England
Toward the end of the 17th cent. periodicals patterned after the Journal des scavans began to appear in England. The success of Sir Richard Steele's Tatler (1709–11) and its successor, the Spectator (1711–12), written almost entirely by Steele and by Joseph Addison, ushered in the great 18th-century English periodical literature. The Rambler (1750–52) virtually made Samuel Johnson's reputation; he contributed to all but five of its 208 issues. Tobias Smollett and Dr. Johnson wrote for the Tory Critical Review (1756–1817). The monthly Gentleman's Magazine (1731–1868) was the first to use the word magazine in the sense of a periodical for entertainment.
Among the foremost English periodicals of the 19th cent. were the Edinburgh Review (1802–1929), which numbered among its contributors Sir Walter Scott, Thomas Macaulay, Thomas Carlyle, Matthew Arnold, and William Hazlitt; Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine (renamed Blackwood's Magazine; 1817–1980), noted for satire; The Spectator (1828–); and the Westminster Review (1824–1914), an organ of Benthamite reform (see Bentham, Jeremy). Nineteenth-century English novels often appeared first as magazine serials. Charles Dickens edited Household Words (1850–59) and All the Year Round (1859–95), and many of his novels appeared in them. The Cornhill Magazine (1860–1975), first edited by W. M. Thackeray, published his last two novels and some by Mrs. Gaskell and by Anthony Trollope.
The Yellow Book (1894–97), edited by Aubrey Beardsley and Henry Harland, was notable for literature, humor, and illustrations. The humorous weekly Punch (1841–1992), remains the most famous of its kind. The Economist (1843–), despite its name, is an international newsweekly with a larger readership in the United States than in Britain. At first, publication of periodicals was hampered by difficulties of distribution. Postage was practically prohibitive; since postmasters could frank (mail without charge) what they sent out, they frequently became publishers.
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