The American Scholar

About The American Scholar

The American Scholar is the quarterly literary magazine of the Phi Beta Kappa Society, established in 1932 and based in Washington, D.C. Covering public affairs, literature, science, history and culture, it publishes essays, articles, criticism, poetry and, since 2006, fiction. Named for Ralph Waldo Emerson's celebrated 1837 oration delivered before the society, the magazine aspires, in its own words, to Emerson's ideals of independent thinking, self-knowledge, and a commitment to the affairs of the world as well as to books, history, and science. It has won fourteen National Magazine Awards from the American Society of Magazine Editors, including awards for General Excellence, and four Utne Independent Press Awards.

The magazine is published by the Phi Beta Kappa Society under publisher Frederick M. Lawrence. Its current editor is Sudip Bose, who took the helm in 2022. Its website is theamericanscholar.org.

Named for Emerson's Oration

The magazine takes its name from The American Scholar, the oration Ralph Waldo Emerson delivered before the Phi Beta Kappa Society in 1837. Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. declared the speech America's Intellectual Declaration of Independence, and the Emerson scholar Kenneth Sacks has called it the most celebrated academic talk in American history. In the address Emerson urged the scholar, as Man Thinking, to see the world clearly, to defer never to the popular cry, and to draw education from three influences: nature, the past manifest in books, and action in relation to experience.

The magazine's choice of the name was a statement of purpose: nearly a century after the oration, the journal would attempt to embody its ideals in print, publishing writing that is independent-minded, learned and engaged with the world.

Founding in 1932

The American Scholar was established in 1932 as the literary quarterly of the Phi Beta Kappa Society, the nation's oldest academic honor society. From its inception it set out to be a magazine of general intellectual interest rather than a narrowly academic journal, and essays, articles, criticism and poetry have been its mainstays for more than ninety years. The magazine began publishing fiction in 2006, adding short stories to its long-standing mix of nonfiction and verse.

Based in Washington, D.C., the Scholar has always stood slightly apart from the New York-centered magazine world, cultivating a voice that is reflective and civilized, equally at home with a scientific essay, a literary memoir and a meditation on public life.

Editors Across Nine Decades

Since its inception in 1932 the magazine has had eight editors-in-chief, two of them on an interim basis. William Allison Shimer led the journal from 1932 to 1943, followed by the interim editorship of Marjorie Hope Nicolson in 1943-44 and the long tenure of Hiram Haydn from 1944 to 1973. After a brief interim editorship by Peter Gay in 1974, Joseph Epstein took over and edited the magazine from 1974 to 1998, a quarter-century that defined its modern character.

Anne Fadiman succeeded Epstein, serving from 1998 to 2004, followed by Robert Wilson from 2004 to 2022. In 2022 Sudip Bose became editor, continuing the magazine's tradition of distinguished literary editorship into its tenth decade.

Fourteen National Magazine Awards

The American Scholar has won fourteen National Magazine Awards from the American Society of Magazine Editors from 1999 to the present, including awards for General Excellence in the under-100,000 circulation category. Its wins span the major editorial categories: Essays in 1999 and 2003, General Excellence in 2000, and Feature Writing in 2006, among others. The sustained record of recognition across more than two decades places the Scholar among the most honored literary magazines in America.

In addition to the National Magazine Awards, the magazine has won four Utne Independent Press Awards from Utne Reader, most recently in 2011 in the category of Best Writing, honoring its distinction within the independent press.

Content and Departments

The Scholar's pages range across public affairs, literature, science, history and culture. A typical issue might include an essay on cardiovascular medicine and the doctor-patient relationship, a reconsideration of Wagner's Ring on period instruments, a memoir of an encounter with the Dalai Lama, an investigation of fantasy's hold on American psychiatry, and a portrait of the Harlem Renaissance polymath Rudolph Fisher, alongside new fiction, poetry and criticism.

This catholicity is deliberate: the magazine seeks writing that is accessible to the general reader but never dumbed down, in the spirit of Emerson's call for the scholar to engage both books and the affairs of the world.

The Phi Beta Kappa Connection

The American Scholar is published by the Phi Beta Kappa Society, which also publishes The Key Reporter, a newsletter distributed quarterly to contributing members and biannually to all other members. The society's commitment to the magazine reflects its broader mission of celebrating excellence in the liberal arts and sciences.

Phi Beta Kappa also administers the Phi Beta Kappa Book Awards: the Ralph Waldo Emerson Award, the Christian Gauss Award and the Phi Beta Kappa Award in Science, given annually to outstanding scholarly books published in the United States. The awards, drawn from the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences and mathematics, must be of broad interest and accessible to the general reader, and each carries a ten-thousand-dollar prize.

The Joseph Epstein Era

Joseph Epstein's editorship from 1974 to 1998 was the longest continuous tenure in the magazine's history and left a deep imprint on its character. Epstein, himself one of America's most celebrated essayists, made the Scholar a home for the personal essay and for witty, civilized commentary on literature and culture. Many readers still associate the magazine's voice with the urbane, contrarian spirit he cultivated.

The tenures of Anne Fadiman and Robert Wilson that followed each brought their own emphases while preserving the magazine's core identity as a quarterly of humane letters.

The 1837 Oration

Ralph Waldo Emerson delivered The American Scholar before the Phi Beta Kappa Society in 1837, building on the growing attention he had received for his essay Nature. In the address Emerson urged the scholar, conceived as Man Thinking within his idea of One Man, to see the world clearly rather than through traditional or historical views, and to broaden understanding with fresh eyes. He held that the scholar's education comes from three influences: nature as the most important influence on the mind, the past manifest in books, and action in its relation to experience. The address closes with Emerson's view of the duties of the American Scholar, above all to defer never to the popular cry.

Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. declared the speech America's Intellectual Declaration of Independence, and the Emerson scholar Kenneth Sacks has called it the most celebrated academic talk in American history. When Phi Beta Kappa named its literary quarterly after the oration nearly a century later, it was claiming that lineage for the magazine: independent thinking, self-knowledge, and engagement with both books and the world.

A Representative Issue

The Scholar's range is best appreciated through the table of contents of a typical issue. A recent number included The Valedictions of Elwyn Brooks, on how the eminent essayist E. B. White made an art of signing off; The Breath Is Everything, on an encounter with the Dalai Lama and forays into Buddhism; Acid Blues (Slight Return), on the enduring power of Jimi Hendrix's music; Renaissance Man, a portrait of Rudolph Fisher, the doctor, writer, musician and orator whose metier was Harlem; The Twilight Self, on fantasy's hold on American psychiatry; The Enigma of Ur, on ancient music and the future of form; Scientists in Dreamland, on what nightly visions might mean; and Too HIP to Be Square, on Wagner's Ring performed on period instruments.

Few magazines move so easily between a reconsideration of an ancient city's reputation, a history of DVDs and streaming nostalgia, and new cardiovascular science. That ease is the Scholar's signature: the conviction that an educated general reader can follow curiosity anywhere.

The Magazine Today

Under Sudip Bose, who became editor in 2022, The American Scholar continues to appear quarterly from Washington, D.C., publishing essays, fiction, poetry and criticism for a national readership. With fourteen National Magazine Awards and a history stretching back to 1932, it remains one of the indispensable journals of American intellectual life, a living embodiment of the ideals Emerson set out before the Phi Beta Kappa Society in 1837.