Among the contributors to the magazine were Mrs. Sigourney, T. B. Read, Bayard Taylor and Dr. Furness.
The _Friends' Review_ was the creation of the Orthodox Friends, in 1847. Its first editor was the mathematician, Enoch Lewis, who continued to direct it until his death, in 1856. A remarkable literary incident is associated with the issue of January, 1848. In that month Elizabeth Lloyd (Howell), widow of Robert Howell, of Philadelphia, contributed anonymously to the _Review_ a poem, entitled "Milton's Prayer for Patience," in which the Miltonic manner was so deftly imitated, that even the very elect in criticism were deceived by it, and the poem was actually printed in the Oxford edition of Milton as Milton's own lament for his loss of sight.
Most of the Philadelphia magazines of the last fifty years have been enriched by the busy hand of Mr. John Sartain, and two of the most interesting of the city's periodicals were owned and edited by him. Mr. Sartain, who has won the highest place in the history of American engraving, was born in London, England, October 24, 1808. He came to America in 1830, and settled in Philadelphia at the persuasion of Thomas Sully. No living engraver has accomplished as much work as this untiring and skilful artist. But it is not as an artist or an interpreter of art alone that he has won high honor; his literary labors, though less conspicuous and less splendid, are significant and interesting.
_Campbell's Foreign Monthly Magazine_ began September 1, 1843. It was published monthly for one year by James M. Campbell, of 98 Chestnut Street, when it was bought outright by Mr. John Sartain, who changed the title to _Campbell's Foreign Semi-Monthly, or Select Miscellany of European Literature and Art_ (September, 1843, to September, 1844). Sartain engraved a plate for each number, and compiled a laborious miscellany of the latest intelligence in art, science and letters. Many famous bits of literature appeared for the first time in America in this magazine. "The Bridge of Sighs," "The Song of the Shirt" (Vol. V, p. 211), "The Haunted House" (Hood), "The Pauper's Funeral" and "The Drop of Gin" (Vol. V, p. 138) were first published in these pages.