''The Riverside Magazine For Young People'' was a monthly United States children’s magazine, published between January 1867 and December 1870. It was founded by

Henry Oscar Houghton Henry Oscar Houghton (; April 30, 1823 – August 25, 1895) was an American publisher, co-founder of Houghton Mifflin, and a mayor of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Biography Houghton was born into a poor family in Sutton, Vermont. At age thirteen, ...

, who named the periodical after his former business, Riverside Press, of Cambridge, Massachusetts.Kelly, R. Gordon, ''Children's Periodicals of the United States'', Greenwood Press, 1984 The magazine was published by Hurd & Houghton in New York City and it printed stories written by

Mary Mapes Dodge Mary Elizabeth Mapes Dodge (January 26, 1831 – August 21, 1905) was an American children's author and editor, best known for her novel '' Hans Brinker''. She was the recognized leader in juvenile literature for almost a third of the nineteen ...

Sarah Orne Jewett Theodora Sarah Orne Jewett (September 3, 1849 – June 24, 1909) was an American novelist, short story writer and poet, best known for her local color works set along or near the southern coast of Maine. Jewett is recognized as an important ...

, Rose Terry Cooke,

Hans Christian Andersen Hans Christian Andersen ( , ; 2 April 1805 – 4 August 1875) was a Danish author. Although a prolific writer of plays, travelogues, novels, and poems, he is best remembered for his literary fairy tales. Andersen's fairy tales, consisti ...

and other authors who were well known at the time. In 1871 the magazine merged with

Scribner’s Monthly ''Scribner's Monthly: An Illustrated Magazine for the People'' was an illustrated American literary periodical published from 1870 until 1881. Following a change in ownership in 1881 of the company that had produced it, the magazine was relaunch ...

Editor

The editor was

Horace Scudder Horace Elisha Scudder (October 16, 1838 – January 11, 1902) was an American man of letters and editor. Biography He was born into a Boston family as the youngest of seven siblings—six brothers and one sister. His siblings included Davi ...

, who stressed literary value over the moral-of-the-story style emphasized in some children’s magazines of the nineteenth century. Scudder believed that reading material offered to children should not be limited to stories written especially for them, and he regularly included Shakespeare, plus translations of Greek and Roman authors in the magazine.Benardete, Jane and Moe, Phyllis, ''Companions of Our Youth, Stories by Women For Young People's Magazine 1865-1900'', Frederick Unger Publishing Company, 1980

Content

The magazine contained 48 pages of well-illustrated short stories, articles, poems and serialized stories. The page count did not include advertising sections at the front and back of each issue. No advertising appeared amongst the stories. Each copy of the monthly magazine had a red and blue cover illustrated with morning glories. Subscription price was $2.50 per year; clergymen and teachers were offered a discounted subscription price of $2.00 per year.''Riverside Magazine for Young People'', January 1870

Hans Christian Andersen

was an admirer of

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark ...

. Scudder taught himself to read and write the Danish language in order to correspond with the writer, and to check the translations of Andersen’s stories. In March 1868 he offered Andersen $500 for a dozen new stories to be published in ''Riverside Magazine For Young People''. Sixteen of Andersen’s stories were published in the magazine, and ten of them appeared there before they were printed in Denmark.Rossel, Sven Hakon, ''Hans Christian Andersen, Writer and Citizen of the World'', Rodopi, 1996

Magazine’s demise

The periodical never had a circulation above 20,000. It did not earn a profit, so after December 1870 the subscription list was absorbed into

, a new magazine for adults. In the last issue of the children’s periodical editor Horace Elisha Scudder wrote: “You have had the ‘Riverside’ for four years, and I believe you have enjoyed it, for I have not yet seen the boy or girl who ‘hates that old Magazine.’ I have seen a great many who like it thoroughly, and many pleasant letters from old and young make me believe it, whether I want to or not, and I want to. Now you will never have a fifth volume of the ‘Riverside,’ so enjoy the four! And I have had four or five years of pleasure, editing this Magazine. Nobody can take those away from me. I have made friends by it that I hope never to lose. I do not expect to edit any more magazines for young people, but I mean to enjoy the recollection of the days when I edited the ‘Riverside,’ and had the pleasure every month of seeing its bright cover flying away, with its treasure of story and verse and picture, to gladden the eyes of children whom I never should see. If the editors of ‘Scribner’s Monthly’ and my grown friends are as good friends as we have been, nobody could ask for more.” In 1874, more than three years after the periodical’s last issue had been published, a poll taken amongst readers of The Literary World ranked ''The Riverside Magazine For Young People'' to be second amongst “modern American juvenile magazines.”Pflieer, Pat, ''American Children's Periodicals, 1789-1872'' (Kindle Edition), Merrycoz Books, 2016

References

External links

January through December 1870 issues
{{Portal, Children's literature Children's magazines published in the United States 1867 establishments in New York (state) 1870 disestablishments in New York (state)