Pearson's Magazine was an influential publication which first appeared in Britain

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name of the United Kingdom during the period when what is now the Republic of Ireland formed a part of it....

 in 1896. It specialised in speculative literature, political discussion, often of a socialist bent, and the arts. Its contributors included Upton Sinclair

Upton Sinclair

Upton Beall Sinclair Jr. , was an American author who wrote close to one hundred books in many genres. He achieved popularity in the first half of the twentieth century, acquiring particular fame for his classic muckraking novel, The Jungle . It exposed conditions in the U.S...

, George Bernard Shaw

George Bernard Shaw

George Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60...

, Maxim Gorky

Maxim Gorky

Alexei Maximovich Peshkov , primarily known as Maxim Gorky , was a Russian and Soviet author, a founder of the Socialist Realism literary method and a political activist.-Early years:...

 and H. G. Wells

H. G. Wells

Herbert George Wells was an English author, now best known for his work in the science fiction genre. He was also a prolific writer in many other genres, including contemporary novels, history, politics and social commentary, even writing text books and rules for war games...

, many of whose short stories and novelettes first saw publication in Pearson's.

It is also notable as the first British periodical to publish a crossword

Crossword

A crossword is a word puzzle that normally takes the form of a square or rectangular grid of white and shaded squares. The goal is to fill the white squares with letters, forming words or phrases, by solving clues which lead to the answers. In languages that are written left-to-right, the answer...

 puzzle, in February 1922.

History

British publisher C. Arthur Pearson established and served as the editor of the monthly magazine from 1896 to 1899. He removed himself as editor as blindness set in but continued as its publisher. Succeeding editors included Percy W. Everett (1900–1911), Philip O'Farrell (1912–1919), John Reed Wade (January 1920–April 1939) and W.E. Johns (May 1939–November 1939). The magazine ceased publication in November 1939 after 527 issues.

A like-for-like US version of Pearson's appeared in 1899. It eventually diverged into more US-oriented authors and separate editorial oversight, which included Arthur W. Little (to August 1916), Frank Harris

Frank Harris

Frank Harris was a Irish-born, naturalized-American author, editor, journalist and publisher, who was friendly with many well-known figures of his day...

 (September 1916-1923) and Alexander Marky (1922-April 1925). The United States version was published by J. J. Little until the title folded in April 1925 after a total run of 314 issues.

Notable serials

• George Griffith
  George Griffith
  George Griffith , full name George Chetwyn Griffith-Jones, was a prolific British science fiction writer and noted explorer who wrote during the late Victorian and Edwardian age. Many of his visionary tales appeared in magazines such as Pearson's Magazine and Pearson's Weekly before being published...
  
  's The Angel of the Revolution
  The Angel of the Revolution
  The Angel of the Revolution: A Tale of the Coming Terror is a science fiction novel by English writer George Griffith. It was his first published novel and remains his most famous work...
  
  
• C. J. Cutcliffe Hyne's The Lost Continent: The Story of Atlantis
  The Lost Continent: The Story of Atlantis
  The Lost Continent: The Story of Atlantis is a fantasy novel by C. J. Cutcliffe Hyne. It is considered one of the classic fictional retellings of the story of the drowning of Atlantis, combining elements of the myth told by Plato with the earlier Greek myth concerning the survival of a universal...
  
  (July-December 1899)
• H. G. Wells
  H. G. Wells
  Herbert George Wells was an English author, now best known for his work in the science fiction genre. He was also a prolific writer in many other genres, including contemporary novels, history, politics and social commentary, even writing text books and rules for war games...
  
  ' The War of the Worlds
  The War of the Worlds
  The War of the Worlds is an 1898 science fiction novel written by H. G. Wells.The War of the Worlds may also refer to:- Radio broadcasts :* The War of the Worlds , the 1938 radio broadcast by Orson Welles...
  
  (April-December 1897).
• H. G. Wells' The Sea Lady (1901)

External links

• Herbert C. Fyfe, Pearson's Magazine, July 1900: How Will The World End?