The ''Overland Monthly'' was a monthly

literary Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include ...

and cultural magazine, based in

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. It was founded in 1868 and published between the second half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century.

History

The ''Overland Monthly'' was founded in 1868 by Anton Roman, a

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

n-born bookseller who moved to

during the

Gold Rush A gold rush or gold fever is a discovery of gold—sometimes accompanied by other precious metals and rare-earth minerals—that brings an onrush of miners seeking their fortune. Major gold rushes took place in the 19th century in Australia, New ...

. He had recently published the poems of

Charles Warren Stoddard Charles Warren Stoddard (August 7, 1843 April 23, 1909) was an American author and editor best known for his travel books about Polynesian life. Biography Charles Warren Stoddard was born in Rochester, New York on August 7, 1843. He was desce ...

and a collection of verse by California writers called ''Outcroppings''. The magazine's first issue was published in July 1868, edited by

Bret Harte Bret Harte (; born Francis Brett Hart; August 25, 1836 – May 5, 1902) was an American short story writer and poet best remembered for short fiction featuring miners, gamblers, and other romantic figures of the California Gold Rush. In a caree ...

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

, and continued until late 1875. Roman, who hoped his magazine would "help the material development of this Coast", was originally concerned that Harte would "lean too much toward the purely literary". Harte, in turn, was skeptical at first that there would be enough quality content provided from local authors. The first issue included contributions from the "Golden State Trinity": Harte, Stoddard, and

Ina Coolbrith Ina Donna Coolbrith (born Josephine Donna Smith; March 10, 1841 – February 29, 1928) was an American poet, writer, librarian, and a prominent figure in the San Francisco Bay Area literary community. Called the "Sweet Singer of California", sh ...

. Despite the positive response from critics and the magazine's profitability, publisher Anton Roman sold the ''Overland Monthly'' in June 1869 for $7,500 to John Carmany. Harte immediately offered the new owner a list of demands, including a raise to $200 a month and a guarantee of his complete editorial control of each issue.Tarnoff, Ben. ''The Bohemians: Mark Twain and the San Francisco Writers Who Reinvented American Literature''. New York: The Penguin Press, 2014: 173. Carmany agreed to his terms, and Harte was able to leave his job at the San Francisco Mint to devote his full attention to the ''Overland Monthly''.Scharnhorst, Gary. ''Bret Harte: Opening the American Literary West''. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 2000: 51. The publication continued to thrive in this period;

Mark Twain Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has p ...

reported that he had "heard it handsomely praised by some of the most ponderous of America's literary chiefs." In the September 1870 issue, Harte published what became his most well-known work, "Plain Language from Truthful James", later known as "

The Heathen Chinee "The Heathen Chinee", originally published as "Plain Language from Truthful James", is a narrative poem by American writer Bret Harte. It was published for the first time in September 1870 in the '' Overland Monthly''.Railton, StephenHarte: "The ...

". That year, with his popularity soaring, Harte considered a professorship at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

or an offer to purchase the ''Overland Monthly'', but declined both. Instead, he left California and traveled east to seek broader literary fame. The original publishers, in 1880, started ''The Californian'', which became ''The Californian and Overland Monthly'' in October 1882. In January 1883, the effort reverted to ''The Overland Monthly'' (starting again with Volume I, number 1). The 1884 volume contained a commitment to present content "free of advertising taint," explaining that articles no article would appear that was not "in good faith what it appears to be." It was based in San Francisco until at least 1921. In 1923 the magazine merged with '' Out West'' to become ''Overland Monthly and the Out West magazine'', and ended publication in July 1935.

Contributors

Overland Monthly advertisement in The Black Cat of April 1912

Noted writers, editors, and artists associated with the magazine included: * Robert Ingersoll Aitken *

Ambrose Bierce Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce (June 24, 1842 – ) was an American short story writer, journalist, poet, and American Civil War veteran. His book ''The Devil's Dictionary'' was named as one of "The 100 Greatest Masterpieces of American Literature" by t ...

Noah Brooks Noah Brooks (October 24, 1830 – August 16, 1903) was an American journalist and editor who worked for newspapers in Sacramento, San Francisco, Newark, and New York. He is known for authoring a major biography of Abraham Lincoln based on clos ...

Alice Cary Alice Cary (April 26, 1820February 12, 1871) was an American poet, and the older sister of fellow poet Phoebe Cary (1824–1871). Biography Alice Cary was born on April 26, 1820, in Mount Healthy, Ohio, off the Miami River near Cincinnati, Oh ...

Willa Cather Willa Sibert Cather (; born Wilella Sibert Cather; December 7, 1873 – April 24, 1947) was an American writer known for her novels of life on the Great Plains, including ''O Pioneers!'', '' The Song of the Lark'', and ''My Ántonia''. In 1923, ...

Frona Eunice Wait Colburn Frona Eunice Wait (1859–1946) was an American author and newspaper writer. From her beginning as a journalist, she rose to become an associate editor for the '' Overland Monthly''. Biography Frona Eunice was born in Yolo County, California in ...

Edgar Fawcett Edgar Fawcett (May 26, 1847 – May 2, 1904) was an American novelist and poet. Biography Early life and education Fawcett was born in New York City on May 26, 1847 and spent much of his life there. Educated at Columbia College, he obtained th ...

Henry George Henry George (September 2, 1839 – October 29, 1897) was an American political economist and journalist. His writing was immensely popular in 19th-century America and sparked several reform movements of the Progressive Era. He inspired the eco ...

John Brayshaw Kaye John Brayshaw Kaye (June 10, 1841 – March 29, 1909) was an English-born American poet, lawyer and politician. Life and works John Brayshaw Kaye was born in Yorkshire, England, June 10, 1841, the fifth child and the fourth son of Abram and M ...

Charmian Kittredge Charmian London ( née Kittredge; November 27, 1871 – January 14, 1955) was an American writer and the second wife of Jack London. Early life "Clara" Charmian Kittredge was born to poet and writer Dayelle "Daisy" Wiley and California hotelier ...

* Netta Eames *

Clarence King Clarence Rivers King (January 6, 1842 – December 24, 1901) was an American geologist, mountaineer and author. He was the first director of the United States Geological Survey from 1879 to 1881. Nominated by Republican President Rutherford B. Hay ...

Kinahan Cornwallis Sir Kinahan Cornwallis (19 February 1883 – 3 June 1959) was a British administrator and diplomat best known for being an advisor to King Faisal I of Iraq and for being the British Ambassador to the Kingdom of Iraq during the Anglo-Iraqi ...

Jack London John Griffith Chaney (January 12, 1876 – November 22, 1916), better known as Jack London, was an American novelist, journalist and activist. A pioneer of commercial fiction and American magazines, he was one of the first American authors to ...

* Josephine Clifford McCracken *

Joaquin Miller Cincinnatus Heine Miller (; September 8, 1837 – February 17, 1913), better known by his pen name Joaquin Miller (), was an American poet, author, and frontiersman. He is nicknamed the "Poet of the Sierras" after the Sierra Nevada, about which h ...

John Muir John Muir ( ; April 21, 1838December 24, 1914), also known as "John of the Mountains" and "Father of the National Parks", was an influential Scottish-American naturalist, author, environmental philosopher, botanist, zoologist, glaciologist, a ...

Hugo Wilhelm Arthur Nahl Arthur Nahl (1 September 1833 – 1 April 1889) was a German-born artist, daguerreotyper, engraving, engraver, portraitist, and landscape painting, landscape painter. Nahl was a painter known for his American Old West paintings of California. ...

Lola Ridge Lola Ridge (born Rose Emily Ridge; 12 December, 1873 Dublin, Ireland – 19 May, 1941 Brooklyn, New York) was an Irish-born New Zealand-American anarchist and modernist poet, and an influential editor of avant-garde, feminist, and Marxist publi ...

Charles Taze Russell Charles Taze Russell (February 16, 1852 – October 31, 1916), or Pastor Russell, was an American Christian restorationist minister from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and founder of what is now known as the Bible Student movement. He was an ...

* Stephen Powers *

William Saroyan William Saroyan (; August 31, 1908 – May 18, 1981) was an Armenian-American novelist, playwright, and short story writer. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1940, and in 1943 won the Academy Award for Best Story for the film ''The ...

Herman George Scheffauer Herman George Scheffauer (born February 3, 1876, San Francisco, California – died October 7, 1927, Berlin) was a German-American poet, architect, writer, dramatist, journalist, and translator. San Francisco childhood Very little is known abou ...

* Charles Howard Shinn *

Milicent Shinn Milicent Washburn Shinn (April 15, 1858 – August 13, 1940) was an author, editor, and child psychologist. She was the first woman to receive a doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley. She entered the State University in September 18 ...

Clark Ashton Smith Clark Ashton Smith (January 13, 1893 – August 14, 1961) was an American writer and artist. He achieved early local recognition, largely through the enthusiasm of George Sterling, for traditional verse in the vein of Algernon Charles Swinburne ...

Josephine Spencer Josephine Spencer (April 30, 1861 - October 28, 1928) was an American writer, journalist, and political activist from Utah. She was an important figure in the Mormon Home Literature movement of the late 19th century who published more than a hund ...

Augustus Gabriel de Vivier Tassin Augustus Gabriel de Vivier Tassin (1842–1893) was a French-born American soldier who served in the Union Army during the American Civil War. After the war he occupied a variety of posts in the American West. He made notable contributions in w ...

Douglas Tilden Douglas Tilden (May 1, 1860 to August 5, 1935) was an American sculptor. He was deaf from a bout of scarlet fever at the age of four and attended the California School for the Deaf in Berkeley, California (now in Fremont, California). He ...

Frances Fuller Victor Frances Auretta Fuller (Barritt) Victor ( pen names: Florence Fane, Dorothy D.) (May 23, 1826 – November 14, 1902) was an American historian and historical novelist. She has been described as "the first Oregon historian to gain regional and nat ...

Laura Lyon White Laura Lyon White (April 12, 1839 – January 18, 1916) was an American activist, best known for founding the California Club, working to preserve groves of redwoods in California, and promoting the City Beautiful movement. She wrote several pi ...

Joseph Widney Joseph Pomeroy Widney, M.D. D.D. LL.D (December 26, 1841 – July 4, 1938), was an American doctor, educator, historian, and religious leader. After the American Civil War led him to medicine, he followed his brothers to California where ...

Editors include: *

1883-1894 * Rounsevelle Wildman, editor 1894-1897

References

External links

{{commons category
Archive 1868-1900
University of Michigan, Making of America Journals collection online
More issues, into the 1900s
Archive.org
Persistent Serial Archives
at The Online Books Page, University of Pennsylvania
Guide to the Overland Monthly Records
at

The Bancroft Library The Bancroft Library in the center of the campus of the University of California, Berkeley, is the university's primary special-collections library. It was acquired from its founder, Hubert Howe Bancroft, in 1905, with the proviso that it retai ...

Overland Monthly
from Encyclopedia.com Monthly magazines published in the United States Magazines published in San Francisco Defunct literary magazines published in the United States History of California History of the American West Magazines established in 1868 Magazines disestablished in 1923