SOURCE: "Salmagundi and Other Literary Experiments," in James Kirke Paulding: Versatile American, Columbia University Press, 1926, pp. 30-45.

In this excerpt, Herold explains the origin, success, and character of the popular, witty New York literary magazine Salmagundi, which the Knickerbockers produced in 1807 and had for a brief year established as the Punch of American letters and journalism.

In the annals of the United States few years are more noteworthy than 1807. In that year Congress recognized the development of a strong anti-slavery sentiment by prohibiting the importation of African slaves; and the new republic safely weathered the seditious movement headed by Aaron Burr, whose arrest culminated in a spectacular trial at Richmond, Virginia. The romantic Robert Fulton, fresh from foreign travels, revolutionized water traffic by perfecting the steamboat; and the embargo act encouraged American manufacturing. In literature, a group of youthful New York wits broke with the tradition of formal...