Esperanto Magazine Launched

Not bad.
Ran for about 60 years

L’Amerika Esperantisto seems to have launched with a good deal of fanfare. Not bad for a publication in Esperanto. I have found at least nine papers announcing that there would be, for the first time, an Esperanto magazine in the the United States.

Five newspapers carried the same piece (more or less). What follows is my creation, as the various pieces are dated the 8th, the 10th, or not all all, and more newspapers got the name of the publication wrong than got it right.

Oklahoma City, Sept. 8—L’Amerika Esperantisto, the first Esperanto journal ever published in America has commenced publication here. Over 40 such journals are published in Europe, where the late Geneva conference created widespread interest in the subject.

Three newspapers (Gainsville Daily Sun, Minneapolis Journal, and the Hopkinsville Kentuckian) misname the magazine as L’Amerika Esperantesto, with the Daily Sun writing “esperanto” all in lower case, only the Hays Kansas Free Press got all the words right.

Two other newspapers decided it was time for snark. The Princeton Union of Princeton, Minnesota, waited until September 20, 1906 to announce:

The new state of Oklahoma has started out consistently by issuing a paper printed in the new language, Esperanto. At first glance one might erroneously suppose it to be a reproduction of the new “style” sheet of the government printing office.

But the Minneapolis Journal wasn’t done with L’Amerika Esperantisto. They had run the item announcing its launch on the 8th, but on the 14th returned with:

Oklahoma has a newspaper printed in Esperanto. It looks as if it were libelous.

Of course it attracted the interest of the German newspapers.

Ein Esperanto-Blatt.
Oklahomoa-City, 9. Sept. - „L’Amerika Esperandisto,” die erste je in Amerika veröffentlichte Esperanto-Zeitung, ist hier erschienen. Ueber vierzig solcher Zeitungen existiren in Europa, wo die kürzlich in Genf abgehaltene Konferenz solch weitverbreitetes Interesse an der Sache schuf.

Yeah, they got the name wrong too.

“L’Amerika Espernadisto,” the first Esperanto newspaper ever published in America is is published here [i.e.: in Oklahoma City]. About forty such newspapers exist in Europe, where the conference recently held in Geneva created such widespread interest in the matter.

An the Indiana Tribüne on September 11, 1906:

„L’Amerika Esperantisto.“
Oklahoma City, Okla., 10 Sept. Hier hat man mit der Veröffentlichung der ersten Esperanto-Zeitung in Amerika begonnen. Esperanto ist bekanntlich die von einem deutsch-russischen Arzte erfundene neue Weltsprache. In Europa existiren 40 Zeitungen in diesem neuen Idiom. Die neue Zeitung in Oklahoma City heißt „L’Amerika Esperantisto.”

Here has begun the publication of a the first Esperanto newspaper in America. Esperanto is known as the new world language invented by a German-Russian doctor. Forty newspapers in this new idiom exist in Europe. The new newspaper in Oklahoma City is called “L’Amerika Esperantisto.”

L'Amerika Esperantisto was created by Arthur Baker, whose motive seems to have been financial. He had learned Esperanto early and was hoping to become a professional Esperantist. His American Esperanto Book was cross-promoted in L'Amerika Esperantisto (subscribe to the magazine and get the book at a discount). At about the same time, the group in Boston starting publishing a magazine. Mr. Baker did not appreciate the competition.

The magazine had a good run. It was still being published when Esperantists in the United States formed the current group, Esperanto-USA (originally the Esperanto League for North America) when the leader of the Esperanto Association of North America tried to push for an anti-communist stance in the Universal Esperanto Association. Since the word Ameriko has largely fallen out of use (and perhaps to distinguish it from its predecessor), the member magazine of Esperanto-USA is called Usona Esperantisto.