PREFACE
The first printed account dealing in any way with American journalism was undoubtedly a letter addressed to the president of the Massachusetts Historical Society and published for that society in 1798 as a part of its Proceedings. This letter, entitled "A Narrative of the Newspapers Printed in New England," was, though signed "A. Z.," written by the Rev. John Elliott, D.D., Pastor of the North Church of Boston. Full of errors, it is interesting only in a sense that it marked the beginning of printed literature on American journalism. A continuation of the narrative by the same author was published in the Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society for 1800. Included in this second narrative was a shorter letter, sketching the newspapers of Connecticut from 1755 to 1800, from the pen of Noah Webster, who had already achieved fame as a distinguished lexicographer.
In 1810 Isaiah Thomas of Worcester, Massachusetts, published his History of Printing in America, in two volumes. But for these volumes little would be known about many of the early American printers and their papers. The second edition, revised and enlarged in 1878 by the American Antiquarian Society which had been founded by Mr. Thomas, will always be the standard work for the period which it covers.
Joseph Tinker Buckingham brought out in Boston in 1850 Specimens of Newspaper Literature, in two small volumes. With one or two exceptions, its contents were limited to the newspapers of New England. Though based upon the history by Thomas, it enlarged much of the biography and reprinted many extracts from the newspapers discussed. Two years later, Buckingham published two volumes, of about the same size as those already mentioned, entitled Personal Memoirs and Recollections of Editorial Life. The latter work was practically a biography of its author, who was closely associated with the journalism of Boston.
