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VICTORIAN PERIODICALS Aids to Research: A Selected Bibliography

CONTENTS

• INTRODUCTION
• GENERAL REFERENCES
• BIOGRAPHICAL SOURCES
• OBITUARIES
• HISTORIES OF INDIVIDUAL PERIODICALS
• CRITICAL COMMENTARY

For over ten years, beginning in 1999, the late Rosemary T. VanArsdel (1926-2019), one of the founders and a past president of the Research Society for Victorian Periodicals and a pioneering scholar in the field, published an annual edition of this select bibliography.  Professor VanArsdel was at pains to emphasize just how "select" a bibliography it was, and remains.  These "aids to research," as she called them, are resources that have proven their worth to working scholars who have set out to explore the vast expanse of the world's first industrialized press.

The VanArsdel bibliography is mainly concerned with printed texts, most of which will be found in a good university research library. Those seeking guidance about online resources are encouraged to explore the Research Resources section of the RSVP website.

The last edition on which Professor VanArsdel worked, before illness prevented her from continuing, was published in July of 2010.  RSVP has updated these listings with important monographs and edited collections that have appeared since; many of these have received the Society's Colby Prize recognizing works that have significantly advanced our understanding of the nineteenth-century British press.  We have, however, left her original introduction -- as well as her comments about individual listings -- just as she wrote them.

INTRODUCTION

In the last ten years methods for searching British Victorian/Edwardian periodical literature have altered drastically through introduction of modern electronic technology. New methods for searching emerge with lightning speed and new terminology has appeared, such as "website, "databases," "search engines," and "digitization"; formerly inaccessible material has become readily available.

It is still useful, however, to be reminded of those farsighted pioneers who early recognized the need to preserve what little was in their possession. Investigation of Victorian journalism before the 1950s was limited. The largest part of what existed was drawn up by individual city and county libraries to document their own holdings, or sometimes to determine holdings available in a given geographic area. An example of the former is a manuscript list "Lincolnshire Newspapers and Magazines" (n.d.) drawn up by the Lincoln City Library; a bibliography of newspapers and periodicals for the Inverness area (1902) is a good example of the latter. Earlier librarians sensed they held valuable primary material offering an important picture of cultural history, but were uncertain what to do with it - other than save it.

Serious and systematic research into Victorian periodicals belongs to the second half of the twentieth century. In 1957 the late Walter E. Houghton published his landmark book The Victorian Frame of Mind, research for which was constantly frustrated by the Victorian journalistic practice of anonymity among journal authors. He contended that it was important to know who was writing a piece in order to understand its possible prejudices. It was at this point that he began to contemplate an index to 40 or 50 of the major literary periodicals for which he would seek to identify the authors of the articles. Thus it was that one of the great scholarly achievements of the twentieth century was born: The Wellesley Index to Victorian Periodicals, 1824-1900, complete in 5 volumes, a work which completely revolutionized study of periodical literature, to that time.

NOTE: All periodicals scholars should consult this material carefully, in addition to specific periodicals guides. Because some of the following reference works have recently become available on-line researchers should check for this availability.

1. Altholz, Josef L. The Religious Press in Britain, 1760 - 1900. New York: Greenwood Press, 1989.

2. Altick, Richard D. The English Common Reader. A Social History of the Mass Reading Public, 1800 - 1900. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1957. 2nd ed., 1998
3. _________ . The Presence of the Present .Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1991.
4. Batchelor, Jennie. The Lady’s Magazine (1770-1832) and the Making of Literary History. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2022.
5. British Literary Magazines. ed. Alvin Sullivan. 4 vols. Westport, Conn, and London: Greenwood Press, 1984, 1986. See: III, The Victorian and Edwardian Age, 1839 - 1903, (1984); IV, The Modern Age, 1914 -1984, (1986).
6. British Literary Publishing Houses, 1820-1880 ed. Patricia Anderson and Jonathan Rose. (Dictionary of Literary Biography, vol. 106.) Detroit: Gale Research, 1991.

7. The British Library General Catalogue of Printed Books. Photolithographic edition to 1955. 263 vols. 1959 - 1966. Periodicals are listed in vols. 184-186. CD-ROM available.

8. The British Union Catalogue of Printed Books. (BUCOP) 4 vols. 2 Supplements. 1955 - 62. Subtitled: A Record of the Periodicals of the World, from the Seventeenth Century to the Present Day in British Libraries.

9. Broomfield, Andrea. Food and Cooking in Victorian England: A History. Westport, CT.: Praeger – Greenwood Press, 2007. A definitive history of Victorian culinary art and science, making extensive use of domestic periodical literature.

10. Brown, Lucy. Victorian News and Newspapers. Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1985.

11. Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature. vol. 4, 1800-1900. 3rd ed. Joanne Shattock. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999.

12. Cantor, Geoffrey and Sally Shuttleworth, eds. Science Serialized: Representations of the Sciences in Nineteenth-Century Periodicals. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2004

13. Catalogue of the [British Library] Newspaper Library, Colindale. 8 vols. London: British Library Board, 1975.

14. Catalogue. The Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine and Related Sciences. Munchen: Kraus International Publications, 1980.

15. Cevasco, G. A., ed. The 1890s. An Encyclopedia of British Literature, Art, and Culture. New York and London: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1993.

16. Clyde, Tom. Irish Literary Magazines: an Outline History and Descriptive Bibliography. Irish Academic: 2003. Recommended, but cross check against Waterloo Directory.

17. The Curran Index. An Index to Additions to and Corrections of The Wellesley Index. Important material included in the Introductions to each edition.

18. A Dictionary of Employments Open to Women. With details of Wages, Hours of Work, and other Information. ed. Mrs. Phillips. London: The Women's Institute, 1898.

19. A Dictionary of Nineteenth-Century Journalism. ed. Brake, Laurel and Marysa Demoor. Ghent and London: Academic Press and British Library, 2009. Over 1,600 entries dealing with British and Irish newspapers and periodicals. Chronology, illustrations; and print edition provides extensive indices.

20. A Directory of Rare Books and Special Collections in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. ed. Moelwyn Williams. London: Library Association, 1985.

21. Crawford, Ian. Contested Liberalisms: Martineau, Dickens and the Victorian Press. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2019.
22. Doughan, David and Denise Sanchez, eds. Feminist Periodicals, 1855 - 1984. Brighton, Sussex: Harvester Press, 1987. An annotated critical bibliography of British, Irish, Commonwealth, and international titles.
23. Easley, Alexis, Andrew King, John Morton (eds.), Researching the Nineteenth-Century Periodical Press: Case Studies. London: Routledge, 2017

24. Easley, Alexis, Clare Gill, Beth Rodgers. Women, Periodicals, and Print Culture in Britain, 1830s -1900s: The Victorian Period, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2019.
25. Edwardian Fiction. An Oxford Companion. ed. Kemp, Sandra, Charlotte Mitchell, and David Trotter. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.

26. The Encyclopedia of the British Press, 1492 - 1992. ed. Dennis Griffiths. London: Macmillan, 1992.

27. Encyclopedia of Unbelief. 2 vols. ed. George Stein. Buffalo, NY: Prometheus Books, 1985.

28. Finkelstein, David, ed., The Edinburgh History of the British and Irish Press: Volume 2, Expansion and Evolution, 1800-1900. Edinburgh: Edinburgh UP, 2020.
29. Fraser, Hilary, Stephanie Green, and Judith Johnston. Gender and the Victorian Periodical. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004.

30. Fraser, W. Hamish. The Edinburgh History of Scottish Newspapers, 1850-1950. Edinburgh University Press, 2023
31. Fulton, Richard D. and C. M. Colee, eds. Union List of Victorian Serials. A Union List of Selected Nineteenth-Century Serials Available in United States and Canadian Libraries. New York and London: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1985.

32. Hinks, John, Catherine Armstrong and Matthew Day. Periodicals and Publishers: the Newspaper and Journal Trade, 1750 – 1914. London and Newcastle, DE: The British Library and Oak Knoll Press, 2009.

33. An Index to Selected Bibliographical Journals, 1971 - 1985. Comp. John Feather. Oxford: Oxford Bibliographical Society, 1991.

34. Garlick, Barbara and Margaret Harris. Victorian Journalism: Exotic and Domestic. St. Lucia, Queensland: Queenland University Press, 1998.

35. Hardin, Edgar F. Checklist of Contributions by William Makepeace Thackeray to Newspapers, Periodicals, and Serial Part Issues. English Literary Studies Monograph Series, 1996.

36. Harris, Michael and Alan Lee. The Press in English Society from the Seventeenth to Nineteenth Centuries. London and Toronto: Associated University Presses, 1986.

37. Henson, Louise, Geoffrey Cantor, Gowan Dawson, Richard Noakes, Sally Shuttleworth, and Jonathan R. Topham. Culture and Science in the Nineteenth-Century Media. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004. Twenty-two essays exploring the interrelationship of science and culture through the nineteenth-century periodical press.

38. Hewitt, Martin. The Dawn of the Cheap Press in Victorian Britain: The End of the "Taxes on Knowledge," 1849-1869. London: Bloomsbury, 2014
39. Hobbs, Andrew. A Fleet Street in Every Town: The Provincial Press in England, 1855-1900. Cambridge: Open Book, 2018.
40. Howsam, Leslie. Kegan Paul . A Victorian Imprint: Publishers, Books and Cultural History. London and Toronto: Kegan Paul International and U. of Toronto Press, 1998.

41. Jones, Aled. Powers of the Press: Newspapers, Power and the Public in Nineteenth-Century England. Aldershot: Scolar Press, 1996.

42. Joshi, Priti. Empire News: The Anglo-Indian Press Writes India. Albany: SUNY Press, 2021.
43. Kanner, Barbara Penny. Women in Context: Two Hundred Years of British Women Autobiographers, A Reference Guide and Reader. New York: G. K. Hall & Co., 1997. A guide to 1,040 published narrative autobiographies by 812 British women, some of whom were connected with the press.

44. Keen, Paul, ed. The Popular Radical Press in Britain, 1817-1826: A Reprint of Early Nineteenth-Century Radical Periodicals. 6 vols. London: Pickering and Chatto, 2003.Although these journals had brief runs they had social, political, and cultural influence beyond their short publication histories.
45. King, Andrew, Alexis Easley, John Morton (eds.), The Routledge Handbook to Nineteenth-Century British Periodicals and Newspapers. London: Routledge, 2016.
46. King, Andrew and John Plunkett, eds. Victorian Print Media. A Reader. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.

47. Law, Graham. The Periodical Press Revolution: E.S. Dallas and the Nineteenth-Century British Media System. London: Routledge, 2023.
48. Law, Graham. Serializing Fiction in the Victorian Press. Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave, 2000. In a seminal study, Law offers a detailed analysis of publication of Victorian fiction, serially, in newspapers, thus substantially changing our concepts of the Victorian reader and the contemporary influence of fiction. Attracted by huge earnings and increased circulation, as well as publication in both England and America, novelists, even well known ones, adopted this method from mid-century on. Because a single copy of a newspaper passed through many hands readership was vastly increased and diversified.

49. Ledbetter, Kathryn. British Women’s Victorian Periodicals: Beauty, Civilization, and Poetry. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.

50. London, Provincial and Colonial Press News, 1866-1912.

51. Macdonald, Fiona. Negotiated Knowledge: Medical Periodical Publishing in Scotland, 1733-1832. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2009. Uses evidence from the medical press itself as well as records of booksellers and publishers.

52. May's British and Irish Press Guide, and Advertiser's Handbook and Dictionary. 1874 - 1889. Continued as Willing's Press Guide and Advertisers' Directory and Handbook

53. Mitchell, Sally. ed. Victorian Britain. An Encyclopedia. New York and London: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1988.

54. Mitchell's Newspaper Press Directory and Advertisers' Guide. First published 1846, and then intermittently 1847, 1851, and 1854; from 1856 regular annual issues appeared. See S. Gliserman. "Mitchell's Newspaper Directory, 1846 - 1907." Victorian Periodicals Newsletter, 4, April, 1969. Also: Linton, D. "Mitchell's, May's and Sell's: Newspaper Directories of the Victorian Era." Journal of Newspaper and Periodical History, lll, no. 2, 1987; Linton, D. "Mr. Mitchell's 'National Work.'" Journal of Advertising History, 2, 1979; and Linton, D. and R. Boston, eds. The Newspaper Press in Britain: an Annotated Bibliography. New York, 1987. (See also Deacon's, Everett's, and Sell's directories of the press.)

55. Mussell, James. Science, Time and Space in the Late Nineteenth-Century Periodical Press. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2007.

56. Mutch, Deborah. English Socialist Periodicals, 1880-1900. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2005. A tremendous resource, meticulously organized, carefully annotated, but a small note of caution must be sounded. The only reference to the Waterloo Directory cites the 1977 edition, edited by Wolff, North, and Deering, which is outdated, and has since been replaced by The Waterloo Directory of English Newspapers and Periodicals, 1800-1900, Series II, 2003. (See also items 67-70, below.)

57. "The Nineteenth-Century Periodical Press in Britain. A Bibliography of Modern Studies, 1901-1971." Comp. Madden, Lionel and Diana Dixon. Victorian Periodicals Newsletter, vol. VIII, no. 3, Sept., 1975.

58. "The Nineteenth-Century Periodical Press in Britain. A Bibliography of Modern Studies, 1972-1987." Comp. Larry K. Uffelman. Victorian Periodicals Review, Summer, 1992. [Volume and number are not recorded for that issue.]

59. Nineteenth-Century Periodicals. [Primary Source Microfilm] London and Detroit: Gale Research, Inc., 200l. (Titles have been selected for their relevance, scarcity, and absence in complete runs from other collections. "Historic Head Notes" give background material.)

60. Nineteenth Century Short Title Catalogue (NSTC). CD-ROM. Series I, 1801-1815 (1983-86); Series II, 1816-1870 (1986-95); Series III, 1870-1919 (1996-2002, scheduled). Newcastle-on-Tyne: Avero Publications Ltd.

61. Onslow, Barbara. Women of the Press in Nineteenth Century Britain. New York: Palgrave, 2000.

62. Palmer's Index to the [London] Times Newspaper [1790 - 1941] 1868 - 1943. CD-ROM version, London: Chadwyck-Healey.

63. Poole's Index to Periodical Literature. 1893. 5 Supplements, 1891 - 1907. Rptd. 1963. Also supplemented by: C. D. Ward, ed. A Cumulative Author Index for Poole's Index. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1971. Poole’s Index may now also be accessed online as a standalone reference or as part of ProQuest's C19:The Nineteenth Century Index ; both require institutional subscriptions.

64. Reed, David. The Popular Magazine in Britain and the United States, 1880 - 1960. London: The British Library, 1997.

65. Richardson, Ruth and Robert Thorne. The Builder Illustrations Index, 1843 - 1883. London: The Builder Group and Hutton+Rostron, in association with The Institute of Historical Research, 1994. An invaluable reference for periodicals illustration. Magnificently produced with extensive illustration.

66. Richardson, Ruth. Death, Dissection and the Destitute. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987; 2nd ed. 2000. Makes extensive use of medical and scientific periodical literature.

67. Shannon, Mary. Dickens, Reynolds, and Mayhew on Wellington Street: The Print Culture of a Victorian Street. London: Routledge, 2015.
68. Smits, Thomas. The European Illustrated Press and The Emergence of a Transnational Visual Culture of the News, 1842-1870. London: Routledge, 2019.
69. South African Periodicals. See: Cheadle, Brian. “Southern Africa,” in Vann and VanArsdel, Periodicals of Queen Victoria’s Empire, pp. 244 – 251, which gives a full bibliographical discussion.

70. Stuart, Lurline. Nineteenth Century Australian Periodicals: An Annotated Bibliography. Sydney: Hale and Ironmonger, 1979.

71. Sutherland, John. The Stanford Companion to Victorian Fiction. Palo Alto: Stanford University Press, 1989. In Britain published as the The Longman Companion. 2nd ed., 2009

72. Sutton, David C. Location Register of English Literary Manuscripts and Letters: Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries. London: The British Library, 1995. 2 vols.

73. Tilley, Elizabeth. The Periodical Press in Nineteenth-Century Ireland. London: Palgrave, 2020.
74. The Times Tercentenary Handlist of English and Welsh Newspapers, Magazines and Reviews. (1620-1920) J. Muddiman, ed. 1920. Facsimile reprint 1966.

75. Tobin, Thomas J. Pre-Raphaelitism in the Nineteenth-Century Press: A Bibliography. Victoria, B.C.: English Literary Studies, 2002.

76. Topham, Jonathan. “John Limbird, Thomas Byerley, and the Production of Cheap Periodicals in the 1820s.” Book History, vol. 8, University Park: Penn State University Press, 2005. A particularly valuable chapter, especially for extensive and wide-ranging annotation.

77. Tye, J. Reginald. Periodicals of the Nineties. A Checklist of Literary Periodicals published in the British Isles at Longer than Fortnightly Intervals, 1890 - 1900. Oxford: Occasional Publications no. 9, Oxford Bibliographical Society, 1974.

78. Union List of Periodicals in Libraries in the United States and Canada. 5 vols. New York, 1965.

79. Vann, J. Don and Rosemary T. VanArsdel, eds. Victorian Periodicals: A Guide to Research. 2 vols. New York: Modern Language Association, 1978, 1989.

80. _______ . Victorian Periodicals and Victorian Society. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1994.

81. _______ . Periodicals of Queen Victoria's Empire. An Exploration. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1996.

82. Victorian Fiction Research Guides. Queensland: University of Queensland, Australia, no. 1 – 32.
    • no. 4 – Indexes to Fiction in Time (1879-91), Murray’s (1887-91), and the Quarto (1896-98).
    • no. 5- Index to Fiction in The Lady’s Realm [no dates given.]
    • no. 7- Indexes to Fiction in Tinsley’s Magazine, later the Novel Review (1867-92)
    • no. 9- Index to Fiction in the Pall Mall Magazine (1893-1914).
    • no.10- Index to Fiction in Harmsworth Magazine, later the London Magazine (1898-1915).
    • no.12- Indexes to Fiction in Cassell’s Family Magazine, later Cassell's Magazine (1874-1910).
    • no.14- Index to Fiction in Belgravia [no dates given].
    • no.17- Index to Fiction in Chambers’s Journal (1854-1910).
    • no.23- Index to Fiction in the Idler (1892-1911).
    • no.29- Indexes to Fiction in the Illustrated London News (1842-1901) and the Graphic (1869-190l).
    • no.32- Vaughan-Pow, Catherine. Index to Fiction in the Windsor Magazine (1895-1910).

83. Victorian Periodicals Newsletter, no. 1, Jan., 1968 - vol. XI, no. 4, 1978. Then: Victorian Periodicals Review, vol. XII, no. l, Spring, 1979 ---. Every researcher should consult back issues of this journal which contain many useful periodicals articles not necessarily listed individually in this bibliography. Also, the annual bibliographies (see next entry) should be surveyed carefully.

84. Victorian Periodicals Review: Annual Bibliographies.
    • White, Bruce. Victorian Periodicals, 1990: An Annual Bibliography. vol. xxiii, no. 4, Winter, 1992.
    • Cassidy, Cheryl. Victorian Periodicals, 1991: An Annual Bibliography. vol. xxv, no.4, Winter, 1992.
    • _________ . Victorian Periodicals, 1992: An Annual Bibliography. vol. 27, no. 1, Spring, 1994. [Note: numbering changed from Roman numerals with this issue.]
    • Lundin, Anne. Annual Bibliography for 1993. vol. 29, no. 1, Spring, 1996.
    • Robinson, Solveig C. RSVP Bibliography: 1994-1997. vol. 31, no. 3, Fall, 1998.
    • _________ . RSVP Bibliography: 1997-1999. vol. 33, no. 4, Winter, 2000.
    • _________ . RSVP Bibliography, 1999 – 200l, vol. 35, no. 4, Winter, 2002.
    • Robinson, Solveig. RSVP Bibliography, 2002-2003, vol. 38, no. 1, Spring, 2005.
    • Easley, Alexis. RSVP Bibliography, 2003-2005, vol. 39, no. 3, Fall 2006.
    • ______________. RSVP Bibliography, 2005-2007, vol. 41, no. 3, Fall, 2008.

85. Wagstaff, John. The British Union Catalogue of Music Periodicals (BUCMP). 2nd ed. Aldershot: Ashgate, 1998. Finding list for British and Irish libraries.

86. Wale, Matthew. Making Entomologists: How Periodicals Shaped Scientific Communities in Nineteenth-Century Britain. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2022.
87. Walters, Huw. A Bibliography of Welsh Periodicals, 1735-1850. Aberystwyth: National Library of Wales, 1994.

88. __________. A Bibliography of Welsh Periodicals, 1851-1900. Aberystwyth: National Library of Wales, 2003.

89. The Warwick Guide to Labour Periodicals, 1790 - 1970. eds. Harrison, Royden, Gillian Woolven, Robert Duncan. Hassocks, Sussex: Harvester Press, 1977.

90. The Waterloo Directory of English Newspapers and Periodicals, 1800-1900. ed. John S. North. 20 vols., Series 2, 2003. Known by the acronym of WDENP, this new publication supercedes, but does not invalidate, nos. 63, 64, & 65 on this list. The ultimate objective of this project is to complete, in five series, a comprehensive bibliographical listing of all Victorian periodicals, which will be available both on-line and in print editions. Each series is expected to grow incrementally by ten volumes until the total of 50 volumes is reached, identifying approximately 125,000 titles. For a more complete explanation of this endeavor and its history, see: VanArsdel, Rosemary T. “John North, the Waterloo Directory, and an RSVP History Lesson!” Victorian Periodicals Review, vol. 36, no. 2, Summer, 2003. Series 3 expected in late 2010.

91. The Waterloo Directory of Irish Newspapers and Periodicals, 1800 - 1900. ed. John S. North. Waterloo: North Waterloo Academic Press, 1986.

92. The Waterloo Directory of Scottish Newspapers and Periodicals, 1800 - 1900. ed. John S. North. 2 vols. Waterloo: North Waterloo Academic Press, 1989.

93. The Waterloo Directory of Victorian Periodicals, 1824 - 1900. eds. Wolff, Michael, John S. North, and Dorothy Deering. Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 1976.

94. The Wellesley Index to Victorian Periodicals, 1824 - 1900. eds. Houghton, Walter E., Esther Rhoads Houghton, and Jean Slingerland. 5 vols. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1966, 1972, 1979, 1987, 1989. (Available in CD-ROM from Routledge, February, 1999.) Subscription available trough ProQuest. Seeks to identify authorship of articles in 43 Victorian journals; two  valuable indices: for pseudonyms  and biographies.

95. Wellesley Index: Additions and Corrections. Published from 1990 in Victorian Periodicals Review, as follows:
    • vol. xxiii, no. 2, Summer, 1990.
    • vol. xxiv, no. 3, Fall, 1991.
    • vol. xxvi, no. 4, Winter, 1993.
    • vol. 27, no. 3, Fall, 1994.
    • vol. 27, no. 4, Winter, 1994.
    • vol. 28, no. 4, Winter, 1995.
    • vol. 29, no. 4, Winter, 1996.
    • vol. 30, no. 4, Winter, 1997.
    • vol. 31, no. 4, Winter, 1998.
    • [Note: none for 1999 and 2000.]
    • vol. 34, no. 4, Winter, 2001
    • vol. 36, no. 1, Spring, 2003. [Additions and corrections after this date are published online: see entry #15 to this bibliography.]

96. White, Cynthia. Women's Magazines, 1693 - 1968. London: Michael Joseph, 1970.

97. Wiener, Joel H. The Americanization of the British Press, 1830s-1914. London: Palgrave, 2011.
98. _________ . A Descriptive Finding List of Unstamped British Periodicals, 1830 - 1836. London: The Bibliographical Society, 1970.

99. _________ .The War of the Unstamped: The Movement to Repeal the British Newspaper Tax, 1830 - 1836. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1969.

100. Wynne, Deborah. The Sensation Novel and the Victorian Family Magazine. 2001.

101. Year's Work in English Studies. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

     [back to contents]

     BIOGRAPHICAL SOURCES Note: No biographical directory of Victorian journalists exists; however, the Wellesley Index does offer a biographical index and The Waterloo Directory of English Newspapers and Periodicals, 1800-1900, does provide an Index of Names in volumes 15, 16, 17, and 18 of Series Two.

102. Allibone, S. Austin. A Critical Dictionary of English Literature and British and American Authors. 3 vols. Philadelphia: Childs and Peterson, 1859. (Also, see Supplement.)

103. Alumni Cantabrigiensis. 4 vols. Comp. Venn, John and J. A. Venn. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1922.

104. Alumni Oxoniensis. 4 vols. Oxford and London: Parker, 1888.

105. Banks, Olive. The Biographical Dictionary of British Feminists. Brighton, Sussex: Wheatsheaf Books, Ltd., 1985.

106. Bell, Peter. Victorian Biography: A Checklist of Contemporary Biographies of British Men and Women Dying Between 1851 and 1901; with an Introduction by Colin Matthew. Edinburgh: Peter Bell, Bookseller, 1993.

107. A Biographical Dictionary of Modern British Radicals. eds. Baylen, Joseph O. and Norbert J. Gossman. 3 vols. Sussex: Harvester Press, 1979 (1770 - 1830); 1984 (1830 - 1870); 1988 (1870 - 1914).

108. Biographies of British Women. An Annotated Bibliography. ed. Patricia E. Sweeney. London: Mansell, 1993.

109. Bledsoe, Robert Terrell. Henry Fothergill Chorley: Victorian Journalist. Aldershot: Ashgate, 1998.

110. Boardman, Kay. "'Charting the Golden Stream': Recent Work on Victorian Periodicals." Victorian Studies, v. 48, no. 3, Spring, 2006, 505-517.

111. Boase, Frederick. Modern English Biography. 6 vols. London: Frank Cass and Co., Ltd., 1908. Rptd. 1965.

112. British Biographical Archive. 1989. Microfiche. A compilation of 324 biographical reference works published between 160l and 1929, on 1,236 microfiche entries. The British Biographical Index was derived from this.

113. British Biographical Index. ed. David Bank. 2nd ed. 7 vols. Munchen: G. K. Sauer, 1998. An invaluable reference to some 350 rare and little-known biographical dictionaries, many of them housed only in the British Library.

114. British and Irish Biographies 1840 - 1900. Cambridge: Chadwick and Healey, 1992.

115. Burke's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage. First published 1826; updated yearly.

116. Burke's Landed Gentry. First published in 3 volumes, 1833-35, updated regularly.

117. Carver, Stephen James. The Life and Works of the Lancashire Novelist William Harrison Ainsworth, 1805-1882. Lewiston, Queenston, Lampeter: Edwin Mellen Press, 2003. Offers a valuable chronology of Ainsworth’s 39 novels, many of which were first published in periodicals. Valuable for out-of-the-way titles.

118. Chamber's Scottish Dictionary. ed. Rosemary Goring. Edinburgh and New York: Chamber's, 1992.

119. Curran, Eileen. Biographies of some Obscure Contributors to 19th-Century Periodicals . (First two installments of a work in progress, published on Victoria Research Web at http://VictorianResearch.org , 2001-2007)

120. Debrett's Peerage, Knightage, and Companionage. First published in 1803; updated yearly.

121. Dictionary of Labour Biography. eds. Saville, John and Joyce Bellamy. 9 vols. London: Macmillan, 1972.

122. Dictionary of National Biography. Originally published by Smith Elder, 1885 - 1900. [For a full discussion of the many reprints and supplements see: William S. Scheuerle, "Biographical Resources," in Vann and VanArsdel's Victorian Periodicals: A Guide to Research, Vol. I.] Now outdated. See #113, ODNB, this bibliography.

123. Dictionary of National Biography. Missing Persons. ed. C. S. Nicholls. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993.

124. Dillane, Fionnuala. Before George Eliot: Marian Evans and the Periodical Press. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013.
125. Easley, Alexis. First Person Anonymous: Women Writers and Victorian Print Media. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004. Focuses on: Harriet Martineau; Christian Isobel Johnston; Elizabeth Gaskell; George Eliot; Christina Rossetti.

126. A Feminist Companion to Literature in English: Women Writers from the Middle Ages to the Present. eds. Clements, Patricia, Isobel Grundy, and Virginia Blair. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990.

127. G. M. W. Reynolds: Nineteenth-Century Fiction, Politics, and the Press. eds. Humpherys, Anne and Louis James. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2008

128. Gray, Valerie. Charles Knight: Educator, Publisher, Writer. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2006

129. Gregory, Gill. The Life and Work of Adelaide Procter: Poetry, Feminism and Fathers. Aldershot: Ashgate, 1998. She helped found the English Woman’s Journal and published in Household Words and All the Year Round.

130. James Hogg. Contributors to Blackwood’s Magazine. vol 1, 1812-1828. ed. Thomas C. Richardson. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2008.

131. Hughes, Katherine. The Short Life and Long Times of Mrs. Beeton. New York: Knopf, 2006. The most recent, and probably definitive, biography of Isabella Beeton, offering extensive reference to domestic periodical literature.

132. Hughes, Linda K. Graham R: Rosamund Marriot Watson, Woman of Letters. Athens: Ohio University Press, 2005. Winner of the Robert Colby Scholarly Book Prize, first awarded by the Research Society for Victorian Periodicals in 2006.

133. Index to Literary Biography. ed. Patricia Pate Havlice. 2 vols. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1975.

134. International Index of Biography. London, Munich, New York, and Paris: K. G. Saur, 1988.

135. The International Dictionary of Women's Biography. ed. Jennifer S. Uglow. New York: Continuum, 1985.

136. Latané, David. William Maginn and the British Press: A Critical Biography. Farnham: Ashgate, 2013.
137. Ledbetter, Kathryn. Tennyson and Victorian Periodicals. Commodities in Context. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2007. Invaluable research in British and American periodicals.

138. The Macmillan Dictionary of Women's Biography. ed. Jennifer S. Uglow. [Second edition of entry # 65.] London: Macmillan, 1989.

139. Men of the Reign: A Biographical Dictionary of Eminent Persons of British and Colonial Birth Who Have Died During the Reign of Queen Victoria. ed. Thomas Humphry Ward. London: Routledge, 1885.

140. Men and Women of the Time. A Dictionary of Contemporaries. 15th edition. ed. Victor G. Plarr. London: Routledge, 1899.

141. Mitchell, Sally. Frances Power Cobbe: Victorian Feminist, Journalist, Reformer. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2004.

142. Morton, Peter. "The Busiest Man in England:" Grant Allen and the Writing Trade, 1875-1900. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005. Examines Allen's career as a free lance author/ journalist and traces his enormous contributions to daily and weekly journals. Co-winner, the Robert Colby Scholarly Book Prize for 2006, awarded by RSVP.

143. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. ed. C. G. Matthew (1992 -1999) and Brian Harrison (2000 – 2004). 60 Vols. Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2004. Also available on-line: www.oxforddnb.com. A compendium of some 55,000 lives of people connected to the British Isles between the ninth and the twentieth centuries. In addition, there will be three annual updates provided, January, May, and October, intended: 1.) to extend and develop the dictionary’s existing coverage; 2.) to add new thematic material; and 3.) to make corrections and add new information. Superb search options are provided.

144. Patten, Robert. Charles Dickens and "Boz": The Birth of the Industrial Age Author. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012.
145. People of the Period: Being a collection of the biographies of upwards of six thousand living celebrities. ed. A. T. C. Pratt. London: N. Beeman, 1897.

146. Richardson, Ruth. The Making of Mr. Gray’s Anatomy. Bodies, Books, Fortune, Fame. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008. This ground breaking and original biography makes significant use of medical as well as regional periodicals with particular emphasis on the Lancet.

147. Schleuter, Paul and June Schleuter. An Encyclopedia of British Women Writers. Rev. ed. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1998.

148. Shattock, Joanne. The Oxford Guide to British Women Writers. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993.

149. Slater, Michael. Douglas Jerrold 1803-1857. London: Duckworth, 2002. Lists and comments on some forty newspapers and magazines to which he contributed.

150. A Supplement to Allibone's Critical Dictionary of English Literature and British and American Writers. ed. John Foster Kirk. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 189l. Rpt. 1965.

151. Williams, Leslie A. Daniel O’Connell, the British Press and the Irish Famine. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2003.

152. Women and the Dictionary of National Biography, a Guide to DNB Volumes 1885 - 1985 and Missing Persons. ed. Gillian Fenwick. Aldershot: Scolar Press, 1995.

153. Women of the Day. A Biographical Dictionary. ed. Frances Hays. London: Chatto and Windus, 1885.

154. Women Writers of the 1890s. Comp. G. Krishnamurti. London: Henry Sotheran Ltd., 199l.
     OBITUARIES
155. The Annual Register: A Review of Public Events at Home and Abroad.
156. The Bookseller
157. Eminent Persons: Biographies Reprinted from the Times. (First published in 1892.)
158. Gentleman's Magazine
159. Palmer's Index to the Times Newspaper (1868 - 1943).

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     HISTORIES OF INDIVIDUAL PERIODICALS Note: It is important to consult the Madden/Dixon and Uffelman bibliographies on this point, as well as the Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature , 3rd ed. and The Wellesley Index.

160. Altick, Richard D. Punch: the Lively Youth of a British Institution, 1841 - 1856. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1997.

161. Ashley, Mike. The Age of Storytellers. British Popular Fiction Magazines, 1880-1950. London and Newcastle, DE.: The British Library and Oak Knoll Press, 2006.

162. Bevington, M. M. The Saturday Review, 1855-1868: Representative Educated Opinion in Victorian England. New York: Columbia University Press, 1941.

163. Boyd, Kelly. Manliness and the Boy’s Story Paper in Britain: A Cultural History, 1855-1940. New York: Palgrave, 2003.

164. Christie, William. The Edinburgh Review in the Literary Culture of Romantic Britain. London: Pickering and Chatto, 2010. “the first periodical to move articles away from puff pieces by anonymous authors and towards authoritative essays by specialized contributors,” TLS, 5/28/10.

165. Cutmore, Jonathan. Conservatism and the Quarterly Review: A Critical Analysis. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2007. Analyzes the opposing politics of the Edinburgh and Quarterly Reviews.

166. ________________. Contributors to the Quarterly Review: A History, 1809-1825. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2008.

167. Cryle, Denis. Disreputable Profession: Journalists and Journalism in Colonial Australia. Rockhampton: Central Queensland University Press, 1997.

168. Demoor, Marysa. Their Fair Share: Women, Power, and Criticism in the Athenaeum, from Millicent Garratt Fawcett to Katharine Mansfield, 1870-1920. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2000.

169. Doughty, Terri. Selections from the Girl’s Own Paper, 1880-1907. Peterborough: Broadview Press, 2004.

170. Everett, Edwin Maitland. The Party of Humanity. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1939. [Fortnightly Review]

171. Finkelstein, David. The House of Blackwood’s. Author – Publisher Relations in the Victorian Age. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2002.

172. _____________ (ed.), Print Culture and the Blackwood Tradition 1805–1930. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2006. Winner of the Robert Colby Scholarly Book Prize for 2007, awarded by RSVP.

173. Gabriele, Alberto. Reading Popular Culture in Victorian Print: Belgravia and Sensationalism. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009. Useful for extensive bibliography and notes.

174. Hall, Wayne E. Dialogue in the Margin: A Study of the Dublin University Magazine. Washington D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 200l.

175. Hull, Simon. Charles Lamb, Elia and the London Magazine. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2010. A discussion of Lamb’s essays in this periodical.

176. Jackson, Kate. George Newnes and the New Journalism in Britain, 1880-1910. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2001.

177. Joukovsky, Nicholas A. “Leigh Hunt’s Contributions to the Guide.” Studies in Bibliography, 1999, 18l – 85.

178. King, Andrew. The London Journal 1845-1883: Periodicals, Production and Gender in the Nineteenth-Century Mass Market. Aldershot: Ashworth, 2004. “The first full-length study of one of the most widely read publications of nineteenth-century Britain.”

179. Kriel, Lize. “From Private Journal to Published Periodical.” Book History, vol. 11, 2008. Account in the Wesleyan Missionary Notes of the journey of a small party of men across the boundary of the Transvaal and into Mashonaland. Emphasizes the importance of the WMN.

180. Law, Graham. Indexes to Fiction in the Illustrated London News (1842-190l) and the Graphic, (1869-190l). Victorian Fiction Research Guides #29, Victorian Fiction Research Unit, Department of English, University of Queensland, 2001.

181. Leary, Patrick. The Punch Brotherhood: Table Talk and Print Culture in Mid-Victorian London. London: British Library, 2010.

182. Lohrli, Anne. Household Words: Table of Contents, List of Contributors and Their Contributions. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1973.

183. Marchand, Leslie A. The Athenaeum. A Mirror of Victorian Culture. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1941.

184. Mineka, Francis E. The Dissidence of Dissent. The Monthly Repository, 1806 - 1838. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1944.

185. Nesbitt, George L. Benthamite Reviewing. The First Twelve Years of the Westminster Review, 1824 - 1836. New York: Columbia University Press, 1934.

186. Newbolt, Peter. William Tinsley (1831-1902)"Speculative Publisher": A Commentary. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2001. Chapter on Tinsley's Magazine.

187. Scott, J. W. Robertson. The Story of the Pall Mall Gazette: of its first Editor Frederick Greenwood and of its founder George Murray Smith. London, New York, and Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1950.

188. Shattock, Joanne. Politics and Reviewers: the Edinburgh and the Quarterly in the Early Victorian Age. London, Leicester, and New York: Leicester University Press, 1989.

189. Shine, Hill and Helen Chadwick Shine. The Quarterly Under Gifford. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1949.

190. Sinnema, Peter. Dynamics of the Pictured Page: Representing the Nation in the Illustrated London News. Aldershot: Ashgate. 1998. (The author states that his presupposition runs broadly into the field of Marxist or ideological criticism.)

191. Slater, Michael. Douglas Jerrold, 1803 – 1857. London: Duckworth, 2002. Primarily for his work on Punch.

192. Small, Helen. “Liberal Editing in the Fortnightly Review and the Nineteenth Century.” Publishing History, 53 (2003) 75-96. A comparative study, making shrewd use of manuscript sources as well as published letters to show how commercial considerations shaped editorial policy.

193. Srebrnik, Patricia. Alexander Strahan Victorian Publisher. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1986. [Contemporary Review: Good Words]

194. Sumpter, Caroline. The Victorian Press and the Fairy Tale. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008. An important study making use of children’s magazines such as Aunt Judy’s Magazine, Good Words for the Young, and the Monthly Packet, as well as shilling quarterlies such as the Cornhill Magazine and Macmillan’s to focus on a neglected area of the Victorian press.

195. Tener, Robert H. A Spectator of Theatre. Calgary: University of Calgary Press, 1998. Comprising a selection of Robert Holt Hutton’s theatre reviews in the Spectator.

196. Thrall, Miriam. Rebellious Fraser's: Nol Yorke's Magazine in the Days of Maginn, Carlyle and Thackeray. New York: Columbia University Press, 1934.

197. Turner, Mark W. Trollope and the Magazines in Mid-Victorian Britain. London: Macmillan, 2000. Concerned with Trollope and the Cornhill Magazine, Good Words, Fortnightly Review, and Saint Paul’s.

198. VanArsdel, Rosemary T. Florence Fenwick Miller: Victorian Feminist, Journalist, and Educator. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2001. (For detailed material on the Illustrated London News and the Woman's Signal.)

199. _________. “George Grove as Editor of Macmillan’s Magazine, 1868-1883.” In Musgrave, Michael, George Grove: Victorian Music and Culture. Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2003.

200. _________. “Macmillan’s Magazine and the Fair Sex.” Victorian Periodicals Review, pt. I, vol. 33, no. 4, Fall, 2000; pt. II, vol. 34, no. 1, Spring, 2001.

201. Ward, Honor. The Girl’s Own Paper Index. Site developed by Honor Ward: see Sharp News, vol. ll, no 2, Spring, 2002, p. 5, for full description.

202. Waters, Catherine. Commodity Culture in Dickens’ Household Words. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2008. An in-depth study of Household Words, in context with Punch, Chambers’ Edinburgh Journal, Once A Week, Fraser’s, Cornhill, Illustrated London News, and National Review. Winner of the 2008 Colby Prize, presented by the Research Society for Victorian Periodicals.

203. Worth, George J. Macmillan’s Magazine, 1859 – 1907. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2003.

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     CRITICAL COMMENTARY Note: This is a preliminary list in progress. It is understood that researchers can find much critical commentary in the pages of Victorian Periodicals Review.

204. Anderson, Patricia. The Printed Image and the Transformation of Popular Culture, 1790 - 1860. Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 199l.

205. Baggs, Chris. “ ‘In the Separate Reading Rooms for Ladies Are Provided Those Publications Specially Interesting to Them’: Ladies’ Reading Rooms and British Public Libraries 1850-1914,” Victorian Periodicals Review, vol. 38, no. 3, Fall, 2005. Especially valuable for the lists of periodicals provided in the several appendices.

206. Beetham, Margaret. A Magazine of Her Own? Domesticity and Desire in the Women’s Magazines. London: Routledge, 1996.

207. Beetham, Margaret and Kay Boardman, eds. Women's Magazines: An Anthology. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2001.

208. Bledsoe, Robert T. Henry Fothergill Chorley, Victorian Journalist. Aldershot: Ashgate, 1998. (Chorley was the music critic for the Athenaeum.)

209. Brake, Laurel and Julie F. Codell, eds. Encounters in the Victorian Press: Editors, Authors, Readers. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005.

210. Brake, Laurel, B. Bell, and David Finkelstein, eds. Nineteenth-Century Media and the Construction of Identities. New York: Palgrave, 2000.

211. Brake, Laurel. Subjugated Knowledges: Journalism, Gender and Literature in the Nineteenth Century. London: Macmillan, 1994

212. Clarke, Bob. Grub Street to Fleet Street: an Illustrated History of English Newspapers to 1899. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004

213. Clarke, Meaghan. Critical Voices: Women and Art Criticism in Britain, 1880-1905. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2005. Based on an examination of 68 periodicals with special emphasis on Alice Meynell and Florence Fenwick Miller.

214. Codell, Julie F., ed. Imperial Co-Histories: National Identities and the British Colonial Press. Cranbury, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2003.

215. Curtis, L. Perry. Jack the Ripper and the London Press. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001.

216. Finkelstein, David and Douglas M. Peers, eds. Negotiating India in the Nineteenth-Century Media. New York: Palgrave, 2001.

217. Fraser, Hilary, Stephanie Green, and Judith Jackson, eds. Gender and the Victorian Periodical. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003.

218. Hammond, Mary. Reading, Publishing and the Formation of Literary Taste in England, 1880-1914. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2006. Makes extensive use of lesser known provincial journals as well as sources such as the Bookman,Passenger's Companion, Tit-Bits, Woman; also major titles.

219. Hughes, Linda K. and Michael Lund. The Victorian Serial. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 199l.

220. James, Elizabeth. Macmillan: A Publishing Tradition. Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2002.

221. Johnson, Graeme. Colonial Editions in Australia, 1893-1932. Elibank Press, Australia, n.d. (Interesting and useful for periodicals scholars. Rev. Victorian Periodicals Review, vol. 34, no. 3, Fall, 200l)

222. Jones, Aled and Lionel Madden. Investigating Victorian Journalism. New York: St. Martin’s, 1990.

223. Palmegiano, E. M. The British Empire in the Victorian Press, 1832 - 1867. New York and London: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1987.

     ______________. Health and British Magazines in the Nineteenth Century. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 1998.

224. Pearson, Richard. W. M. Thackeray and the Mediated Text. Writing for Periodicals in the Mid-Nineteenth Century. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2000.

225. Phegley, Jennifer. Educating the Proper Woman Reader: Victorian Family Literary Magazines and the Cultural Health of the Nation. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 2004.

226. Potter, Simon J. News and the British World: The Emergence of an Imperial Press System. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003. Deals with the years 1876-1922 but students of Victorian periodicals can profit from it.

227. Robinson, Solveig C. A Serious Occupation: Literary Criticism by Victorian Women Writers. Peterborough: Broadview Press Ltd., 2003. Almost without exception these women wrote for periodicals. Valuable biographical information.

228. Shattock, Joanne and Michael Wolff. The Victorian Periodical Press: Samplings and Soundings. Leicester: University of Leicester Press, 1982.

229. Tusan, Michelle. Women Making News: Gender and Journalism in Britain. Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2005.

230. Vann, J. Don. Victorian Novels in Serial. New York: Modern Language Association, 1985.

231. Wiener, Joel H., ed.. Innovators and Preachers: The Role of the Editor in Victorian England. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1985.

232. _________ . Papers for the Millions: The New Journalism in Britain, 1850s to 1914. New York and Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1988.

233. Williams, Leslie. Daniel O'Connell, the Irish Famine, and the British Press. Aldershot: Ashgate, 1996.

234. Wynne, Deborah. The Sensation Novel and the Victorian Family Magazines. Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2001.

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