Youth and Age

Youth and Age is a periodical in Martin Eden’s early effort to earn a living through writing. It accepted his 21,000-word adventure serial for boys, but printed only two-thirds of it before going out of business, taking with it his hope of payment.

Identity and role

When the serial was accepted, Youth and Age was described as a juvenile monthly. The account later identifies it as a weekly. In either description, its place in Martin’s story is that of a market for fiction by young readers’ writers—and a source of income he could not rely on.

The serial and the offer

Youth and Age accepted the adventure serial before the end of the week in which Martin received other early signs of success. It offered him sixteen dollars on publication for the 21,000-word work, a rate the narrative calculates at roughly seventy-five cents per thousand words. Martin knew the serial was clumsy, but its acceptance still represented one of his first opportunities to sell his writing.

Closure and consequences

The periodical published two-thirds of the serial and then went out of business. With its closure went all hope that Martin would receive the promised sixteen dollars. The unfinished publication and lost payment make Youth and Age a small but concrete instance of the insecurity of his early writing career: acceptance alone did not guarantee either a complete appearance in print or income.