McClure's

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Cover of January, 1901 issue

McClure's or McClure's Magazine was an American illustrated monthly periodical popular at the turn of the 20th century. It was often compared to The Atlantic Monthly. The latter magazine is still published.

Founded by S. S. McClure and John Sanborn Phillips (1861-1949), fellow classmate of Knox College, in June 1893, the magazine featured political and literary content. It published serialized novels-in-progress, a chapter at a time. In this way, McClure's published such writers as Rudyard Kipling, Robert Louis Stevenson, Jack London, Herminie T. Kavanagh, Willa Cather and Arthur Conan Doyle. Mark Twain also contributed.

The magazine is credited with creating muckraking journalism.^[1] Ida Tarbell's series in 1902 exposing the monopoly abuses of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil Company and Ray Stannard Baker's earlier look at the United States Steel Corporation focused the public eye on the conduct of corporations. The magazine helped shape the moral compass of the time.

In 1906 the writing staff defected over disputes with McClure. They formed The American Magazine. McClure's immediately began to lose readers and went into debt. S. S. McClure was forced to sell the magazine in 1911 to creditors.

It was eventually retooled as a women's magazine and ran irregularly in this format, with publication from October 1921 to February 1922, September 1924 and April 1925, and February to May 1926. The later issues, from July 1928 until March 1929, were published under the name New McClure's Magazine. The last issue was in March 1929, after which the magazine was absorbed by The Smart Set. ^[2]

[edit] References

^ Irving Fang, A history of mass communication, Focal Press, 1997, p.56
^ Union List of Serials ... 3rd Edition. New York, H. W. Wilson, 1965. p.3003.