SOURCE: Bonner, Judith H. “Art and Letters: An Illustrated Periodical of Nineteenth-Century New Orleans.” Southern Quarterly 27, no. 2 (winter 1989): 59-76.

In the following essay, Bonner discusses the brief lifespan of the New Orleans periodical Arts and Letters.

Early experiments in periodical publishing during the settlement of New Orleans were no more than newspaper reporting, avocational and inelegant in style.¹ Reportage was limited to foreign affairs, marine traffic, election news and advertising. After 1830 topics expanded to include national and local affairs, and by way of literary endeavors, occasionally there were poems. After 1840 an increasing prosperity accompanied by a more intellectual approach to periodicals came to the city. Some magazines were published as weekly reviews, while others appeared monthly. Among these, Littéraire et Artistique (published in the early 1840s), which catered to a wealthy and educated audience, contained long serials, musical and dramatic critiques, and coverage of social events (see...