Category:The Snob: A Literary and Scientific Journal

Title: The Snob

Editor: William Williams

Publisher: W.H. Smith

William Thackeray, the most prominent contributor to this miniature periodical, stated in his own writings that a “snob” was anyone who exuded the qualities of “meanness, arrogance, ostentation, false pretension, despicable ambitions, trickery, and sycophancy.”^[1] Amongst the Cambridge student body, a snob was anyone not of the university, and therefore a vulgar plebeian.^[2] The Snob consisted of four small book-pages published in pamphlet form and was first published in Cambridge by members of the student body. The title page explicitly boasts the fact that this was a “Literary and Scientific Journal, not conducted by Members of the University.” First published on April 9, 1829, The Snob ran for eleven weeks, each week presenting the student body with a smattering of poems, stories and essays. The journal provided a refreshingly honest treatment of university topics behind a jesting pretense and was well-read for its brief stint.

As a young student at Trinity College – a substituent school of Cambridge – Thackeray submitted his early literary efforts to William Williams, fellow student and editor of The Snob.^[3] After a particularly well-received satirical poem, "Timbuctoo," Williams published at least six more pieces before the long summer break dispersed both contributors and readers.^[4] Thackeray would later contribute, though less prominently, to The Snob’s sequel – The Gownsman. Thackeray’s literary beginnings were just that – beginnings. It was from these beginnings, however, that a prominent novelist was born. The writings of Thackeray and his classmates in The Snob provide readers with an understanding of university life at Trinity in the late Victorian era. Moreover, they are an excellent primary source regarding social issues, politics and daily life at Cambridge in the late 1820s.

Notes

1. ↑ "Thackeray at Cambridge," The Eclectic Magazine of Foreign Literature, Science, and Art, Vol. 12, Boston: Leavitt, Trow, 1904, 766, Print. Fourth.
2. ↑ OED
3. ↑ There are discrepancies regarding who actually was the editor for The Snob. While William Williams is often credited as the editor, other names appear, and Thackeray himself was rumored to be an editor as well.
4. ↑ Peter L. Shillingsburg, “Thackeray, William Makepeace (1811–1863),” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Ed. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison, Oxford: Oxford UP, 2004. DNB. Online ed. Ed. Lawrence Goldman. Oct. 2009. 5 Apr. 2013 <http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/27155>.

Submitted by: Seeley, Amanda: Section 1, Winter 2013 and Rushton, Michael: Section 1, Winter 2013