that the eloquence of ancient Greece and Rome was revived in the British senate". However the plain truth was that the reports were as fictional as the 'Senate of Lilliputia' and were largely conjured out of Johnson's imagination; not that this has prevented them since being cited as authentic 'historical' sources.
It was largely due to Johnson's contribution and Edward Cave's success in building a successful regional distribution network that the magazine built up a significant readership throughout the country, and by 1741 Johnson could claim that "the Gentleman's Magazine is read as far as the English Language extends, and we see it reprinted from several Presses in Great Britain, Ireland, and the Plantations."
After his death in 1754 Edward Cave was succeeded as editor by David Henry, but the journal perhaps experienced its heyday under John Nichols who was its editor and publisher from 1797 until his death in 1826. Thereafter improvements in communication, particularly the creation of a national railway system in the mid to late 19th century, permitted the London newspapers to develop a national distribution network of their own and their availability soon undermined the raison-de-etre of the journal. The style and content changed with the passing of John Nichols, and the journal went through a number of different owners, each of whom made an effort to recreate the original success of the magazine. But sales dwindled and the Gentleman's Magazine eventually came to end in 1914.
Neverthless during the the first century of its publication it was the leading journal of its age, containing details of the latest scientific advances and discoveries, poetry, politics, debates on issues of the day and news of important events such as the Lisbon Earthquake of 1755, the Gordon Riots, the Peterloo Massacre of 1819, and the execution of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. Much of provincial England saw the world through the eyes of The Gentleman's Magazine and the journal thus had a profound infleuence on public attitudes and opinion. It therefore remains an important source of information about contemporary life from its inception in 1731 to the mid nineteenth century and has been described as "a gold mine of contemporary information concerning virtually every facet of British life and public interest" and an "unrivalled document of the cultural history of the era".
AVAILABILITY
The Internet Library of Early Journals at http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/ilej/ allows access to facsimiles of Volumes 1 to 20 covering the years 1731 to 1750.
There is a 16 Volume Set of The Gentleman's Magazine in the Age of Samuel Johnson, 1731-1745 (£1,400/$2,380) published by Pickering and Chatto and a more reasonably priced The Best of Gentleman's Magazine, 1731-1754 (£79.95/$129.95) published by the Edwin Mellen Press.
SOURCES
- Charles Arnold Baker The Companion to British History (Longcross Press, 1996)
- No. 633: The Gentleman's Magazine by John H. Lienhard
http://www.uh.edu/engines/epi633.htm
- The Gentleman's Magazine
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/Jgentleman.htm
- Attributions of Authorship in the Gentleman's Magazine 1731-1868
A Supplement to Kuist by Emily Lorraine de Montluzin
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/bsuva/gm/gm-intro.html
- Georgian Index - Newspapers
www.georgianindex.net/publications/newspapers/news_sources.html