Analysis Of Blackwood's Magazine

Introduction
Blackwood’s Magazine is a British periodical that has controversy soaked within its history, more so than any other periodical in the nineteenth century. However, this controversy is most visibly prominent in the first eighty to one hundred years of the magazine’s existence, from 1817 to 1900. Somehow Blackwood, a politically driven publication, gave a rise to gothic fiction and the serialized novel, which paved the way as well as influenced writers such as Charles Dickens and Edgar Allan Poe. Furthermore, it is clear that Blackwood intertwined political belief systems with literature. However, it outright criticised authors not for their works, but because of their political and social standings. This in turn had an effect on
Its publishing run lasted between 1817 and 1980 and was founded by publisher William Blackwood. The ‘maga’ was known as the Edinburgh Monthly Review with Thomas Pringle and James Cleghorn as the editors. However, this version of the magazine proved to be very unsuccessful as there was no interest in its content. But in addition to that, William Blackwood was not happy with the articles that Pringle and Cleghorn were producing. As a result, both editors were fired. In 1817, the magazine changed its name to Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine with Blackwood as the editor. Due to the literary demand and the desire for circulation outside of Scotland, the magazine moved to London in 1905, where it was renamed and re-launched as Blackwood’s Magazine. At this time, John Wilson became the leading writer of the publication with James Hogg and John Gibson Lockhart also writing leading articles. These articles were proven to be controversial politically and socially as it shall be discovered in this
According to Philip Flynn, George Buchanan was the face of Blackwood due to the ‘cultural values and activities that he represented his Scottish patriotism, his Protestant Christian classicism, his polemics against a dominant ideology would be basic to early Blackwood's search for Scottish roots and Scottish identities’ (P43). The writer continues to say that the magazine’s logo was ‘probably William Blackwood’s choice’ as Blackwood studied ‘Scottish history, cataloged libraries, and come to Walter Scott's attention as a knowledgeable dealer in rare books’ (ibid, P52). Therefore, Buchanan was a figure that allowed Blackwood to hold onto Scotland’s heritage no matter how much the magazine expanded or revamped. In Blackwood’s June 1818 issue, the magazine published the leading article of the issue know as Observations on the Writings of George Buchanan. From the article, it seems that Buchanan, who has been referred to as ‘one great Scots author’ (HathiTrust, P252) has been forgotten about as time has passed. Therefore, Blackwood wanted to resurrect his identity as a great classical