“The Squire of Boyhood”: G. A. Hutchison and the Boy’s Own Paper

First published by the Religious Tract Society in 1879, the Boy’s Own Paper was created in an attempt to combat the negative influence of penny dreadfuls on young male readers. This essay examines how George Andrew Hutchison produced one of the most successful juvenile papers of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, highlighting the inherent struggle he faced in trying to distance his publication from the ephemerality associated with periodical publishing.