Why A Great Poem Was Rejected

W’en I fust scribbled poetry

I sent it to the Century;

Not gittin’ there what was my due,

I sent it to the bes’ Review.

They didn’ hev no jedgement there,

They wouldn’ jedge a feller fair,

So then I up an’ says, “I swow

I’ll favor Mr. Harper now.”

But Mr. Harper wuzzen’t in

I know, cuz it came back ag’in.

“Uv course,” said I, “it’s comin’ down

Somewhat, by sendin’ this aroun’

But Mr. Scribner’ll git it now,

‘N’en, by hokey, ‘ll be a row.

But Scribner some way sent it back;

Munsey, Godey, the whole blame pack!

New Englan’ too, an’ there I wuz

A subscriber! “Mus’ be becuz

There’s suthin’ wrong with it,” says I,

“Or jedges wouldn’ pass it by.”

So then an’ there I sot right down,

An’ what do yeou suppose I foun’

Down nigh the en’ mos’ out uv sight?

I hedn’ spelt “pertater” right!

Nov. 24, ‘93

 Pub. in Boston

Courier, Feb. 4, ‘94

In the United States, magazine publishing boomed as part of the general expansion after the Civil War. It was also helped by favourable postal rates for periodicals (1879). But a gulf remained between expensive magazines aimed at the genteel, such as Harper’s and Scribner’s (see below Literary and scientific magazines), and cheaper weeklies and miscellanies. The first person to produce a popular monthly to fill this gap and thus spark off a revolution in the industry was Samuel Sidney McClure, who began publishing McClure’s Magazine in 1893, which he sold for 15 cents an issue instead of the usual 25 or 35 cents. John Brisben Walker, who was building up Cosmopolitan (founded 1886) after acquiring it in 1889, cut his price to 12 1/2 cents, and in October 1893 Frank A. Munsey reduced the price of Munsey’s Magazine (1889–1929) to 10 cents. All three saw that, by keeping down the price and gearing contents to the interests and problems of the average reader, high circulations were attainable. Munsey estimated that, between 1893 and 1899, “the ten-cent magazine increased the magazine-buying public from 250,000 to 750,000 persons.” This increase in circulation in turn led to high advertising revenue, making it possible to sell a magazine, like a newspaper, for less than its cost of production, a practice that was to become common in the next century. Technical development was also important; mass-production methods and the use of photoengraving processes for illustration enabled attractive magazines to be produced at ever lower unit costs.

http://www.britannica.com/topic/publishing/Magazine-publishing