monthly numbers beginning in January 1843, leaving Lowell $1,800 (~$60,744 in 2024) in debt. Poe mourned the journal's demise, calling it "a most severe blow to the cause—the cause of a Pure Taste".
