Edward Cave

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Edward Cave

Edward Cave, (February 27 1691 – January 10 1754), was an English

England

native_name =|conventional_long_name = England|common_name = England|image_flag = Flag of England.svg|image_coat = England COA.svg|symbol_type = Royal Coat of Arms...
printer, editor and publisher. In The Gentleman's Magazine
The Gentleman's Magazine

The Gentleman's Magazine was founded in London, England, by Edward Cave in January, 1731. The original complete title was The Gentleman's Magazine: or, Trader's monthly intelligencer. Cave's innovation was to create a monthly digest of news and commentary on any topic the educated public might be interested in, from commodity prices...
he created the first general-interest "magazine

Magazine

for quarterly in Heraldry see Quartering Magazines, periodicals, glossies or serials are publications, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of Article , generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscription, or all three....
" in the modern sense.

The son of a cobbler, Cave was born in Newton

Newton, Warwickshire

Newton is a small village and civil parish in the Rugby of Warwickshire, England.Newton is located around four miles north east of Rugby, Warwickshire, and is close to the A5 road which marks the border with Leicestershire....
near Rugby, Warwickshire

Rugby, Warwickshire

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Encyclopedia

Edward Cave, (February 27 1691 – January 10 1754), was an English

England

Magazine

Newton, Warwickshire

Rugby, Warwickshire

Rugby is a market town in Warwickshire, in the West Midlands region of England, on the River Avon, Warwickshire. The town has a population of 61,988...
and attended the grammar school there, but was expelled after being accused of stealing from the headmaster. He worked at a variety of jobs, including timber merchant, reporter and printer. He conceived the idea of a periodical that would cover every topic the educated public was interested in, from commerce to poetry, and tried to convince several London printers and booksellers to take up the idea. When no one showed any interest, Cave took on the task by himself. The Gentleman's Magazine was launched in 1731 and soon became the most influential and most imitated periodical of its time. It also made Cave wealthy.

Cave was an astute businessman. He devoted all his energy to the magazine, and rarely left its offices at St John's Gate, Clerkenwell

St John's Gate, Clerkenwell

St John's Gate is one of the few tangible remains from Clerkenwell's monastic past, it was built in 1504 by Prior Thomas Docwra as the south entrance to the inner precinct of the Priory of the Knights of John the Baptist - the Knights Hospitallers....
. He made use of a large number of contributors, most famously Samuel Johnson

Samuel Johnson

Samuel Johnson was an English author. Beginning as a Grub Street journalist, he made lasting contributions to English literature as a poet, essayist, moralist, novelist, literary critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer....
, who was always grateful to Cave for having provided his principal employment for many years. Cave himself often contributed pieces to the Magazine under the pen name of Sylvanus Urban.

He also obtained a licence from Lewis Paul

Lewis Paul

Lewis Paul was the original inventor of roller spinning, the basis of the water frame for Spinning cotton in a cotton mill....
for 250 spindles for his patent

Patent

A patent is a set of exclusive rights granted by a state to an inventor or his assignee for a term of patent in exchange for a disclosure of an invention....
roller-spinning machine, a precursor of the water frame

Water frame

The water frame is the name given to the spinning frame, when water power was used to drive it. Both are credited to Richard Arkwright who patented and exploited the technology in 1762....
. In 1742 he bought Marvels Mill at Northampton

Northampton

Northampton is a large market town and Non-metropolitan district in the East Midlands region of England. It is about north-west of London and around south-east of Birmingham, and lies on the River Nene....
and converted this to a cotton mill

Cotton mill

A cotton mill is a factory housing spinning and weaving machinery. Cotton was a leading sector in the Industrial Revolution, as cotton spinning was mechanised in mills....
, probably the first water-powered spinning

Spinning (textiles)

Spinning is an ancient textile arts in which fiber crop, animal fiber or synthetic fiber fibers are twisted together to form yarn . For thousands of years, fiber was spun by hand using simple tools, the Spindle and distaff....
mill in the world. This is apparently profitable, but only modestly so. It closed in (or possibly soon after) 1761.

Cave suffered from gout

Gout

Gout is a crystal deposition disease hallmarked by elevated levels of uric acid in the Circulatory system. In this condition, crystals of monosodium urate or uric acid are deposited on the articular cartilage of joints, tendons and surrounding tissues....
. He is buried at St. James Church, Clerkenwell

Clerkenwell

Clerkenwell is an area of central London in the London Borough of Islington. Clerkenwell was once known as London's "Little Italy" due to its extensive Italian population from the 1850s to the 1960s....
.

External links

the first twenty volumes, from v1 1731 through v20 1750