Category:Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine

Title: Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine

Editor: Alexander Blackwood

Publisher: William Blackwood and Sons, 45 George Street, Edinburgh; and T. Cadell, Strand, London. Printed by Ballantyne and Hughes, Edinburgh

Overview:

William Blackwood first published Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine in April of 1817 in opposition to The Edinburgh Review—a magazine used to promote Romanticism and Whig politics. Blackwood’s would become a central mouthpiece for the Scottish Tory party. The purpose of Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine is described in a note to the first volume: the editors wished “. . . to render this work a Repository of whatever may be supposed to be the most interesting to general readers.”

Originally, Blackwood’s was edited by Thomas Pringle and James Cleghorn. However, it was unsuccessful so Alexander Blackwood took over editorship. Members of the Blackwood family continued as editor until the journal’s discontinuance in 1980. Under William Blackwood’s care, Blackwood’s Edinburg Magazine developed in prestige and popularity. Samuel Taylor Coleridge called it “an unprecedented Phenomenon in the world of letters.”

As it gained popularity, the journal published works by many notable writers, including historical fiction by John Wilson (under the pseudonym of Christopher North), essays by Thomas de Quincey, poems by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and serialized novels by George Eliot, Anthony Trollope, Margaret Oliphant, and, later, Joseph Conrad. The first issues of Blackwood’s were divided into sections which reveal the journal’s character. “Original Communications” printed letters, short fiction, or narrative poems. “Antiquarian Repertory” had scholarly inquiries or translations from other languages. Other sections were for “Original Poetry,” “Review of New Publications,” and “Periodical Works,” wherein articles often critiqued the Whig-supporting Edinburgh Review or the Tory-supporting Quarterly Review. In the “Literary and Scientific Intelligence” section, advances in the scientific community were noted, and in the “Monthly Register,” news and statistics were reported. Throughout the Britain, Blackwood’s Edinburgh Review was considered an excellent source for critical articles but especially for fiction.

Submitted by: Carter, Sari: section 1, Fall 2007 and Fox, Melinda: section 001, Fall 2014