A History of <em>The Atlantic</em>’s Reader Correspondence
Since 1877, the publication has garnered and published letters in various forms. We’ve traced the timeline.
The Atlantic published its first letter from a reader in 1877—that’s 141 years ago, and 20 years after the magazine was founded. It was about the sculptor William Wetmore Story and the busts he created of Romantic poets Percy Bysshe Shelley and John Keats. Regarding Keats’s sculpture, the anonymous author wrote:
[Mr. Story] has made a singularly interesting and striking bust; the head, turned slightly towards the right shoulder, gives a three quarter view of the face to one standing directly before it; it is idealized just in that degree which one desires for a living memory, not for the likeness of a living person. All the details, the loose coat and open collar, are managed with judgment, skill,
