Early History of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine

Early History of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine

People love to be shocked! That explains the present circulation of Life. It explains, too, the clamor with which Edinburgh received the October number of Blackwoods Edinburgh Magazine in 1817. For the first time in periodical history, the reading public was actually thrilled and completely shocked! Edinburgh held up its hands in horror, looked pious, wagged its headand bought up every number! It is a strange parallel, perhaps, Life and Blackwoods,yet not so strange. It is hard at first glance to understand how those yellow, musty old pages could have been so shocking which now seem to have lost all savor for the man in the street. But before we can appreciate just how shocking Blackwoods Magazine was, or why, it will be necessary first to remember the Edinburgh of those days, and the men who thought and fought in those pages, and the then state of periodical literature. 2 When we call Blackwoods the first real magazine it is by virtue of worth, not fact. There were numerous periodicals preceding and contemporary with it. Most of them have never been heard of by the average citizen, and no doubt oblivion is the kindest shroud to fold them in. The Monthly Review, founded in 1749, was the oldest. It ran till 1845 and is remembered chiefly for the fact that it had decided Whiggish leanings with a touch of the Nonconformist. The Critical Review, a Tory organ, ran from 1756 to 1817, the natal year of Maga, as Blackwoods was fondly dubbed. The British Critic, 1793-1843, was a mouthpiece for High Church opinion; and The Christian Observer, 1802-1857, served the same purpose for the evangelicals. The Anti-Jacobin, 1797-98, was almost the only journal of the time where talent or wit appeared often enough not to be accidental, and it ran only eight months. The Gentlemans Magazine, 1731-1868, has come in for a small share of immortality, but could never aspire to be considered a moulder of opinion. It published good prose and verse, and articles of antiquarian and literary tone; its scholarship was fair. When this is said, all is said. The Edinburgh Review and The Quarterly are the only two besides Blackwoods which come down to the Twentieth Century with any degree of lasting fame. In 1755 had appeared the first Edinburgh Review to be published every six months. 3 It survived only two numbers, being too radical and self-sufficient in certain philosophical and religious views for that day of orthodoxy. In October 1802 the first number of the Edinburgh Review and Critical Journal, a quarterly, appeared, which according to the advertisement in the first number was to be distinguished for the selection rather than for the number of its articles.3 Its aim was to enlighten and guide the public mind in the paths of literature, art, science, politics,with perhaps a bit of emphasis on the words guide and politics. Francis Jeffrey, of whom Lockhart, later one of the leading lights of Blackwoods, says, It is impossible to conceive the existence of a more fertile, teeming intellect,4 was the first editor and remained so until 1829. In the first number, October 1802, there were twenty-nine articles, contributed by Sydney Smith, Jeffrey, Francis Horner, Brougham, and Thomson, Murray and Hamilton. During its first three years the Review distinguished itself by adding such names to its list as Walter Scott, Playfair, John Allen, George Ellis, and Henry Hallam. With such pens supporting it, it would have been strange if it had not been readable. There was indeed an air of vitality and energy throughout, which distinguished it from any of its forerunners; it spoke as one having authority; and men turned as instinctively to Francis Jeffrey and the Edinburgh Review for final verdicts, as it never entered their heads to seriously consider the Gentlemans Magazine or even the Quarterly. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 50343
Author: Doane, Alice Mary
Release Date: Oct 30, 2015
Format: eBook
Language: English