Wikipedia

The Athenian Mercury: Difference between revisions

Browse history interactively
← Previous editNext edit →
Content deleted Content added
VisualWikitext
→Advice column: added "by penny post to Smith's Coffee-House in Stocks Market"
added Spin-offs" section
Line 9:
== Advice column ==
 
Scholars credit Dunton with initiating the [[advice column]] format.<ref name ="gudelunas21"> Gudelunas, p. 21 ''Several scholars credit London bookseller John Dunton with having originated the advice column format in his Athenian Mercury in 1690 (Gieber, 1960; Hendley, 1977).''</ref> It was first used in ''The Athenian Mercury'' in 1690.<ref name ="gudelunas21"/> He formed a "society of experts", which he called [[The Athenian Society]], to give their knowledgeable advice on questions submitted by the magazine's readers.<ref name ="gudelunas21"/> The readers were to send in their questions "by penny post to Smith's Coffee-House in Stocks Market in the Poultry."<ref>[http://www.nytimes.com/1987/01/01/garden/hers.html Hers]</ref> The "most nice and curious questions" ran from natural sciences to religion to litature to politics. During the lifetime of the magazine "the experts" grappled with thousands of questions.<ref name ="gudelunas21"/>
 
Dunton's "question project", or just "Project", as he referred to his new format of the advice column in his magazine, would need people to help publish it. The first person that partnered with him was Richard Sault, a mathematics professor. Sault understood the philosophy of [[Nicolas Malebranche]] and could convey it to Dunton. The first two issues of the magazine were composed and published by these two only. The "surprising and unthought of" magazine's style produced a response of hundreds of letters of inquiries. ''The Athenian Gazette'', as these first two issues were called, produced such a large readership that an increase in their Society membership of "experts" was required.<ref> Dunton, p. 189 </ref>
Line 16:
 
Because of his success of the advice column, Dunton's [[intellectual property|"Children of the Brain"]] were being plagiarized by a copycat publication called ''The Lacedemonian Mercury.''<ref>[[Lacedaemonia]], or [[Sparta]], being the antagonist of [[Athens]] in [[ancient Greece]].</ref> He fought this with advertising that said any queries that they had replied to should be resubmitted to his magazine for ''amendments'' from the "Life of Tom Brown, the chief Antagonist."<ref> Dunton, p. 190-191 </ref>
 
== Footnotes ==
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Athenian_Mercury"