''The Idler'' was an illustrated monthly magazine published in

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...

from 1892 to 1911. It was founded by the author Robert Barr, who brought in the humorist Jerome K. Jerome as co-editor, and its contributors included many of the leading writers and illustrators of the time.

Content

''The Idler'' generally catered to the popular taste, printing light pieces and sensational fiction. The magazine published

short stories A short story is a piece of prose fiction. It can typically be read in a single sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the old ...

, serialised novels,

humour Humour (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English) or humor (American English) is the tendency of experiences to provoke laughter and provide amusement. The term derives from the humorism, humoral medicine of the ancient Gre ...

pieces,

poetry Poetry (from the Greek language, Greek word ''poiesis'', "making") is a form of literature, literary art that uses aesthetics, aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meaning (linguistics), meanings in addition to, or in ...

memoirs A memoir (; , ) is any nonfiction narrative writing based on the author's personal memories. The assertions made in the work are thus understood to be factual. While memoir has historically been defined as a subcategory of biography or autobio ...

, travel writing, book and theatre reviews,

interview An interview is a structured conversation where one participant asks questions, and the other provides answers.Merriam Webster DictionaryInterview Dictionary definition, Retrieved February 16, 2016 In common parlance, the word "interview" re ...

s and cartoons. It also included a monthly feature called 'The Idlers' Club', in which a number of writers would offer their views on a particular topic. Most of ''The Idler''s contributors were popular and prolific writers of the time. Some of them, such as

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 ...

Mark Twain Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, and essayist. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has produced," with William Fau ...

and Ernest Bramah, are still read today.

Editors

* February 1892 – July 1895: Jerome K. Jerome and Robert Barr * August 1895 – November 1897: Jerome K. Jerome * 1898–1901: Arthur Lawrence and Sidney Sime * 1902–1911: Robert Barr

Contributors

Writers

* William Livingston Alden * Grant Allen * R. M. Ballantyne * Robert Barr"The Idler" Vol.2 August 1892 – January 1893 * Arthur William Beckett *

Max Beerbohm Sir Henry Maximilian Beerbohm (24 August 1872 – 20 May 1956) was an English essayist, Parody, parodist and Caricature, caricaturist under the signature Max. He first became known in the 1890s as a dandy and a humorist. He was the theatre crit ...

* Marie Adelaide Belloc Lowndes as M. A. Belloc * Aimée Daniell Beringer as Mrs. Oscar Beringer * Walter Besant * Raymond Blathwayt * Mary Elizabeth Braddon * Addison Bright * Robert Buchanan * G. B. Burgin * Thomas Burke * Hall Caine * William Canton * Albert Chevalier * Roy Compton * Marie Corelli * May Crommelin *

Aleister Crowley Aleister Crowley ( ; born Edward Alexander Crowley; 12 October 1875 – 1 December 1947) was an English occultist, ceremonial magician, poet, novelist, mountaineer, and painter. He founded the religion of Thelema, identifying himself as the pr ...

* Guy de Maupassant *

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 Hol ...

* William Arthur Dunkerley * Archibald Forbes * H. Rider Haggard * Kirby Hare * Bret Harte *

William Hope Hodgson William Hope Hodgson (15 November 1877 – 19 April 1918) was an English author. He produced a large body of work, consisting of essays, short fiction, and novels, spanning several overlapping genres including horror fiction, horror, fantasy, fan ...

* Jerome K. Jerome *

* Arthur H. Lawrence * Eliza Lynn Linton *

Katherine Mansfield Kathleen Mansfield Murry (née Beauchamp; 14 October 1888 – 9 January 1923) was a New Zealand writer and critic who was an important figure in the Literary modernism, modernist movement. Her works are celebrated across the world and have been ...

* Richard Marsh * Frank Mathew * David Christie Murray * J. F. Nisbet * Barry Pain *

Joseph Parker Joseph Dennis Parker, (born 9 January 1992) is a New Zealand professional boxer. He has held the World Boxing Organization (WBO) Interim championship, interim heavyweight title since 2024. Previously, he held the WBO heavyweight title from 2016 ...

* James Payn * W. Pett Ridge * Eden Phillpotts *

Arthur Quiller-Couch Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch (; 21 November 186312 May 1944) was a Cornish people, British writer who published using the pen name, pseudonym Q. Although a prolific novelist, he is remembered mainly for the monumental publication ''The Oxfor ...

as 'Q'. * Lilian Quiller-Couch * Jean Richepin * Morley Roberts * Frederick William Robinson * William Clark Russell * Francis Saltus Saltus * Evelyn Sharp * Robert H. Sherard * George Robert Sims * Lincoln Springfield *

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 ...

* Allen Upward *

Mary Augusta Ward Mary Augusta Ward (''née'' Arnold; 11 June 1851 – 24 March 1920) was a British literature, British novelist who wrote under her married name as Mrs Humphry Ward. She worked to improve education for the poor, setting up a Mary Ward Centre, ...

as Mrs Humphry *

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 ...

* Gleeson White * John Strange Winter (Henrietta E. V. Stannard) * Israel Zangwill

Artists

* Sydney Adamson * Frank Barnard * Lewis Baumer *

Aubrey Beardsley Aubrey Vincent Beardsley ( ; 21 August 187216 March 1898) was an English illustrator and author. His black ink drawings were influenced by Woodblock printing in Japan, Japanese woodcuts, and depicted the grotesque, the decadent, and the erotic. ...

* Thomas C.S. Benham * Ada Bowley * Alexander Stuart Boyd * Frank Brangwyn * Dion Clayton Calthrop * Sydney Cowell * Frank Cadogan Cowper * Max Cowper * Cynicus (Martin Anderson) * A Hugh Fisher * Archibald Stevenson Forrest (1869 - 1963) * Frances L Fuller * Florence Briscoe)) * Ernest Goodwin * James Grieg * John Gulich * Louis Gunnis * Hal Hurst * B. J. Hutchinson * George Wylie Hutchinson * Ronald Ian * Richard Jack * Ernest M. Jessop * J. Kerr Lawson * H. R. Millar * John Bernard Partridge * Charles Pears * Frederick Pegram * Melton Prior * Andrew Scott Rankin * Robert Sauber * Sidney Sime * F. Sketchley * Penryn Stanley * Frederic Villiers *

Rob Wagner Robert Leicester Wagner (August 2, 1872 – July 20, 1942) was the editor and publisher of ''Script'', a weekly literary film magazine published in Beverly Hills, California, between 1929 and 1949. Rob Wagner was a magazine writer, screenwrite ...

* Louis Wain * John L. Wimbush

References

External links

* Full text 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 li ...

Vol. 13, February-July 1893

Interview
with Louis Wain by Roy Compton, originally published in ''The Idler'' in January 1896 (Vol VIII No. XLVIII.) .
''The Idler'' (1892-1911) - Indexes to Fiction (Victorian Fiction Research Guide)
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Idler, The Monthly magazines published in the United Kingdom Defunct literary magazines published in the United Kingdom Magazines established in 1892 Magazines disestablished in 1911