A story paper is a periodical publication similar to a literary magazine, but featuring illustrations and text stories, and aimed towards children and teenagers. Also known in Britain as "boys' weeklies", story papers were phenomenally popular before the outbreak of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. Among the most well-known British story papers was '' Boy's Own Paper'', which ran from 1879 to 1967.

Beginnings

The first known edition of what would later become known as a "story paper" was ''The Young Gentleman's Magazine'', published in 1777. The first story paper to really take off was ''The Boys' and Girls' Penny Magazine'', first published in September 1832. In 1866, Charles Stephens began selling ''Boys of England'' on the English streets for a penny—the first "

penny dreadful Penny dreadfuls were cheap popular Serial (literature), serial literature produced during the 19th century in the United Kingdom. The pejorative term is roughly interchangeable with penny horrible, penny awful, and penny blood. The term typical ...

". Story papers in this style minimized the expense of writing in order to produce an extremely cheap product. Strictly speaking, the "penny dreadful" died off by the turn of the century, but this term was still used to refer to story papers throughout their history. The '' Halfpenny Marvel'', first published in 1893, was "founded to counteract the pernicious influences of the Penny Dreadfuls", according to its title page. A book about these weeklies (also called "bloods" because of their savage contents) was created in 1948 by E. S. Turner, called ''Boys Will be Boys''.

Golden Age

Denis Gifford designated the period between

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

and

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

as the "Golden Age" of story papers. Sales of the story papers were at their highest during these years, as were the fecundity of the authors, the range in genre of magazines, and the colourful variety of the heroes. The most famous story paper hero,

Sexton Blake Sexton Blake is a fictional British detective, whose adventures captivated readers for over eight decades from 1893 to 1978. Blake featured in more than 4,000 stories by approximately 200 different authors, making him one of the most prolifica ...

, reached his apex during these years. World War II caused chaos in Britain, and among other things the story papers had to be shut down as funds were redirected to the war. This is known as the ''Dark Ages'' for story papers, and nearly all of the papers ceased printing in 1939 or 1940.

Silver Age and modern comics

In the 1950s and 1960s, some story papers such as '' The Rover'' briefly flourished, but television had a growing influence on the attentions of British children. Mergers between publishing houses finished off the remaining story papers, or modified them to become comic books, in the 1970s. ''The Rover'' was the last survivor and ceased publishing in 1973.

Format and politics

George Orwell Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950) was an English novelist, poet, essayist, journalist, and critic who wrote under the pen name of George Orwell. His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to a ...

's essay, ''

Boys' Weeklies "Boys' Weeklies" is an essay by George Orwell in which he analyses those weekly story-paper publications for boys which were current around 1940. After being published in ''Horizon (British magazine), Horizon'' in abridged form, it was published ...

'', outlines the general themes of the story paper in the "Golden Age". As far as Orwell could tell, Britain was the only country in Europe in which story papers were produced. ''

The Gem ''The Gem'' (1907–1939) was a story paper published in Great Britain by Amalgamated Press in the early 20th century, predominantly featuring the activities of boys at the fictional school St. Jim's. These stories were all written using the pe ...

'' and ''

The Magnet ''The Magnet'' was a British weekly boys' story paper published by Amalgamated Press. It ran from 1908 to 1940, publishing a total of 1,683 issues. Each issue contained a long school story about the boys of Greyfriars School, a fictional publ ...

'', the oldest of their kind, featured school serials always centred on a group of characters any reader could identify with. More recent story papers focused on adventure and intrigue, and had a large teenage readership. According to Orwell, all of the English papers published at the time were stuck in the 1910s and had an underlying conservative slant, which taught children to be deferential to the upper-class. He suggested socialist values could be just as exciting if they followed the story paper format. There were story papers for children of both sexes, although there was a broad overlap in the actual readership of the two.

List of story papers

UK

*''

Adventure An adventure is an exciting experience or undertaking that is typically bold, sometimes risky. Adventures may be activities with danger such as traveling, exploring, skydiving, mountain climbing, scuba diving, river rafting, or other extreme spo ...

'' *'' Aunt Judy's Magazine'' *'' Big Budget'' *'' Boy's Best Story Paper'' *'' Boys' Broadcast'' *'' Boy's Champion'' *'' The Boys' Friend'' *''

The Boys' Friend 3d Library ''The'' is a grammatical article in English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The ...

'' *'' Boys' Magazine'' *''

Boys of England ''Boys of England'' was a British boys' periodical issued weekly from 1866 to 1899, and has been called "the leading boys' periodical of the nineteenth century".Christopher Banham, "England and America Against the World": Empire and the USA in Ed ...

'' *''

The Boy's Own Paper ''The Boy's Own Paper'' was a British story paper aimed at young and teenager, teenage boys, published from 1879 to 1967. Publishing history The idea for the publication was first raised in 1878 by the Religious Tract Society, as a means to enc ...

'' *''

The Boys' Herald ''The Boys' Herald'' was a British boys' story paper published by the Amalgamated Press in the early 20th century. Launched in August 1903, it was the third in a trio of successful boys’ publications under the direction of Hamilton Edwards, fo ...

'' * ''

The Boys' Leader ''The'' is a grammatical article in English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The ...

'' *''

The Boys' Realm ''The Boys' Realm'' was a British story paper for boys published by Alfred Harmsworth's Amalgamated Press The Amalgamated Press (AP) was a British newspaper and magazine publishing company founded by journalist and entrepreneur Alfred Harmswor ...

'' *''

Bullseye Bullseye or Bull's Eye may refer to: Symbols * ◎ (Unicode U+25CE BULLSEYE), in the Geometric Shapes Unicode block * (Unicode U+0298 LATIN LETTER BILABIAL CLICK), the phonetic symbol for bilabial click Animals and plants * Bull's Eye, '' Eury ...

'' *'' The Captain'' *'' The Champion'' *'' The Children's Friend'' *'' Chums'' *'' Dixon Hawke Library'' *'' The Dreadnought'' *'' The Empire'' *''

'' *'' Girl's Best Friend'' *'' Girls' Crystal'' *'' The Girl's Home'' *''

The Girl's Own Paper ''The Girl's Own Paper'' (''G.O.P.'') was a British story paper catering to girls and young women, published from 1880 until 1956. Publishing history The first weekly number of ''The Girl's Own Paper'' appeared on 3 January 1880. As with its m ...

'' *'' Girl's Reader'' *'' The Girl's Realm'' *'' Girl's Weekly'' *'' The Greyfriars Herald'' *''

The Hotspur ''The Hotspur'' was a British boys' paper published by D. C. Thomson & Co. From 1933 to 1959, it was a boys' story paper; it was relaunched as a comic in October 1959, initially called ''The New Hotspur'', and ceased publication in January 19 ...

'' *'' Halfpenny Marvel'' (later renamed ''The Marvel'') *'' Jabberwock'' *'' The Jester'' *'' Joker'' *'' Lion (boys' magazine)'' *''

'' *'' The Modern Boy'' *'' The Nelson Lee Library'' *'' Our Girls'' *'' Pals'' *'' Peg's Paper'' *'' The Penny Pictorial'' *'' The Penny Popular'' *'' The Pilot'' *'' Pluck'' *'' Public School Magazine'' *'' The Ranger'' *'' Red Arrow'' *'' The Rover'' *'' School and Sport'' *''

School Friend ''School Friend'' was the name of two different British weekly publications marketed toward girls, both of which were pioneering in their respective categories. Although both published by Amalgamated Press and both marketed toward girls, the cont ...

'' *'' Schoolgirls' Own'' *'' Schooldays'' *''

The Schoolgirl ''The Schoolgirl'' was a British weekly story paper aimed at girls. Published by Amalgamated Press (AP), ''The Schoolgirl'' ran in two series, the first from 1922 to 1923, and the second (essentially continuing a sister publication) from 1929 to ...

'' *'' Schoolgirls' Weekly'' *''

Scout Scout may refer to: Youth movement *Scout (Scouting), a child, usually 10–18 years of age, participating in the worldwide Scouting movement ** Scouts (The Scout Association), section for 10-14 year olds in the United Kingdom ** Scouts BSA, sect ...

'' *''

The Sexton Blake Library ''The Sexton Blake Library'' was a story paper of the first two-thirds of the 20th century, published by Amalgamated Press. It featured the adventures of private detective Sexton Blake, his boy assistant Tinker and their dog Pedro. It made its de ...

'' *''

The Skipper The Skipper is the title and nickname of Jonas Grumby, a fictional character from the 1960s situation comedy ''Gilligan's Island''. Played by Alan Hale Jr., the Skipper (the character's actual name was rarely mentioned after the show's pilot epi ...

'' *'' Startler'' *'' The Thriller'' *'' Tip Top'' *'' The Triumph'' *''

Union Jack The Union Jack or Union Flag is the ''de facto'' national flag of the United Kingdom. The Union Jack was also used as the official flag of several British colonies and dominions before they adopted their own national flags. It is sometimes a ...

'' *'' The Vanguard'' *'' The Wizard'' *'' Young England magazine'' *''

Young Folks "Young Folks" is the first single from Swedish band Peter Bjorn and John's third album, ''Writer's Block'' (2006). The single features Victoria Bergsman as a guest vocalist. The song received generally positive reviews from critics and performe ...

Ireland

*'' Our Boys'' (Ireland)

Australia

*'' The Silver Jacket''

References

{{Reflist

External links

British Juvenile Story Papers and Pocket Libraries IndexBritish Story Papers Flickr GroupUniversity of Minnesota Hess Collection: Story Papers 1850-1910
Periodicals British children's literature Culture of the United Kingdom Magazine genres

Beginnings

Golden Age

Silver Age and modern comics

Format and politics

List of story papers

UK

Ireland

Australia

See also

References

External links