The Lady's Realm

Last updated
The Lady's Realm
The Lady's Realm Vol IX No 54.jp.jpg
Vol. 9, no. 54 of The Lady's Realm (1901)
Editor William Henry Wilkins (1896–1902)
First issueNovember 1896
Final issueOctober 1914, possibly 1915
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

The Lady's Realm was a British women's magazine published from 1896 until 1914, possibly until 1915. It primarily targeted upper-class readers as well as an aspirational middle-class audience, featuring photographs, poems, fiction, and columns by popular authors such as Marie Corelli, Frances Hodgson Burnett, Jack London, and H. G. Wells. The London Season was regularly covered, with visuals of significant society figures and débutantes appearing. Fashion trends in Paris and London were frequently discussed as well, particularly by its fashion editor Marian Pritchard.

Contents

The publication's targeted reader was the "New Woman", with enlightened ideas on education, health, independence, and employment. More successful than many of its contemporary publications, the magazine sold reasonably well in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada. It was a staple of women's reading rooms in public libraries, which were widespread across the UK. Relatively little is known of The Lady's Realm's publishing history, as many records were destroyed during the London Blitz. Its end may have been due to the First World War.

History

Relatively little is known of The Lady's Realm's publishing history, as many records of its publisher, Hutchinson, were destroyed during the London Blitz. [1] The first issue was published in November 1896. [1] [2] Its first editor was William Henry Wilkins, a mildly successful novelist who oversaw the publication's editing from 1896 to 1902. [3] Though inexperienced, [1] Wilkins was acquainted with society, being a friend of such figures as the explorer Richard Francis Burton and his wife Isabel Burton. [4] After Wilkins' death in 1905, The Lady's Realm wrote of how "the general public are little aware how much of [the magazine's] early success" was due to him, and that "not a few [contributors who] have since made their names in the world of letters have to thank him for placing their foot on the first rung of the ladder". [1] Wilkins' successor as editor is unknown, though Margaret Versteeg and colleagues, who produced an index of the fiction published in The Lady's Realm, detect no changes in editorial judgement in the magazine's tenure after 1902. While the publication mainly featured female writers and feminine topics, all of its editors, most likely, were men. [1]

When it debuted, there were more than twenty-nine publications catering to women. Upon the publication of its first issue in 1896, Review of Reviews called it "one of the most popular of the magazines that have been started this year". [1] The illustrated magazine was produced monthly [5] and cost sixpence (cheap enough for middle-class readers). [3] A typical issue contained 120 pages on quality glossy paper. [1] It sold reasonably well in the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada. [1] The magazine was available in women's reading rooms in public libraries, locations that were well distributed across the United Kingdom. [5] [6]

The magazine was produced by the English printers Hazell, Watson and Viney. One of its owners, Walter Hazell, was a social reformer and supporter of women's suffrage. A successful firm, Hazell, Watson and Viney also produced the Woman's Signal and the Woman's Gazette , which featured female political and economic topics. [7] The success of The Lady's Realm allowed it to remain published for eighteen years, from 1896 to 1915, much longer than many other contemporary women's periodicals. [3] Thirty-six volumes were produced, from November 1896 to October 1914 (a final volume may have been released in 1915). It is not known why it ended, though Versteeg and her colleagues speculate that World War I may have been a cause, as was the case for other contemporary publications like Young Woman (1891–1914) and The Girl's Realm (1892–1915). [1]

Content

The magazine focused on an upmarket audience, targeting "aspirational middle-class and upper-class readers". [5] [8] It was also one of the first intended to appeal to the female homeowner. [9] The Lady's Realm featured poems, [1] engravings and photographs, as well as columns by popular authors like Marie Corelli, Frances Hodgson Burnett, Violet Fane, and Mary Elizabeth Braddon. [3] [5] Other authors included Jack London, H.G. Wells, and Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman. [3] Fiction, in the form of short stories and serialisations, was released during the magazine's entire span and took up a sizable proportion in issues. A slightly higher percentage[ clarification needed ] of these contributions were written by women. The type of fiction varied, from romances and domestic narratives to fantasies and sociopolitical stories. [1] The publication's targeted reader was the "New Woman", with enlightened ideas on education, health, independence, and employment. Victorian scholar Kathryn Ledbetter notes that The Lady's Realm was "a handbook to the New Woman then being successfully marketed in popular novels... it provides many examples of this ideal in essays, illustrations, fiction, and poetry through the late 1890s". [4]

Lady's Realm printed an assortment of Court and society news alongside articles on more daily tasks such as food, homemaking, and methods for female readers to earn money. [1] It covered the London Season, displaying photographs of significant society figures and débutantes. [10] It claimed to feature over 500 illustrations in each volume. [3] Theatre was another regular topic of the magazine, [11] as was fiction, poetry, and reports on fashion. [5] The Lady's Realm's fashion editor Marian Pritchard regularly wrote articles on emerging fashions in London and Paris, and recommended locations where readers could buy them. [12] While still featuring fashion and beauty, it also encouraged careers for women in music, art, business, and millinery. [13] The magazine maintained this blend of topics relatively consistently, though it gradually made minor changes to the proportion it focused on different topics, for instance later focusing less on the nobility and more on the lives of clergymen and governors general. [1]

The Lady's Realm was a source of celebrity journalism. [5] Ledbetter writes that the magazine inherited its "notions of feminine celebrity" from The Woman's World , an earlier publication edited by Oscar Wilde. [3] It published studio photographs of actresses as well as aristocrats, including many in the former group who married into the nobility. [14] The British Royal Family was a frequent subject; one of the magazine's first issues included an article and photographs about the Princess of Wales' childhood, and the publication regularly reported on the movements of Queen Victoria's family. [15]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary Elizabeth Braddon</span> English popular novelist (1835–1915)

Mary Elizabeth Braddon was an English popular novelist of the Victorian era. She is best known for her 1862 sensation novel Lady Audley's Secret, which has also been dramatised and filmed several times.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle-upon-Tyne</span> English poet and philosopher (1623–1673)

Margaret Lucas Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle-upon-Tyne was a prolific English philosopher, poet, scientist, fiction writer and playwright. In her lifetime she was able to keep that tone of productivity by creating more than twelve works that were completely original to her own. Margaret Cavendish even would have her portrait engraved on the covers of her different works so that people would know that she was solely responsible for the creation of whatever she wrote and then published in some way or another. This made Margaret Cavendish a pioneer for other women who wanted to engage in social sciences. In a time where it was difficult for all women to become any type of professional scientist or doctor, Margaret Cavendish was supported by an active husband with high social status. This high social status allowed Margret to meet and converse with some of the most important and influential minds of her time. Being the first woman to be formally invited to visit the Royal Society, her trail-blazing personality shows how she was bold enough to take a stand for women at her own risk.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Isabella Beeton</span> English journalist, publisher and writer (1836–1865)

Isabella Mary Beeton, known as Mrs Beeton, was an English journalist, editor and writer. Her name is particularly associated with her first book, the 1861 work Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management. She was born in London and, after schooling in Islington, north London, and Heidelberg, Germany, she married Samuel Orchart Beeton, an ambitious publisher and magazine editor.

<i>The Ladys Magazine</i> British womens monthly periodical, 1770–1847

The Lady's Magazine; or Entertaining Companion for the Fair Sex, Appropriated Solely to Their Use and Amusement, was an early British women's magazine published monthly from 1770 until 1847. Priced at sixpence per copy, it began publication in August 1770 by the London bookseller John Coote and the publisher John Wheble. It featured articles on fiction, poetry, fashion, music, and social gossip and was, according to the Victoria and Albert Museum, "the first woman's magazine to enjoy lasting success."

<i>The Crisis</i> Official magazine of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People

The Crisis is the official magazine of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). It was founded in 1910 by W. E. B. Du Bois (editor), Oswald Garrison Villard, J. Max Barber, Charles Edward Russell, Kelly Miller, William Stanley Braithwaite, and Mary Dunlop Maclean. The Crisis has been in continuous print since 1910, and it is the oldest Black-oriented magazine in the world. Today, The Crisis is "a quarterly journal of civil rights, history, politics and culture and seeks to educate and challenge its readers about issues that continue to plague African Americans and other communities of color."

<i>McCalls</i> Defunct monthly American womens magazine

McCall's was a monthly American women's magazine, published by the McCall Corporation, that enjoyed great popularity through much of the 20th century, peaking at a readership of 8.4 million in the early 1960s. The publication was established as a small-format magazine called The Queen in 1873. In 1897 it was renamed McCall's Magazine—The Queen of Fashion and subsequently grew in size to become a large-format glossy. It was one of the "Seven Sisters" group of women's service magazines.

<i>Womans Day</i> American magazine

Woman's Day is an American women's monthly magazine that covers such topics as homemaking, food, nutrition, physical fitness, physical attractiveness, and fashion. The print edition is one of the Seven Sisters magazines. The magazine was first published in 1931 by The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company; the current publisher is Hearst Corporation.

<i>Womans Home Companion</i>

Woman's Home Companion was an American monthly magazine, published from 1873 to 1957. It was highly successful, climbing to a circulation peak of more than four million during the 1930s and 1940s. The magazine, headquartered in Springfield, Ohio, was discontinued in 1957.

<i>The Ladys Monthly Museum</i> Defunct British women monthly magazine

The Lady's Monthly Museum; Or, Polite Repository of Amusement and Instruction was an English monthly women's magazine published between 1798 and 1832.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ella Hepworth Dixon</span> English author and editor (1857–1932)

Ella Hepworth Dixon was an English author and editor. Her best-known work is the New Woman novel The Story of a Modern Woman, which has been reprinted in the 21st century.

<i>The Womans World</i> Defunct Victorian women magazine

The Woman's World was a Victorian women's magazine published by Cassell between 1886 and 1890, edited by Oscar Wilde between 1887 and 1889, and by Ella Hepworth Dixon from 1888.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Annie S. Swan</span> Scottish journalist and fiction writer, 1859–1943

Annie Shepherd Swan, CBE was a Scottish journalist and fiction writer. She wrote mainly in her maiden name, but also as David Lyall and later Mrs Burnett Smith. A writer of romantic fiction for women, she had over 200 novels, serials, stories and other fiction published between 1878 and her death. She has been called "one of the most commercially successful popular novelists of the later nineteenth and early twentieth centuries". Swan was politically active in the First World War, and as a suffragist, a Liberal activist and founder-member and vice-president of the Scottish National Party.

<i>The Englishwomans Domestic Magazine</i> Defunct British magazine

The Englishwoman's Domestic Magazine (EDM) was a monthly magazine which was published between 1852 and 1879. Initially, the periodical was jointly edited by Isabella Mary Beeton and her husband Samuel Orchart Beeton, with Isabella contributing to sections on domestic management, fashion, embroidery and even translations of French novels. Some of her contributions were later collected to form her widely acclaimed Book of Household Management. The editors sought to inform as well as entertain their readers; providing the advice of an 'encouraging friend' and 'cultivation of the mind' alongside serialised fiction, short stories and poetry. More unusually, it also featured patterns for dressmaking.

Belgravia was a monthly London illustrated literary magazine of the late 19th century that was founded by Mary Elizabeth Braddon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lady Frances Balfour</span>

Lady Frances Balfour was a British aristocrat, author, and suffragist. She was one of the highest-ranking members of the British aristocracy to assume a leadership role in the Women's suffrage campaign in the United Kingdom. Balfour was a member of the executive committee of the National Society for Women's Suffrage from 1896 to 1919. As a non-violent suffragist, she was opposed to the militant actions of the Women's Social and Political Union, whose members were called the suffragettes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alfred Horsley Hinton</span> English photographer

Alfred Horsley Hinton was an English landscape photographer, best known for his work in the pictorialist movement in the 1890s and early 1900s. As an original member of the Linked Ring and editor of The Amateur Photographer, he was one of the movement's staunchest advocates. Hinton wrote nearly a dozen books on photographic technique, and his photographs were exhibited at expositions throughout Europe and North America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hazell, Watson and Viney</span>

Hazell, Watson and Viney was an English printing and publishing firm with works in Aylesbury that operated from 1839 to c. 1991.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ada Ballin</span> English author, journalist, editor, and lecturer

Ada Sarah Ballin was an English author, journalist, editor, and lecturer. She was the editor and proprietor of the magazines Baby, Womanhood and Playtime, and published articles and books on health, child care, and dress reform.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Laura, Lady Troubridge</span> 19th-century British novelist and etiquette writer

Laura Troubridge, Lady Troubridge, was a British novelist and etiquette writer. She wrote almost 60 novels and many short stories.

The Girl's Realm was a sixpenny monthly magazine, published by Hutchinson that ran for seventeen volumes from November 1898 to November 1915.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Versteeg, Thomas & Huddleston 1981.
  2. Lady's Realm 1896.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Ledbetter 2009, p. 55.
  4. 1 2 Ledbetter 2009, pp. 55–56.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Doughty 2008, p. 342.
  6. Baggs 2005, pp. 280–282.
  7. Weedon 2008, p. 276.
  8. Fawcett 2004, p. 149.
  9. Latimer 1988, p. 18.
  10. Fawcett 2004, p. 147.
  11. Fawcett 2004, pp. 149–50.
  12. Buckley & Fawcett 2002, p. 32.
  13. Fawcett 2004, p. 156.
  14. Buckley & Fawcett 2002, p. 22.
  15. Ledbetter 2009, pp. 55, 58.

Works cited

  • Baggs, Chris (2005). ""In the Separate Reading Room for Ladies Are Provided Those Publications Specially Interesting to Them": Ladies' Reading Rooms and British Public Libraries 1850–1914". Victorian Periodicals Review. 38 (3): 280–306. doi:10.1353/vpr.2005.0028. JSTOR   20084071. S2CID   162252878.(subscription required)
  • Buckley, Cheryl; Fawcett, Hilary (2002). Fashioning the Feminine: Representation and Women's Fashion from the Fin De Siècle to the Present. I. B. Tauris. ISBN   1860645062.
  • Doughty, Terri (2008). "Lady's Realm [1896–1915]". In Brake, Laurel; Demoor, Marysa; Beetham, Margaret (eds.). Dictionary of Nineteenth-century Journalism in Great Britain and Ireland. Academia Scientific. p. 342. ISBN   978-9038213408.
  • Fawcett, Hilary (2004). "Romance, glamour and the exotic: Feminism and fashion in Britain in the 1900s". In Heilmann, Ann; Beetham, Margaret (eds.). New Woman Hybridities: Femininity, Feminism, and International Consumer Culture, 1880–1930. Routledge. pp. 145–57. ISBN   0415299837.
  • "Lady's Realm: An Illustrated Monthly Magazine". The Lady's Realm. London: Hutchinson and Co. 1. 1896.
  • Latimer, Clare (1988). "The Division of the Wall: The Use of Wallpapers in Decorative Schemes, 1870–1910". The Journal of the Decorative Arts Society. 1 (12): 18–25. JSTOR   41809161.(subscription required)
  • Ledbetter, Kathryn (2009). British Victorian Women's Periodicals: Beauty, Civilization, and Poetry. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN   978-0230601260.
  • Versteeg, Margaret; Thomas, Sue; Huddleston, Joan, eds. (1981). Index to Fiction in The Lady's Realm. University of Queensland. ISBN   086776032X.
  • Weedon, Alexis (2008). "Hazell, Watson and Viney Limited". In Brake, Laurel; Demoor, Marysa; Beetham, Margaret (eds.). Dictionary of Nineteenth-century Journalism in Great Britain and Ireland. Academia Scientific. pp. 276–277. ISBN   978-9038213408.