Edinburgh University Press will publish what it describes as the most wide-ranging study of the history of children’s periodicals to date in April. Fully illustrated and running to almost 700 pages, however, you probably won’t be surprised to learn The Edinburgh History of Children’s Periodicals, an academic time, has a cover price of £175, so most of us will probably have to start saving to buy a copy.
Since the publication of the first children’s periodical in the 1750s, magazines have been an affordable and accessible way for children to read and form virtual communities. Despite the range of children’s periodicals that exist, they have not been studied to the same extent as children’s literature. The Edinburgh History of Children’s Periodicals, edited by Dr Beth Rodgers (Senior Lecturer in Nineteenth-Century Literature at Aberystwyth University), Dr Michelle J Smith (Associate Professor in Literary Studies at Monash University, Australia) and Dr Kristine Moruzi (Associate Professor in the School of Communications and Creative Arts at Deakin University), marks the first major history of magazines for young people from the mid-eighteenth century to the present.
Bringing together periodicals from Britain, Ireland, North America, Australia, New Zealand and India, the book explores the roles of gender, race and national identity in the construction of children as readers and writers. It aims to provide new insights both into how child readers shaped the magazines they read and how magazines have encouraged children to view themselves as political and world subjects.
The result of a Call for Papers back in 2020, The Edinburgh History of Children’s Periodicals comprises thirty-three chapters on the history of children’s periodicals from both well-established and emerging scholars, reflecting current work in the field, bringing together cutting-edge research that spans a variety of research specialisms, time periods, and geographical locations.
Contributors to this wide-ranging study exploring many a perhaps previously overlooked area of children’s publishing include Mel Gibson, who examines the issue of contemporary girls encountering historical periodicals like Jackie, which were aimed at girls, and Jane Suzanne Carroll considers post World War Two Girls’ Comics, fashion, and self-fashioning; while Jane Rosen delves into the history of Communist children’s periodicals, published after the Great War, and Yukiko Muta looks at the portrayal of of Japanese girls in British girls’ magazines between the 1880s and the 1910s.
Offering new insights into an area of children’s literature and culture that has often been unjustly marginalised the team behind this authoritative tome hope it offers models for working with historical periodicals for children that will help to open up new avenues and develop future work in the field.
Edinburgh University Press, a wholly owned subsidiary of the University of Edinburgh since 1992, is the premier scholarly publisher in Scotland of academic books and journals and one of the leading university presses in the UK. Founded over fifty years ago, books and journals published by the Press carry the imprimatur of one of Britain’s oldest and most distinguished centres of learning and enjoy the highest academic standards through the scholarly appraisal of the Press Committee. In 2004, EUP was awarded charitable status. EUP has a significant journal and book publishing programme, with 120 new books and more than 30 journals published each year.
• The Edinburgh History of Children’s Periodicals is available to preorder now from all good bookshops (Bookshop.org Affiliate Link) | AmazonUK Affiliate Link | 688 pages | 52 black and white images and 15 colour plates | ISBN: 978-1399506656
• There’s a full guide to this new book and it’s editors here on the Edinburgh University Press website• Edinburgh University Press is online at euppublishing.com |
The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.
He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.
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