Alexander Strahan (1833–1918) was a 19th-century publisher. His company, Alexander Strahan & Co., based at

Ludgate Hill Ludgate Hill is a street and surrounding area, on a small hill in the City of London. The street passes through the former site of Ludgate, a city gate that was demolished – along with a gaol attached to it – in 1760. The area include ...

in London, published what was arguably one of the dominant periodicals in the 1860s, a monthly magazine called ''

Good Words ''Good Words'' was a 19th-century monthly periodical established in the United Kingdom in 1860 by the Scottish publisher Alexander Strahan. Its first editor was Norman Macleod. After his death in 1872, it was edited by his brother, Donald Macleod, ...

''.

Early life and career

Born in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

, he was a

Scottish Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...

. He started his publishing business in Edinburgh in 1858. He moved to London in 1862 and "widened his interest to include what his modern day biographer Patricia Sebrebrnik identifies as the literature of Christian social reform." One of his financial backers was Sir Henry Seymour King, through whom Strahan made a lucrative deal with the poet

Alfred, Lord Tennyson Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson (6 August 1809 – 6 October 1892) was an English poet. He was the Poet Laureate during much of Queen Victoria's reign. In 1829, Tennyson was awarded the Chancellor's Gold Medal at Cambridge for one of his ...

List of periodicals

* ''

'' (established 1860) * '' The Sunday Magazine'' (established 1864) * '' Argosy'' (established 1865) * The ''Contemporary Review'' (established 1866) * ''Good Words for the Young'' (retitled ''Good Things for the Young'') * ''Saint Paul's Magazine'' * ''The Day of Rest: An Illustrated Journal of Sunday Reading'' (established 1872)

References

Srebrnik, Patricia Thomas (1986) - ''Alexander Strahan, Victorian Publisher'' (University of Michigan Press) {{DEFAULTSORT:Strahan, Alexander 1833 births 1918 deaths 19th-century publishers (people) 19th-century Scottish people 19th-century Scottish Presbyterians