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The Utopia of <i>St. Nicholas</i>

1976; Johns Hopkins University Press; Volume: 5; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/chl.0.0738

1543-3374

Fred Erisman,

American and British Literature Analysis

The Utopia of St. NicholasThe Present as Prologue* Fred Erisman (bio) When the publishers of Scribner's Monthly launched St. Nicholas Magazine in November 1873, their aim was clear. The newcomer, edited by Mary Mapes Dodge, was to be the qualitative equivalent of the adult magazine, conveying and reinforcing the values of its upper-middle-class readers. The two were to be "harmonious companions in the family, and the helpers of each other in the work of instruction, culture and entertainment."1 This aim remained remarkably constant throughout the magazine's history. As late as 1923, it was restated thus: [St. Nicholas] builds character; it fosters true manliness and womanliness through the doctrine of labor, courage, fortitude, self-respect, and the golden rule. It keeps pace with the world and the important things that are going forward in it. It prepares boys and girls for life as it is, and stimulates ambition for a life of usefulness and service to mankind.2 These are clearly extensions of the original goal. They are also something more. In its goals lies much of the importance of St. Nicholas. The magazine consistently presents to its readers the basic ideals of middleclass America—a clear-cut sense of right and wrong, a regard for the Puritan work ethic, and a sense of personal responsibility. In doing so, it implies that these values are desirable and worthy of perpetuation. At the same time, however, it also presents a divided society, one split between the ideal world of middle-class values and the somewhat less than ideal world of reality. In a random sampling of those issues of St. Nicholas published between 1890 and 1910, both sides of this split appear. Throughout the years immediately prior to World War I, the magazine transmits, in its nonfiction, a sense of the technological competence necessary to prosper in an urban, mechanized world, even as it presents, in its fiction, the professed values of the middle-class world of the American dream. Taken together, the two groups of literature make up a singularly Utopian body of [End Page 66] writing, as they equip young readers to survive in—and to improve—the world in which they find themselves. The nonfiction of St. Nicholas poses and answers three didactic questions: "What is the world like?" "How does the world operate?" and "How can I best get along in the world?" The first of these is dealt with by descriptive articles embracing topics from matter-offact travel accounts to discussions of significant world events. Typical of these are Theodore Roosevelt's "Hero Tales of American History" (May-October 1895), Annie C. Kuiper's "Queen Wilhelmina's Lessons" (October 1903), and Bertha Runkle's "Child Life in China and Japan" (January 1905). Two themes emerge from these articles: that the well-rounded person must have a general understanding of the world and its history, and that the individual can benefit from the examples of others. The examples, however, are inevitably couched in ideal terms. William Abbatt, citing Captain James Lawrence's dying injunction, "Don't give up the ship," goes on to suggest that persistence and optimism are qualities applicable to all facets of life: "[These words] are a good motto in every trouble of life. Don't give up the ship—don't despair, lose heart, surrender, but take courage, and, like General Grant, 'Fight it out on this line if it takes all summer.' "3 What the individual learns from history are the lessons of courage, industry, and fortitude. If he patterns himself upon these lessons, he will find himself attuned to the world in which he lives. The second question, the "how" of the world, is answered by a host of scientific and technological articles. Representative of this group are Lieutenant John M. Ellicott's history of explosives (July 1896); Tudor Jenks's "Mirrors of Air" (January 1897), on mirages; and George Ethelbert Walsh's "What a Lump of Coal Could Do" (October 1904). These articles, without exception, stress the importance of general knowledge in its own right, and man's ability to mold nature to his will through technology. Thus, Walsh's essay concludes: "The harnessing of...