''Tait's Edinburgh Magazine'' was a monthly periodical founded in 1832. It was an important venue for liberal political views, as well as contemporary cultural and literary developments, in early-to-mid-nineteenth century Britain. The magazine was founded by William Tait (1792–1864), the son of a builder and an inheritor of a large fortune. Tait was an "independent radical" in politics; he strongly favored the Whig party. 1832 was a time of great political ferment, with the first

Reform Bill In the United Kingdom, Reform Act is most commonly used for legislation passed in the 19th century and early 20th century to enfranchise new groups of voters and to redistribute seats in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. ...

the dominant subject of discourse. Tait's periodical was intended as a "Radical riposte" to "the politically revanchist but culturally avant-garde '' Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine''." ''Tait's'' welcomed many new and unknown writers like

Robert Nicoll Robert Nicoll (7 January 1814 – 7 December 1837) was a Scottish poet and lyricist whose life, although short, left a lasting impact. Life Robert was born at the farm of Little Tullybeltane, in the parish of Auchtergaven, Perthshire. When ...

, as well as established voices like James Henry Leigh Hunt, and figures of future fame like

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and John Stuart Mill. From 1833 on, ''Tait's Magazine'' was a regular venue for the essays of

Thomas De Quincey Thomas Penson De Quincey (; 15 August 17858 December 1859) was an English writer, essayist, and literary critic, best known for his '' Confessions of an English Opium-Eater'' (1821). Many scholars suggest that in publishing this work De Quinc ...

. De Quincey's series of biographical essays on the

Lake Poets The Lake Poets were a group of English poets who all lived in the Lake District of England, United Kingdom, in the first half of the nineteenth century. As a group, they followed no single "school" of thought or literary practice then known. They ...

(later collected as ''

Recollections of the Lake Poets ''Recollections of the Lake Poets'' is a collection of biographical essays written by the English author Thomas De Quincey. In these essays, originally published in '' Tait's Edinburgh Magazine'' between 1834 and 1840, De Quincey provided some of ...

'') were featured in ''Tait's'' between 1834 and 1840. Tait published a range of other selections by De Quincey, including, somewhat surprisingly, "A Tory's Account of Toryism, Whiggism and Radicalism" (December 1835, January 1836). That article, however, was supplied with many sarcastic footnotes disagreeing with its points — "objecting foot-notes from the pen, presumably, of Tait himself." In 1834 ''Tait's Magazine'' was combined with ''Johnstone's Edinburgh Magazine'', a liberal periodical started two years earlier by husband and wife John Johnstone and

Christian Isobel Johnstone Christian Isobel Johnstone (1781–1857) was a prolific journalist and author in Scotland in the nineteenth century. She was a significant early feminist and an advocate of other liberal causes in her era. She wrote anonymously, and under the pseud ...

. She was an early feminist who wrote extensively for ''Tait's'' in the following years, becoming the magazine's "chief contributor and director" under William Tait himself. Christian Johnstone was "the first woman to serve as paid editor of a major Victorian periodical," to which she brought "fresh life and popularity." In the same year Alexander Bailey Richmond took the magazine's London agents to court, for reviewing a work calling Richmond a government spy: the defence was successful. Christian Johnstone died in 1857; ''Tait's Magazine'' ceased publication in 1861.

References

{{Reflist Monthly magazines published in the United Kingdom Defunct literary magazines published in the United Kingdom Defunct political magazines published in the United Kingdom Defunct magazines published in Scotland Magazines established in 1832 Magazines disestablished in 1861 Mass media in Edinburgh Political magazines published in Scotland