''The Girl's Own Paper'' (''G.O.P.'') was a British

story paper A story paper is a periodical publication similar to a literary magazine, but featuring illustrations and text stories, and aimed towards children and teenagers. Also known in Britain as "boys' weeklies", story papers were phenomenally popular ...

catering to girls and young women, published from 1880 until 1956.

Publishing history

The first weekly number of ''The Girl's Own Paper'' appeared on 3 January 1880. As with its male counterpart '' The Boy's Own Paper'', the magazine was published by the

Religious Tract Society The Religious Tract Society was a British evangelical Christian organization founded in 1799 and known for publishing a variety of popular religious and quasi-religious texts in the 19th century. The society engaged in charity as well as commerci ...

(which subsequently became Lutterworth Press). It was sold at a price of 1

penny A penny is a coin ( pennies) or a unit of currency (pl. pence) in various countries. Borrowed from the Carolingian denarius (hence its former abbreviation d.), it is usually the smallest denomination within a currency system. Presently, it is t ...

. In October 1929, the title became ''The Girl's Own Paper and Woman's Magazine'' but in 1930 the ''Woman's Magazine'' became a separate publication. In December 1947 the name was changed to ''The Girl's Own Paper and Heiress''. By 1951 it was called ''Heiress incorporating the Girl's Own Paper''. In 1956 ''Heiress'' closed down, and the name "Girl's Own Paper" ceased to exist. Facsimile reprints of volume 1 to 4 were published by Eureka Press, Japan, in 2006. Several editions are available online from

Project Gutenberg Project Gutenberg (PG) is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, as well as to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks." It was founded in 1971 by American writer Michael S. Hart and is the oldest digital libr ...

The

provided a mix of stories and educational and improving articles, with 'Answers to Correspondents' and occasional coloured plates, poetry and music. The paper funded and serialised the exploits of the explorer Kate Marsden in the 1890s when she was lauded by the Royal Geographical Society. For the first 30 years, the weekly and later monthly issues included an unusual amount of music content, including musical scores by women composers. Judith Barger has produced a catalogue and discussed how the material reflected a gradual change in the perception of women's music making, from amateur accomplishment towards more professional roles. From 1908, the weekly magazines were dropped and the paper included more information on serious careers for girls and advice on style and dress. Long serials became less common, being replaced by shorter stories. From the 1930s, a greater proportion of its material was directed at younger readers. There were school stories, stories of kidnapped princesses and articles about film stars, although the contents became more serious during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. Volumes 39 and 40 of 1917–18 were entitled ''The Girls Own Paper'' and ''Woman's Magazine''; presumably the two publications were merged for economy purposes as a result of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

Famous contributors

Many contributors are unknown outside the ''G.O.P.'' pages, but they include

Noel Streatfeild Mary Noel Streatfeild Order of the British Empire, OBE (24 December 1895 –11 September 1986) was an English author, best known for children's books including the "Shoes" books, which were not a series (though some books made references to ...

Eleanor Hoyt Brainerd Eleanor Hoyt Brainerd (January 31, 1868 – March 18, 1942) was an early 20th-century American author. She published at least 10 novels, mostly written for young women. Childhood Eleanor was born at Plum Grove Historic House in Iowa City, Iow ...

Rosa Nouchette Carey Rosa Nouchette Carey (27 September 1840 – 9 July 1909) was an English children's writer and popular novelist, whose works reflected the values of her time and were thought of as wholesome for girls. However, they are "not entirely bereft of gr ...

Sarah Doudney Sarah Doudney (15 January 1841, Portsea, Portsmouth, Hampshire – 8 December 1926, Oxford)Charlotte Mitchell"Doudney, Sarah (1841–1926)" ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004; online edition, May 2005, re ...

(1841–1926),

Angela Brazil Angela Brazil (pronounced "brazzle") (30 November 186813 March 1947) was one of the first British writers of "modern schoolgirls' stories", written from the characters' point of view and intended primarily as entertainment rather than moral ins ...

Lucy Maud Montgomery Lucy Maud Montgomery (November 30, 1874 – April 24, 1942), published as L. M. Montgomery, was a Canadian author best known for a collection of novels, essays, short stories, and poetry beginning in 1908 with ''Anne of Green Gables''. She ...

, Richmal Crompton, Fanny Fern, Baroness Orczy, and Norma Lorimer. Between 1889 and 1901, the leading illustrator

Henry William Brewer Henry William Brewer (1836–1903) was a British illustrator, notable for his detailed city panoramas, held to be one of the most outstanding architectural draughtsmen of his day. Family and early life Brewer was born in Oxford on 7 August 1 ...

provided regular articles for the paper, often richly illustrated by his own drawings. Subjects included Interesting Monuments of Distinguished Women (1889), The Castle of Cleve and the 'Magic Swan' (1890), The Largest Churches in Europe (1891), Archeology for Girls (1895), Typical Church Towers of English Counties (1895), Old English Cottage Homes (1899), and Site Base Support and Superstructure – Ancient and Modern Methods of Building (1901). The writer and novelist John Francis Brewer, son of

also contributed to the paper. In 1887-88 he collaborated with the editor, Charles Peters, describing in articles trips they had taken together in Norway, northern Italy and central Italy. Between 1940 and 1947 Captain W. E. Johns contributed sixty stories featuring the female pilot Worrals.

List of editors

* Charles Peters 1880–1907 * Flora Klickmann 1908–1931 * Gladys Spratt and others 1931–1956

Role in popular culture

In her history of the ''G.O.P.'', E Honor Ward writes: "The G.O.P. was an important and positive influence on generations of girls and women, and a vital outlet for women's writing and ideas, for more than three-quarters of a century".

References

External links

*
''The Girl's Own Paper'' Index
lutterworth.com. Index to issues (1880-1941), background information, reading list, online resources. * E. Honor Ward
About the ''Girl's Own Paper''
lutterworth.com.
''The Girl's Own Paper'': A Paper for Young Women and their Mothers
Waterloo Directory of English Newspapers and Periodicals: 1800-1900, victorianperiodicals.com.
Article Index by Magazine
victorianvoices.net - Collection of excerpts scanned from issues of ''The Girl's Own Paper'' (1880-1902).
Highlights From ''The Girl's Own Paper''
Growing archive of illustration scans and transcripts of articles and "Answers to Correspondents" from Victorian and Edwardian issues of ''The Girl's Own Paper'' (1880-1912).
''The Girl's Own Paper''
gutenberg.org - 25 copies of ''The Girl's Own Paper'', including illustrations.
The Girl's Own Paper archive at Internet Archive
{{DEFAULTSORT:Girl's Own Paper, The Children's magazines published in the United Kingdom Defunct magazines published in the United Kingdom Magazines established in 1880 Magazines disestablished in 1956