Filling the Gaps

. While some forms of adult education had always existed in the United States, the early nineteenth century was remarkable for the dramatic expansion in the number of avenues that a person with a thirst for knowledge could travel. New learning options and sources of information for an increasingly literate public compensated to some degree for the inadequacy of traditional educational institutions. Magazines flourished, and while most folded after a short life, a few endured. The North American Review, founded in 1815, was one of the most popular and longest-lived periodicals of the period. Millions of women devotedly read Godey's Lady's Book, which began publishing in 1830 and survived until 1898. Adults eager to learn also supported the burgeoning business of house-to-house book peddling. Sales boomed for American novels, European classics, advice books, theological texts, and more. Samuel Griswold Goodrich, a publisher...