It is quite interesting, and somewhat chastening, to realize that the most important piece of journalism published across the 169-year history of this magazine was not journalism at all, but a poem, and that it was published so early in the life of The Atlantic. And it is particularly humbling to know that we will almost certainly never again publish something that so powerfully transcends space and time. The poem, 'Battle Hymn of the Republic,' is one that, to borrow from its final stanza, 'transfigures you and me.' We are featuring it on our cover this month in celebration of the 250th anniversary of the founding of the republic. Julia Ward Howe, the author of the 'Battle Hymn''she wrote it in one fevered night at the Willard Hotel, in Washington, D.C.'received either $4 or $5 for her submission. It was published in our February 1862 issue without her byline, as was then the custom. One of the many reasons we wanted the 'Battle Hymn' to represent The Atlantic on the...
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