THE

PENNY MAGAZINE

Of

THE SOCIETY FOR THE

DIFFUSION OF USEFUL KNOWLEDGE.

1838

The entire year bound in one volume.

 

Published

LONDON

Charles Knight and Co.

1838

Cloth hard cover, 508 pages.

Measures 7 ½ x 11 ½ inches.

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Illustrated.

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Covers are worn, staining, fraying on edges, sine chipped partially off.

Binding is tight, some foxing throughout, none mar the readability or quality of the text and illustrations.

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The Penny Magazine was an illustrated British magazine aimed at the working class, published every Saturday from 31 March 1832 to 31 October 1845. Charles Knight created it for the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge in response to Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, which started two months earlier. Sold for only a penny and illustrated with wood-engravings, it was an expensive enterprise that could only be supported by very large circulation. Though initially very successful—with a circulation of 200,000 in the first year.

 

An additional factor in the early success of the magazine was the consistent use of illustrations throughout its years of publication. The publisher Charles Knight favored using the new reproductive medium of wood-engraving, which was cheaper and speedier than the steel-engraving alternative, to attract readers to his publication. Knight also had an advantage, due to being based inside London, he had access to a number of skilled engravers such as William Harvey, John Orrin Smith and Edmund Evans among others. It was through his association with inventor Edward Cowper, as well as the timing of the Industrial Revolution, that enabled him to take advantage of the steam printing press to produce more illustrations for The Penny Magazine.

 

The use of pictures was also advantageous with the magazine’s target market as over 75% of school children were illiterate and another 300,000 did not attend school in 1832, the first year of publication. Similarly, in 1841 over 30% of males and nearly 50% of females were still illiterate, therefore using illustrations Knight was able to appeal to an audience with limited reading skills, while also enabling self-education.

 

The illustrations became highly popular with Knight’s target audience as shown by the fact 1,887 illustrated articles were published in The Penny Magazine between the years of 1832 and 1845. The significant commercial value of illustrations for The Penny Magazine resulted in a whole front page being dedicated to a single picture. These images would often vary between machinery and animals. The popularity of illustrations and Knight’s desire for sales resulted in certain covers becoming scientifically inaccurate, for example an illustration of "The Boa Constrictor" (October 27, 1832) showed the creature attacking its prey with fangs drawn even though the reptile suffocates its prey. Austin argues that the idea of the snake striking its prey was more likely to stir the reader’s emotions and entice them into purchasing the magazine.

 

Ultimately it would be these illustrations, so vital to The Penny Magazine’s early success, which would lead to financial problems. Despite the production of an accompanying encyclopedia, The Penny Cyclopedia, the growing periodicals market caused Knight to lose significant market share whilst simultaneously having to pay more for illustrations to compete with other publishers. By 1833 Knight was paying over £20,000 per annum, forcing him to raise the price of the magazine to 4d. and as a result he could not maintain his early commercial success.