''Temple Bar'' was a literary periodical of the mid and late 19th and very early 20th centuries (1860–1906). The complete title was ''Temple Bar – A London Magazine for Town and Country Readers''. It was initially edited by
George Augustus Sala
George Augustus Henry Fairfield Sala (November 1828 – 8 December 1895) was an author and journalist who wrote extensively for the ''Illustrated London News'' as G. A. S. and was most famous for his articles and leaders for ''The Daily Telegra ...
, and
Arthur Ransome
Arthur Michell Ransome (18 January 1884 – 3 June 1967) was an English author and journalist. He is best known for writing and illustrating the ''Swallows and Amazons'' series of children's books about the school-holiday adventures of childre ...
was the final editor before it folded, while he developed his literary career. It was also edited by
Mary Elizabeth Braddon
Mary Elizabeth Braddon (4 October 1835 – 4 February 1915) was an English popular novelist of the Victorian era. She is best known for her 1862 sensation novel ''Lady Audley's Secret'', which has also been dramatised and filmed several times.
...
.
History
''Temple Bar'' was founded a year after the first publication of
William Thackeray
William Makepeace Thackeray (; 18 July 1811 – 24 December 1863) was a British novelist, author and illustrator. He is known for his satirical works, particularly his 1848 novel ''Vanity Fair'', a panoramic portrait of British society, and th ...
's ''
The Cornhill Magazine
''The Cornhill Magazine'' (1860–1975) was a monthly Victorian magazine and literary journal named after the street address of the founding publisher Smith, Elder & Co. at 65 Cornhill in London.Laurel Brake and Marysa Demoor, ''Dictiona ...
'', by one of
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian e ...
' followers, Sala, who promised his readers that the periodical would be "full of solid yet entertaining matter, that shall be interesting to Englishmen and Englishwomen…and that Filia-familias may read with as much gratification as Pater or Mater-familias", appealing to a solid, literate middle-class. A rather congratulary review of the arrival of the impending publication appeared in the ''New York Times'' in October 1860 saying that it promised "The name is a happy one; pregnant with good things and seasoned with the promise of Attic salt".
It sold for about one shilling, and was one of the leading literary magazines of the era. 553 issues were published – up to 1906, about one a month. It published work by writers such as
Amy Levy,
Jane Austen
Jane Austen (; 16 December 1775 – 18 July 1817) was an English novelist known primarily for her six major novels, which interpret, critique, and comment upon the British landed gentry at the end of the 18th century. Austen's plots of ...
,
Wilkie Collins
William Wilkie Collins (8 January 1824 – 23 September 1889) was an English novelist and playwright known especially for ''The Woman in White (novel), The Woman in White'' (1859), a mystery novel and early "sensation novel", and for ''The Moons ...
,
Charles Reade,
Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Stevenson (born Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson; 13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, essayist, poet and travel writer. He is best known for works such as ''Treasure Island'', ''Strange Case of Dr Jekyll a ...
,
Anthony Trollope
Anthony Trollope (; 24 April 1815 – 6 December 1882) was an English novelist and civil servant of the Victorian era. Among his best-known works is a series of novels collectively known as the '' Chronicles of Barsetshire'', which revolves ar ...
,
Arthur Conan Doyle
Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a British writer and physician. He created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for ''A Study in Scarlet'', the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Ho ...
,
E. F. Benson
Edward Frederic Benson (24 July 1867 – 29 February 1940) was an English novelist, biographer, memoirist, archaeologist and short story writer.
Early life
E.F. Benson was born at Wellington College (Berkshire), Wellington College in Berkshir ...
and
Jessie Fothergill
Jessie Fothergill (June 1851 – 28 July 1891) was an English novelist. Her novel ''The First Violin'' sold particularly well.
Life and writings
Fothergill was born in June 1851 at Cheetham Hill, Manchester, the eldest child of Thomas Fothergi ...
.
Initially the magazine achieved a circulation of some 30,000 which eventually settled at around the 13,000 mark in the late 1860s. In 1868 ''
Bentley's Magazine'' was merged into it. By 1896 circulation had dropped to about 8,000. Arthur Ransome also started his career as publisher there.
It should not be confused with a