The Magazine started well, and may be said to have been wholly successful, compared with other literary undertakings of the day, and with the just expectations of the proprietors. My father and brother had capable, willing, illustrious helpers. The first article of the first number was by Dr. Frothingham, of Boston, than whom no more elegant scholar, no finer writer was to be found in New England; Hon. Edward Everett contributed a playful article of some length to the same number. Hon. George S. Hillard, long known also in Boston for his fine scholarship, contributed a long review of the "Chanting Cherubs," a greatly admired piece of sculpture by Horatio Greenough then on exhibition in Boston. Hon. William Austin of Charlestown contributed a most ingenious and interesting story, not surpassed by fiction of the present day. Among the contributors to the first number were also Dr. Samuel G. Howe, and Hon. Timothy Walker of Cincinnati; Rev. Leonard Withington of Newbury, Mass., a gentleman who lived long and quietly in that secluded village, but wielded a vigorous pen, and had a very thoughtful mind; his contribution was of a very kindly and wise article on the religious character of Lord Byron,--an article well worth republication as an introduction to any complete collection of the works of that great poet. One would say such a combination of the literary strength of Massachusetts was a good setting off for a new magazine.
The gentlemen above named, all or most of them, continued their contributions for other months and years. In addition to these whose names I have given, there were in succeeding numbers articles from Richard Hildreth, the historian, Park Benjamin, the poet, John G. Whittier, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Professor Longfellow, Miss Hannah F. Gould, Dr. W. B. O. Peabody, of Springfield, Dr. Andrew P. Peabody, long known and honored and loved in his position in Cambridge as guardian and friend of the young men in college. But the list would be too long to enumerate all the fine scholars and eminent writers who gathered to make up the NEW ENGLAND MAGAZINE. My father and brother were very successful in securing the labors especially of young men,--my brother, because he was young himself,--my father, because always he was quick to discern rising merit, and ready and earnest to help forward young men to success and eminence. The list above given is that mostly of men who at that time were still in early youth.