The Gentleman’s Magazine: St John’s Gate. 1753

Title

The Gentleman’s Magazine: St John’s Gate. 1753

Description

Half volume XXIII "The Gentleman's Magazine: St John's Gate." contains 6 issues from July - December 1753 with bound-in title pages. Contents include world history, travel, American history, musical notes, poetry, etc. Illustrations include "The little yellow Star Flower", "The Steuartia", "The Rattle Snake", "The Red Bird and the Hiccory Tree". All four were originally old coloured, the folding map of the city of Philadelphia (page 372) is missing. Published by Printed for Edward Cave, at St. John's Gate, London. An accomplished periodical from before the French and Indian War, with a wide range of different content. This was the first periodical to bear the word "magazine" in its title. It was founded in 1731 and existed until 1907.

c. 1753

Artist

Sylvanus

Historical Description

The Gentleman's Magazine was a monthly magazine founded in January 1731 by Edward Cave in London, England, and published continuously for nearly 200 years, until 1922. It was the first magazine to use the term magazine (from the French magazine, meaning "storehouse") for a periodical. Samuel Johnson's first permanent job as a writer was with The Gentleman's Magazine. The full original title was The Gentleman's Magazine: or, Trader's monthly intelligencer. Cave's innovation was to produce a monthly digest of news and commentary on any subject that might interest the educated public, from commodity prices to Latin poetry. The magazine featured original contributions from a number of regular contributors, as well as extensive quotes and excerpts from other journals and books. Before the founding of The Gentleman's Magazine, there were trade journals, but no such broad-based publications. Samuel Johnson's first permanent job as a writer was with The Gentleman's Magazine. At a time when parliamentary reporting was banned, Johnson regularly wrote parliamentary reports under the title Debates of the Senate of Magna Lilliputia. Although they reflected the positions of the participants, the words of the debates were mostly Johnson's own. The name "Columbia," a poetic name for America coined by Johnson, first appeared in 1738 in a weekly publication of the debates of the British Parliament in the journal. The magazine's long-running motto, E pluribus unum, Latin for "Out of many, one", is thought to have inspired the use of the phrase as an unofficial motto of the United States. A skilled businessman, Edward Cave developed an extensive distribution system for The Gentleman's Magazine. It was read throughout the English-speaking world and continued to flourish through the 18th century and much of the 19th century under a series of different editors and publishers. It went into decline towards the end of the 19th century and finally ceased general publication in September 1907. However, issues consisting of four pages each were printed in very small editions between late 1907 and 1922 in order to keep the title formally "in print".