Blair Niles in Scribner’s Magazine

March is Women’s History Month. Our site always centers women’s history; this month we’ll do so a bit more emphatically.

Scribner’s Magazine, March 1921. Modernist Journals Project. — *Scribner’s Magazine,* March 1921. *Modernist Journals Project*.

One hundred years ago today … Blair Niles’s story “Cheating the Jungle,” appeared in the March issue of Scribner’s Magazine.

The entire issue is available thanks to the Modernist Journals Project.

Niles was new to publishing; “Cheating the Jungle” was her second published work, and second for Scribner’s. At age 40, she was a longtime women’s-rights activist and organizer and a world traveler. She would soon go on to become a successful writer of fiction and travel books.

It makes sense, then, that “Cheating the Jungle,” depicts the interaction between white travelers and colonialists and the Amazon Jungle surrounding them. (The local animals have a greater presence than the local people, and the specific country is not made clear.)

Scribner’s Magazine, March 1921. p. 360. Modernist Journals Project. — *Scribner’s Magazine,* March 1921. p. 360. *Modernist Journals Project*.

The story features illustrations by J. Rumsey Micks.

Scribner’s Magazine, March 1921. p. 365. Modernist Journals Project. — *Scribner’s Magazine,* March 1921. p. 365. *Modernist Journals Project*.

Scribner’s Magazine, March 1921. p. 369. Modernist Journals Project. — *Scribner’s Magazine,* March 1921. p. 369. *Modernist Journals Project*.

Perhaps Niles’s two most notable later works are novels: she wrote Strange Brother (1931), about a gay man living in Harlem, and East By Day (1941), a historical novel about the Amistad case of 1839.

Aumuller, Al, photographer. Blair Niles, head-and-shoulders portrait, facing left / World Telegram & Sun. [Between 1930 and 1950]. Library of Congress, — Aumuller, Al, photographer. Blair Niles, head-and-shoulders portrait, facing left / *World Telegram & Sun.* [Between 1930 and 1950]. *Library of Congress*,

Scribner’s was the monthly magazine of publisher Charles Scribner’s Sons. It was printed out of the company’s own building at 597-599 5th Avenue, between 47th and 48th Streets, clearly visible in this 1925 photograph.

Irma and Paul Milstein Division of United States History, Local History and Genealogy, The New York Public Library. "Manhattan: 5th Avenue - 47th Street" The New York Public Library Digital Collections. — Irma and Paul Milstein Division of United States History, Local History and Genealogy, The New York Public Library. "Manhattan: 5th Avenue - 47th Street" *The New York Public Library Digital Collections*.

The Charles Scribner’s Sons Building still stands.

Note: NY1920s has referenced Charles Scribner’s Sons multiple times, for example as the publisher of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Lothrop Stoddard’s famous white supremacist volume of 1920.

– Jonathan Goldman, March 2, 2021

TAGS: Women Writers, fiction, magazines, media, publishing