English Children and Their Magazines, 1751-1945

288 Pages·1988·26.961 MB·English

by  Kirsten Drotner

English Children and
Their Magazines, 1751-1945

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Yale University Press New Haven and London
f• Kirsten Drotner
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Published with assistance from the
Mary Cady Tew Memorial Fund.
Copyright© 1988 by Yale University.
All rights reserved. This book may not be
reproduced, in whole or in part, including
illustrations, in any form (beyond that copy
ing permitted by Sections I 07 and I 0 8 of
the U.S. Copyright Law and except by
reviewers for the public press), without
written permission from the publishers.
Designed by Jo Aerne and set in Caslon
Old Face type with Forum I for display
by The Composing Room of Michigan.
Printed in the United States of America by
Vail-Ballou Press, Binghamton, New York.
Library of Congress Cataloging-
in-Publica tion Data
Drotner, Kirsten.
English children and their magazines,
17 51-1945 I Kirsten Drotner.
p. cm. Bibliography: p.
Includes index. ISBN 0-300-
04010-5 (alk. paper)
I. Children's periodicals, English
History. 2. Youths' periodicals
Great Britain-History. 3. Popular
literature-Great Britain-History and
cnt1c1sm. 4. Children's literature,
English-History and criticism.
5. Young adult literature, English
History and criticism. 6. Children
Great Britain-Books and reading
History. 7. Youth-Great Britain
Books and reading-History. I. Title.
PN5124.J8D72 1988 87-37156
052'.088054-dcl9 CIP
The paper in this book meets the guidelines
for permanence and durability of the Com
mittee on Production Guidelines for Book
Longevity of the Council on Library
Resources.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
For Julie and Jonas, who taught me
the true meaning of childhood

CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
IX
I. Introduction
l. Juveniles and Popular Literature 3
II. Reason and Religion in the First Juvenile Magazines,
1751-1850 15
2. Virtue and Good Nature: The Early Development
of Juvenile Magazines 17
3. Labor and Learning: Childhood and Youth,
1800-50 28
4. Better to Be Pious than Rich: The Child's Companion
and the Children's Friend 49
III. Moral Entertainment in Mid-Victorian Boys' Magazines 61
5. Too High, Too Solid, Too Good: The Upsurge
of Boys' Magazines 63
6. Secular Moralities: Mid-Victorian Childhood
and Youth 77
7. Serenity and Fortitude: The Boy's Own Magazine
and the Boys of England 98
IV. Commercial Morality for Adolescent Girls and Boys,
1870-1918 113
8. In Season and In Reason: The Development of Girls'
Magazines and the Transformation of Boys'
Magazines 115
9. Modern Girls and Masterful Boys: Childhood and
Youth until 19 I 8 131
10. Cast upon Their Own Resources: The Girl's Own
Paper and Harmsworth's Trendsetters 150
vm CONTENTS
V. Universal Entertainment for Schoolchildren, 1918-45 181
11. Of an Entirely New Type: Magazine Developments
between the Wars 18 3
12. Childhood for All: lnterwar Children 192
13. Worldwide Roving and Daring: Weeklies for Girls
and Boys 202
VI. Conclusion 23 5
14. More Next Week? 237
References 249
Index 263
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This book has been a long time in the making. The first germs of interest were
laid when as a nine- or ten-year-old I discovered Enid Blyton's and "Carolyn
Keene's" serial excitements. My university studies, while not exactly nurturing
an interest in juvenile literature, brought me together with fellow students,
friends and colleagues who shared my enthusiasm for popular culture and helped
me unearth my childhood dreams. I never suspected, however, that it would
take three different jobs and the birth of two children before the results of this
archaeological discovery materialized.
While the final arguments and conclusions presented in the following natu
rally remain my own responsibility, the book could not have been written
without the support and assistance of a great many people. At the early stages of
my research, Mary Cadogan willingly shared with me her large collection of
interwar girls' papers and her intimate knowledge of their contents. Jean Mc
Crindle, Sheila Rowbotham, and Anna Davin all gave generously of their time,
their professional insight and personal experience, and thus made my work seem
meaningful at a time when I was least susceptible to understake it. I am grateful
for their support. At Aarhus University, Assistant Professor Mette Kun!l}e was a
source of encouragement, and Professor Johan Fjord Jensen made the theoretical
groundwork shaping many of my ideas on popular literature. I appreciate his
thoughtful criticisms of my work.
During the actual process of research and writing, I was helped in numerous
ways. Thanks are due to the always helpful staffs at the Bodleian Library in
Oxford and at the British Library in London, where the friendly provision of
chairs at the stacks seemed of as much assistance as the professional information
provided me by the librarians. Irene Whalley, head librarian at the Victoria and
Albert Museum in London, clarified bibliographical and other uncertainties
concerning nineteenth-century periodicals, while John F. Gore of the Interna
tional Publishing Company, Gil Page of Fleetway Publications, and Martin
Lindsay of D. C. Thomson and Company, helped out with missing details on
contemporary papers. At Aarhus University, Professor Knud S!l}rensen and
Steen Larsen offered me useful technical advice.
I appreciate the donation by the Danish Ministry of Education and the British
IX
x ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Council of a YRWIS travel grant, which enabled me to extend one of my
numerous research trips to England. Also, the Danish Research Council for the
Humanities and Aarhus University are acknowledged for financial assistance in
the completion of my doctoral dissertation on which this book is based.
Part of chapter 13 appeared in an earlier version in Feminist Studies 9, no. 1
(1983): 33-52, and is reprinted here by permission of the publisher, Feminist
Studies, Inc., Women's Studies Program, University of Maryland, College
·Park. Illustrations on pp. 19, 26, 30, 41, 52, 54, 69, 74, 82, 89, 96, 102, 110,
117, 122, 136, 146, and 155 are reproduced by permission of the British
Library. Illustrations on pp. 164, 17 5, 186, and 211 are reproduced by permis
sion of Syndication International, Ltd., and the British Library. Illustrations on
pp. 196, 226, and 233 are reproduced by permission of Thomson & Co., Ltd.,
and the British Library. The illustration of p. 242 is reproduced by permission
of Just Seventeen.
At Yale University Press, the professionalism of my editor, Gladys Topkis,
bridged the Atlantic Ocean, and Carl Rosen as a meticulous manuscript editor is
sincerely thanked for his helpful comments and suggestions.
Finally, I extend my warmest thanks to my parents and in-laws, who willingly
displayed their expertise in baby-sitting, and, in particular, to my husband, Ole
Mouritsen, who not only assumed all domestic chores and child-care respon
sibilities during my extensive periods of writing, but who also found the emo
tional strength to persuade me that it was all worthwhile.