Like his creator, Jack London, Martin Eden's eventual success as a writer depended on the rise of the mass circulation magazine. Industrialized production methods, coupled with new, cheaper forms of distribution revolutionized the mass media in the late 19th century. This medium created new readers, new writers, new genres, and new paths to professional authorship. Some of the pioneering magazines to appear in the late 19th century include Munsey's Magazine, Frank Leslie's Weekly, and McClure's. A pretty good history of this development can be found here.
Mass circulation magazines were the forerunners of today's mass media culture. What other features of this nascent mass media culture do we see in Martin Eden? Pace London's novel, does newly industrialized cultural production create a new "scribbling" proletariat? how does it "industrialize" - - or contribute to the "industrialization" of - - American culture in general?
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