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104 issues
1856-1858
In October of 1856, it was announced "due to some peculiar circumstances", that William T. Porter would surrender ownership of...
/ In October of 1856, it was announced "due to some peculiar circumstances", that William T. Porter would surrender ownership of the original Spirit of the Times to John Richards, and branch off to start a new publication with George Wilkes, called "Porter's Spirit of the Times". When Porter died in 1858, his share in the second Spirit fell into the hands of a New York lawyer.
Wilkes didn't get along with his new partner, so in September 1859 he established his own journal, Wilkes' Spirit of the Times. For a short time there were three Spirits being published simultaneously, but Porter's Spirit went out of business soon after. The original Spirit had a large portion of its subscribers in the South, so the Civil War sealed its fate, leaving Wilkes as the sole survivor after June 1861.