''Pearson's Magazine'' was a monthly periodical that first appeared in
Britain
Britain most often refers to:
* Great Britain, a large island comprising the countries of England, Scotland and Wales
* The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, a sovereign state in Europe comprising Great Britain and the north-eas ...
in 1896. A US version began publication in 1899. It specialised in speculative literature, political discussion, often of a socialist bent, and the arts. Its contributors included
Bertram Fletcher Robinson
Bertram Fletcher Robinson (22 August 1870 – 21 January 1907) was an English sportsperson, sportsman, journalist, editor, author and Liberal Unionist Party activist. During his life-time, he wrote at least three hundred items, including a ser ...
,
Upton Sinclair
Upton Beall Sinclair Jr. (September 20, 1878 – November 25, 1968) was an American author, muckraker journalist, and political activist, and the 1934 California gubernatorial election, 1934 Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party ...
,
George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from the 188 ...
,
Maxim Gorky
Alexei Maximovich Peshkov (; – 18 June 1936), popularly known as Maxim Gorky (; ), was a Russian and Soviet writer and proponent of socialism. He was nominated five times for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Before his success as an aut ...
,
George Griffith
George Chetwynd Griffith-Jones (20 August 18574 June 1906) was a British writer. He was active mainly in the science fiction genre—or as it was known at the time, scientific romance—in particular writing many future war, future-war storie ...
,
H. G. Wells
Herbert George Wells (21 September 1866 – 13 August 1946) was an English writer, prolific in many genres. He wrote more than fifty novels and dozens of short stories. His non-fiction output included works of social commentary, politics, hist ...
,
Rudyard Kipling
Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( ; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936)''The Times'', (London) 18 January 1936, p. 12. was an English journalist, novelist, poet, and short-story writer. He was born in British Raj, British India, which inspired much ...
,
Rafael Sabatini
Rafael Sabatini (29 April 1875 – 13 February 1950) was an Italian people, Italian-born British writer of novels, writer of romance novel, romance and adventure novel, adventure novels.
He is best known for his worldwide bestsellers: ''The Sea ...
,
Sapper
A sapper, also called a combat engineer, is a combatant or soldier who performs a variety of military engineering duties, such as breaching fortifications, demolitions, bridge-building, laying or clearing minefields, preparing field defenses ...
,
Dornford Yates
Cecil William Mercer (7 August 1885 – 5 March 1960), known by his pen name Dornford Yates, was an English writer and novelist whose novels and short stories, some humorous (the ''Berry'' books), some Thriller (genre), thrillers (the ''Chandos ...
and
E. Phillips Oppenheim, many of whose short stories and novelettes first saw publication in ''Pearson's''.
It was the first British periodical to publish a
crossword
A crossword (or crossword puzzle) is a word game consisting of a grid of black and white squares, into which solvers enter words or phrases ("entries") crossing each other horizontally ("across") and vertically ("down") according to a set of cl ...
puzzle, in February 1922.
History
British publisher
C. Arthur Pearson established and served as the editor of the monthly magazine from 1896 to 1899. He removed himself as editor as blindness set in but continued as its publisher. Succeeding editors included:
*
Percy W. Everett (1900–1911)
*
Philip O'Farrell (1912–1919)
*
John Reed Wade (January 1920–April 1939)
*
W.E. Johns (May 1939–November 1939).
The magazine ceased publication in November 1939 after 527 issues.
A like-for-like US version of ''Pearson''
's appeared in 1899. It eventually diverged into more US-oriented authors and separate editorial oversight, which included:
*
Arthur W. Little (to August 1916)
*
Frank Harris
Frank Harris (14 February 1856 – 26 August 1931) was an Irish-American editor, novelist, short story writer, journalist and publisher, who was friendly with many well-known figures of his day.
Born in Ireland, he emigrated to the United State ...
(September 1916 – 1923)
*
Alexander Marky (1922–April 1925).
The United States version was published by
J. J. Little until the title folded in April 1925 after a total run of 314 issues.
Notable serials
*
H. G. Wells
Herbert George Wells (21 September 1866 – 13 August 1946) was an English writer, prolific in many genres. He wrote more than fifty novels and dozens of short stories. His non-fiction output included works of social commentary, politics, hist ...
' ''
The War of the Worlds
''The War of the Worlds'' is a science fiction novel by English author H. G. Wells. It was written between 1895 and 1897, and serialised in '' Pearson's Magazine'' in the UK and ''Cosmopolitan'' magazine in the US in 1897. The full novel was ...
'' (April–December 1897).
*
C. J. Cutcliffe Hyne's ''
The Lost Continent: The Story of Atlantis'' (July–December 1899)
*
George Griffith
George Chetwynd Griffith-Jones (20 August 18574 June 1906) was a British writer. He was active mainly in the science fiction genre—or as it was known at the time, scientific romance—in particular writing many future war, future-war storie ...
's ''
Stories of Other Worlds'' (January–July 1900)
*H. G. Wells' ''
The Sea Lady'' (1901)
References
Further reading
*
External links
{{Commons category, Pearson's Magazine
* Herbert C. Fyfe, ''Pearson's Magazine'', July 1900
How Will The World End?Pearson's Magazine archive at HathiTrust
Monthly magazines published in the United Kingdom
Defunct magazines published in the United Kingdom
Magazines established in 1896
Magazines disestablished in 1939
Visual arts magazines published in the United Kingdom