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We have noted several individual English periodical publications for children--more than any other country. The most famous was The Boys' Own Paper. It provided the name for a whole genre of children's literature-- Boys' Own literaturer. These publications were of great importance in an era before movies, radio, and television. After The Boys' Own Paper in 1879, quit a number of different publications appeared to chose from. There were both boys' and girl's publications because boys and girls had suh different interests. There were also generic children's periodicals in case a family with boys and girls only wanted to buy one of the publications. The publications until after World War II (1939-45) had a strong imprint of private (both prep and public) schools. Only a small percentage of English children attended tgheseschools, but of course there parents would have been a substabtial part of parents purchsing subscriptions. The rthos at these schools in many ways affected methods and curiculum at state schools. mny of the teachers would have attended privte schools. Schoolwear in general were affected by the vuniforms and these schoools. After World War II the private schools become less important in these publications.
Perhaps the most well known was the Boys' Own Paper (BOP) which at first was a weekly publication. This periodical was published for years. It was founded in 1879 and published by the Religious Tract Society. This stalward publication became an instituition in the life of many English. It had an increadible publication history and was printed in many different formats. The BOP ran until until 1967, by which time it had become a monthy publication. There were also Boys Own Annual, which at first was just a bound collection of the weekly issues. At its peak, it had a circulation of about 250,000. The publicatuion was a real treat in the days before radio and television and diverse organized after school activities. Issues almost always included adventure stories, most commonly with imperialist themes. There were also essays, letters, puzzles, and a variery of competitions to generate interest in the readership. An early issue in 1881 issue had articles about famous men (Darwin, Edison, Lubbock, and Whymger) and an article on "Strange weapons and starnger ways of using them". (We are not sure who Lubbock and Whymger were.) The stories involved were not just pulp writing. Julve Verne was a frequent contributor to early issues. Authors like Verne would publish their books in serial form in this and other periodicals. Verne's These serial runs would pre-date the first English edition of his books. There was also a similar girls publication.
The Captain was monthly magazine. I'm not sure when it was founded, but believe it was about 1899. It's primary claim to fame among these magazine were regular articles by P G Wodehouse. The Captain wasn't precisely an annual. Most are half-yearly editions made up of six monthly issues. The monthly issues of the magazine were bound together for the annuals, minus the ads. A sample of the contens is this list of articles from the February 1911 issue (volune 24, number 143.)
387 "Pillingshot's Paper" [St. Austin's] by P. G. Wodehouse - short story (ss); illus. T. M. R. Whitwell
393 "The Brig 'Jane Mary' [Part 5 of 6] by Francis Marlowe - serial segment (sl); illus. R. Caton Woodville
407 "N.T.B.R." [Castleburgh College] by Capt. G. A. Hope - ss
417 "Appearances Are Deceptive" by R. C. Tharp - poem (pm)
418 "Lacrosse as a School Game" by C. E. Thomas - article (ar)
423 "Freyya's Fountain" by W. Victor Cook - ss; illus. John De Walton
430 "Models & Model Making" by Henry Greenly - column (cl)
435 "Playing the Game!" by Gunby Hadath - ss; illus. S. T. Dodd
442 "The Worst House at Sherborough" [Part 5 of 6] by Desmond Coke - sl; illus. T. M. R. Whitwell
453 "Good Plays for School Stages" by H. Stafford Webber - ar
456 "The Pride of the Camp" by Edward Huntington - ss; illus. Paul Hardy
461 "The House of Mystery" by E. Le Breton Martin - ss; illus. George Soper
467 "The Captain Stamp Collector" by Percy C. Bishop - cl
471 "Outwitting the Apaches" by Ellis Ellson - ss; illus. Paul Hardy
473 "Long Words" by T. F. Barratt - ar
474 Editorial "The Old Fag" editorial (ed). Note that here the illustrators are indicated.
Chums was another important periodical paper aimed at boys. Chums was another well English known boys' publication. The publication was founded by Cassell and Co., London in 1892. It included wonderfully illustrated thrilling adventure stories about animals, people and sports which of course encouraged boys to be good, honourable, moral and respectable. It was also full of school stories--almost always set in public (exclusive private) schools especially boarding schools. Chums also included cartoons which conveyed inspurational moralistic messages entreating one to "be honorable", "don't quarrel" and "respect your elders". It was another good, wholesome and well-illustrated journal that was thought by many to be the best available. It stressed the merits of outdoor activities and incorporated good, solid middle-class values into its stories. Heroes were invariably stoutly stalwart and manly and always triumphant over dastardly rotters and cads. Boys in middle class families subscribed to Chums and even those that did not subscribe could borrow the copues or trade old copies with their mates. It was full of adventure stories. The publishers took an interest in youth groups and at first began working with Baden Powell. Publishing conflicts developed and Chums turned away from Baden-Powell's Scout Association. There even appeared snide references to Scouting in the publication. A cartoon with Waggles, a regular character in the oublication, made fun of Boy Scouts and referred to the "funny hat". A comment under the cartoon read "Scouting is all right if it wasn't for the clothes" [Chums Vol. Issue No. 842. p. 136.] Chums began promoting the British Boys' Naval Brigade, which became the National Naval Cadets. The editor soon realized, however, just how popular Boy Scouting was becoming--when the publisher's own som became a Scout, although I am not sure just what group he joined. Chums in May 1909 became the Official Journal for the British Boy Scouts--the rival association which challenged Baden Powell's Scout Association. As Chums was an extremely popular publication, this posed a very serious challenge. We also notice the Legion of Frontiersmen mentioned in Chums, but know nothing about this group.
We do not know much about the The Gem Library. The issue here is numbered, but not dated, at least on the cover. It is a weekly publication. The number is in the 700s. The style of the illustration, as well as of the cover as a whole, looks more like the 1910s and 20s. The first issue came out March 16, 1907. Week #757 would be in August of 1921. The boys Eton collar shows as school uniform style that was still worn at he time. It looks larger than the ones actually worn. Also note the bow tie that he is wearing with it. As best I can figure out, it was a kind of litterary weekly. I am not sure if each issue was devoted to one story or if there were several stories in an issue.
A British reader reports, "I remember the Look and Learn magazine. This came out in the 1960s I think. It was certainly still going in the late 1980s. It was or is a Fleetway Publication. A British reader writes, "I was browsing your interesting section on childrens' literature, particularly the section on weekly and monthly periodicals. Below your article on Boys' Own Paper I was amazed to see a mention of "Look & Learn", an English weekly. I still have a series of several unbroken years from my childhood from the early 1960s. It was a wonderfully creative educational magazine. My collection needs a good home where they will be appreciated. Any idea where to look for groups or individuals interested in this kind of thing?" -- Tom Lyall [HBC note: If any HBC readers have a suggestion as to where such a collection could be archived, we would be glad to pass it on to Tom.]
Charles Hamilton writing as Frank Ricards created one of the most famous English schoolboy characters--Billy Bunter, the Fat Owl of the Greyfrairs Remove. The exploits of Billy Bunter and Harry Wharton and Co. were chronicled in The Magnet from 1908 to 1940. Richards first conceived Bunter in 1898, but it was not until 1908 that the first story about Billy Bunyer and Greyfriars School first appeared. Bunter was reserected by the The Magnet. This was a new periodical publication for boys founded by the Amalgamated Press in 1908. The first issue of The Magnet ("The Making of Harry Wharton") was published on February 15, 1908. The last issue ("The Shadow of the Sack") was published May 18, 1940. There were 1,683 issues in all. Frank Richards wrote around 1,380 of them. Billy Bunter, however, did not die with The Magnent.
The Prize was an early English children's monthly. We are not sure when it was founded, but we think it may have been about 1882. It is not clear how the monthly issues were numbered. We have not been able to find much information about it. The publication was richly illustrated and we believes consisted of mostly literary material. The monthly iddsues in ythe 1880s and 90s cost a penny. Unfortunatly all we can find about on the internet, but the cover illustrations were done in color, unusual for the 1880s. Many of the covers were of children, There were alsom many aznimal covers. We do not know who the illustrators were. We notice that Harrison Weir did many of the animal illustrations. There sere many illustrations for the stories and other content, mostly one done in black and white. There were also advertisements. We are mot sure who the publisher was, but Wells and Gardner in London did annual hard-cover compilatiomns. We are not sure how long the publication run was, but we notice issues into the 1910s.
We note a magazine called School Cap. We know very little about it, except that it was entirely devoted to school stories. The images we see look to be from the 1930s. We have no details on when the magazine was founded and how long it was published. I think it was a monthly publications, but I am not sure.
A HBC reader remembers Treasure from the 1960s was 'Treasure'. It was a weekly publication printed in newsprint in a comic book format. It was a magazine that featured regular educational articles, stories, quizzes, games and articles of scholastic interest.
Much of the sections required attentive reader participation which meant the reader gained more value from the magazine than just reading. Examples of this was the popular 'What is wrong with this picture'. This was an illustration which featured incongruous
faults which the reader had to identify i.e. a boy carrying a bucket of water but there is no handle, a streetlamp fitting is upside down and suchlike. Other popular items were 'How much do you know' and 'Pencil Puzzles' where with the aid of a pencil, the reader had
to finish off incomplete drawings i.e. the spout of a watering can, colour in 'mystery' lines to identify them and 'join up the dots'. at the end of the year it was also published as an annual.
A British reader mentions the World of Wonder magazine from the 1980s.
There were many other children's periodicals. We have just begun to collect information on this interesting genre.
Anonymous. Children's Annuals.
Lyall, Tom. E-mail, August 8, 2003.
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