Nathaniel Parker Willis, poet, essayist, critic, dramatist, and novelist, was primarily, as Edgar Allan Poe described him, America's first "magazinist." The first American to make a comfortable living from writing sketches, columns, and breezy observations on fashion and society, he was a member of the so-called Knickerbocker group of New York writers and one of the pioneers of the American popular magazine.

Previous "judicial" critics had acted as the moral watchdogs of society, passing judgment upon works and ranking them according to presumably universal rules and standards. Willis helped initiate a turn away from this type of analytical criticism toward "appreciative" criticism, a subjective, generally positive evaluation of authors and texts he personally enjoyed. The critic's responsibility, Willis felt, was to act as the reader's friend who, coming first to the literary feast, "recommends ... the dish that has most pleased him." He wrote reviews of individual works, but...