From the Penny Dreadful to the Ha’penny Dreadfuller: A Bibliographic History of the Boys’ Periodical in Britain, 1762–1950 by Robert J. Kirkpatrick (review)

In this study, Robert J. Kirkpatrick undertakes a daunting task: to create the most comprehensive bibliographic account of British boys’ periodicals to date. Drawing on his previous work in Bullies, Beaks and Flannelled Fools: An Annotated Bibliography of Boys’ School Fiction, 1742–1990 (1990) and The Encyclopedia of Boys’ School Stories (2000), Kirkpatrick delivers a rigorous and thorough history that is impressive in its range and detail. Beginning with the earliest iterations of juvenile periodicals in the mid-eighteenth century, Kirkpatrick traces the wonderfully complex developments that shaped the Victorian boys’ story paper, tracking its parallel adaptations in America as well as in the war-ridden twentieth century, where the genre met its demise with the growing popularity of pulp fiction and comic books.

The story he tells is one of both aspiration and anxiety. Attempts to cater to and entertain a young readership were frequently met with apprehension and moral censure, engendering strictly didactic publications that were quickly countered by enticingly salacious penny dreadfuls. This cycle was punctuated by a smattering of mid-Victorian attempts to craft reputable periodicals that would both instruct and entertain, such as Samuel Beeton’s Boy’s Own Magazine and Henry Vickers’s Boys’ Journal. Amidst this ongoing circulation battle, the boys’ story paper emerged, uniting the publication of fiction calculated to excite young boys with the educational aims of more “respectable” periodicals. Throughout his book, Kirkpatrick weaves together biographies of individual authors and publishers, elaborates on the press’s financial difficulties and successes, and catalogs hundreds of journals, thus providing a compelling portrait of the cutthroat milieu of periodical publishing and the interconnected relationships between individuals working in the industry.

The chapters are largely chronological, tracing the evolution of early children’s periodicals into sensational penny bloods and the birth of middle-class magazines like Routledge’s Every Boy’s Magazine. Kirkpatrick also examines the heyday of the school story and adventure yarn which dominated boys’ story papers of the later nineteenth century, such as Boys of England, the Young Englishman’s Journal, and the Boy’s Standard. He loads each chapter with a wealth of biographic information, frequently juxtaposing sections on well-known and largely neglected figures in the history of boys’ periodicals. For instance, while the tale of Edwin J. Brett’s competition with the Emmett brothers is a staple of Victorian publishing histories, Kirkpatrick dedicates an entire chapter to the Emmetts, whose exploits have received little scholarly attention relative to those of their illustrious rival. Kirkpatrick’s strikingly meticulous reports of individual periodicals, many of which existed only fleetingly, further contribute to his goal of fleshing out a full history of the boys’ periodical. While he gives due attention to prominent titles like the Religious Tract Society’s Boy’s Own Paper, chapter 8 examines many serials that materialized in the flurry of late Victorian publishing only to sink swiftly into the obscurity of failure, such as the Sons of Albion and Every Boy’s Journal—Fun, Fact and Romance. Along the way, Kirkpatrick illuminates the complexities of what he calls the periodical “bibliographical maze,” the tangle of pirated and republished material, changed ownerships, new titles, and anonymous or pseudonymous authorship which make it difficult to accurately document the history of boys’ periodicals (4). In light of these challenges, Kirkpatrick’s final product is an admirable feat of diligent research.

It is perhaps the nature of an extensive study such as this that it necessarily sacrifices some depth for breadth. While refreshingly readable, Kirk-patrick’s chapters run rapidly through names, lives, and titles, introducing new periodicals and leaving them behind at a pace that echoes the rapidity with which Victorian publications rose and fell. At times, one wishes for more elaboration on the content of...