The Chap-Book: Chicago’s “Little” Magazine (1894-1898)

Contributed by Rolf Achilles

Without warning, The Chap-Book appeared in Boston on 15 May 1894. The brainchild of two Harvard College students, members of the class of 1894, Herbert Stuart Stone (1871-1955) and Hannibal Ingalls Kimball, Jr.  Stone wrote his family in Chicago: "To speak plainly The Chap-Book is no more nor less than a semi-monthly advertisement and regular prospectus for Stone & Kimball" a publishing venture formed by the two friends in 1893.

The Chap-Book followed in the tradition of the cheap small pamphlets or book of tales, short stories, ballads, poems, illustrations, and advertisements sold on the street of most significant cities in England and France since the eighteenth century. But it was also more. The first volume provided a forum for almost all those young poets, writers, and artists living in Boston or its surroundings, such as George Santayana, Alice Brown, William Dean Howells, Hamlin Garland, Ralph Adam Cram, and Louise Chandler Moulton.

Although The Chap-Book appeared without notice, it had had a gestation period, albeit a short one. In the winter of 1892-1893, Herbert Stone and Ingalls Kimball compiled the "First Editions of American Authors," for which Eugene Field agreed to write the introduction. Eugene Field, a long-time family friend, was secured through Herbert's father, Melville Elijah Stone, founder of the Chicago Daily News. "First Editions" was Stone & Kimball's first book. Its creation was a landmark that attracted the attention of American first edition collectors, who had previously sought mostly English or Continental first editions, to American literature.  This success decided their future was in publishing.  They contacted and secured commitments for writers and artists. While Kimball managed the business side of their enterprise, Stone dealt with authors and printers, first the Press of Graves and Henry (Cambridge), then briefly the Camelot Press (Chicago) followed by a long association with The Lakeside Press (Chicago), of the R.R. Donnelley family, one of Chicago's pre-eminent printing companies. Twenty-one books by various authors followed in quick succession.


Meanwhile, not surprisingly, the academic work of Stone and Kimball suffered. Their Harvard professors seemed to have been sympathetic, and Stone wrote to his family: "They have…agreed to treat Kimmie [Kimball] and myself as foot-ball men and let us off as easily as they can." Stone wrote later that The Chap-Book was published "despite a threat from the Harvard faculty that if it was not discontinued, they could not graduate." He resigned from the college on 4 April 1894 but returned in 1896 to complete his course work and receive a B.A. Kimball remained in the college through June but did not have sufficient credit for a degree.

The Chap-Book was edited for several months in Cambridge by Bliss Carmen, a poet, and friend of Kimball and Stone. His experience in journalistic work set the standard which The Chap-Book was to follow. In August 1894, Stone & Kimball moved to Chicago, where their publication immediately represented the leading edge of new international esthetics that attracted the attention of people in Chicago who wanted to think differently, and also Americans in general who wanted to feel edgier.

Four years later, in its terminal issue, 1 July 1898, The Chap-Book stated: "It was at first intended as scarcely more than in attractive kind of circular for advertising the books published by the house. But the instant attention it attracted induced its publishers to continue." The Chap-Book's immediate success incited a small riot of decadence, a craze for the odd, and a flood of like periodicals was released. H.L. Mencken called them "the pianissimo revolt of the nineties."

Although The Chap-Book was the first successful American "little" magazine, measuring 7 ½ x 4 ½ inches, it was very much the product of established English, French, and German culture with their established tradition of esoteric magazines, published for the few —remnants, John Eglinton called them in an essay of the same name.

How much similar publications influenced The Chap-Book cannot be known with certainty. Comparisons to contemporary American publications and small European books are many. Those such as "The Knight Errant" (1892) and the "Century Guild Hobby Horse" (1884) are often cited. "The Harvard Advocate" may be the nearest relative.

The Chap-Book's style of writing and choice of subject matter differed from Continental publications, especially the British ones of the time, such as "The Yellow Book" (1894) and "The Butterfly" ( London pocket periodical published from May 1893 to February 1894), by focusing on literature that was primarily French.

Almost from the start, Stone and Kimball had secured not only the most excellent writers and poets for The Chap-Book but also such French artists as Felix Vallotton and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, but most significant was the artist Will Bradley. He was the most original and successful American poster and magazine cover artist of his day. The first six Chap-Book posters "The Twins" (May 1894), "The Blue Lady" (August 1894), "The Poet and His Lady" (January 1895), "May" (May 1895), "The Pipes" (June 1895) and "Pegasus" (September 1895) were his, as was the particular Thanksgiving Number for 15 November 1895. He also designed posters and covers for Stone & Kimball books, "When Hearts Are Trumps" by Tom Hall. His Chap-Book poster designs show a fundamental understanding of the current Parisian post-impressionist, the Nabi, symbolist, and art nouveau color theory and esthetics.

Bradley was born in Boston in 1868. After his father's death, he moved with his mother to Ishpeming, Michigan, where he apprenticed to a printer. Age seventeen, he moved to Chicago and found jobs as a wood engraver, typographer, and freelance graphic designer. In the early nineties, he turned to illustration, and his designs, art mingled with advertisements, immediately became popular. In 1895, he was invited to participate in the first Salon de l'Art Nouveau, organized by Siegfried Bing, an art dealer in Paris. Living by this time in Springfield, Massachusetts, he set up Wayside Press and published "Bradley, His Book" in 1896-1897.

In the first years of the twentieth century, he was one of the best-paid artists in the United States. Bradley’s posters and magazine covers were much sought after by collectors and were the subject of exhibitions during his lifetime.

During PAN: Prints of Avant-Garde Europe, 1895-1900, the third floor Sewing Room will feature a small companion exhibition of five lithography prints from The Richard H. Driehaus Collection by artist Will Bradley.

Portions of this article have been excerpted from "The Chap-Book and Posters of Stone & Kimball at The Newberry Library" by Rolf Achilles for The Journal of Decorative and Propaganda Arts. Vol. 14 (Autumn, 1989), pp. 64-77. Published by: Florida International University Board of Trustees on behalf of The Wolfsonian-FIU. 

Images from top to bottom: William H. Bradley (American, 1868-1962) The Chap-Book: Thanksgiving Number, November 1895. Lithograph on paper. The Collection of Richard H. Driehaus, Chicago. William H. Bradley (American, 1868-1962)The Chap-Book: May, May 1895. Lithograph backed on linen. The Collection of Richard H. Driehaus, Chicago. William H. Bradley (American, 1868-1962) The Chap-Book: The Pipes, June 1895. Lithograph on paper. The Collection of Richard H. Driehaus, Chicago. William H. Bradley (American, 1868-1962) The Chap-Book: The Poet and His Lady, January 1895 Lithograph on paper The Collection of Richard H. Driehaus, Chicago. William H. Bradley (American, 1868-1962) The Chap-Book: The Blue Lady, 1894 Lithograph on paper. The Collection of Richard H. Driehaus, Chicago.