EARLY HISTORY OF BLACKWOOD’S EDINBURGH MAGAZINE BY ALICE MARY DOANE A. B. Earlham College, 1914 THESIS Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS IN ENGLISH IN THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 1917 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS THE GRADUATE SCHOOL June 1 1917 I HEREBY RECOMMEND THAT THE THESIS PREPARED UNDER MY SUPERVISION BY Mary Alice Doane ENTITLED Early History of Blackwood’s Magazine ------------------------------------------------------ BE ACCEPTED AS FULFILLING THIS PART OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF Master of Arts in English Jacob Zeitlin In Charge of Thesis Frank W Scott Head of Department Recommendation concurred in:[1] -------------------- } Committee -------------------- } on -------------------- } Final Examination[1] [1] Required for doctor’s degree but not for master’s. Contents I. Introduction p. 1-15 II. Genesis p. 16-29 III. Dramatis Personae p. 30-36 IV. First Years of “Maga” p. 37-67 Bibliography p. 68-69 EARLY HISTORY OF BLACKWOOD’S EDINBURGH MAGAZINE I _Introduction_[2] [2] The information in this chapter is taken from the following: Oliver Elton: _A Survey of English Literature, 1780-1830_ (Arnold, London, 1912) V. i, ch. 13 _Cambridge History of English Literature_ (Cambridge, 1916) V. xii, ch. 6 John Gibson Lockhart: _Peter’s Letters to His Kinsfolk_ (Edinburgh, 1819) V. i, ii People love to be shocked! That explains the present circulation of _Life_. It explains, too, the clamor with which Edinburgh received the October number of _Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine_ in 1817. For the first time in periodical history, the reading public was actually thrilled and completely shocked! Edinburgh held up its hands in horror, looked pious, wagged its head--and bought up every number! It is a strange parallel, perhaps, _Life_ and _Blackwood’s_,--yet not so strange. It is hard at first glance to understand how those yellow, musty old pages could have been so shocking which now seem to have lost all savor for the man in the street. But before we can appreciate just how shocking _Blackwood’s Magazine_ was, or why, it will be necessary first to remember the Edinburgh of those days, and the men who thought and fought in those pages, and the then state of periodical literature.