The following essay discusses Robert S. Littell and his father, Eliakim Littell.

Eliakim and Robert S. Littell, father and son, were editors and publishers of several eclectic literary and scientific magazines that spread European thought in America throughout the nineteenth century. Rather than making original contributions to American magazine journalism, they reprinted foreign magazine articles for an American audience.

Eliakim Littell, the more famous of the two, was born in Burlington, New Jersey, to Stephen and Susan Gardiner Littell. He attended grammar school in Haddonfield, New Jersey, and began reading widely. His strong literary interests led him to serve several years as an apprentice in a bookstore and to acquire a depth of knowledge about English literature that would shape his later career.

Littell began his fifty-year career in publishing by launching the Philadelphia Register and National Recorder on 2 January 1819. He was editor and joint publisher with R...