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Pearson's Magazine

C. Arthur Pearson, 17-18 Henrietta Street, London W.C.


Pearson's Magazine was one of the most popular of the many story magazines that flourished in the first twenty years of the 20th century. The magazine published the stories by Cutcliffe Hyne of Captain Kettle, who was second in fame only to Sherlock Holmes, who appeared in the main rival magazine, The Strand.

Pearson's Magazine was published from January 1896 to November 1939, a total of 88 volumes and 527 monthly issues. All the stories were illustrated by drawings and there was a feature of cartoons and jokes in each issue called The Merrythought. The Christmas issue, in 1913 at least, was said to be a double issue and printed some pages in colour, for a cost of 1 shilling (which is about £5 today, based on the retail price index). It was always a substantial magazine printed on good quality paper, so copies survive: I have 9 single issues and four bound volumes, each of six issues. All 186 issues between July 1911 (vol 32) and December 1926 (vol 62) have been searched. The American magazine of the same name had different content.

Blampied mostly illustrated stories or provided cartoons for The Merrythought, but also designed two covers. His brother-in-law, Saloman van Abbé also designed covers for the magazine. They both shared the same agent: Marianne Blampied, Edmund's wife (they married on 6th August 1914), who was Saloman's sister.

Numbering: Volumes of 6 issues from January to June and July to December, all issues sequentially numbered

Price: 6 pence until 1917; 7d from Feb 1917; 8d from Sept 1917, 1/- from June 1918; the Christmas issues cost 1 shilling.

Pages: mostly 120 pages; Christmas issues 176 pp and 62 pp adverts

Dimensions: 245 x 167 mm

Editor: Philip O'Farrell, 1912-19


Image of cover

One of two covers for the magazine designed by Blampied

For details see the entry, below.


Printer: George Binney Dibley, Wndsor House, Brea's Buildings, London E.C.

Blampied issues: 27

Type: MO = monochrome drawing; CO = colour drawing; the number indicates the number of drawings or pages.


See also:

Mike Ashley (2006) The Age of the Storytellers. British Popular Fiction Magazines 1880-1950. London & Delaware, USA: The British Library and Oak Knoll Press

Pearson's Magazine at FictionMags Index.



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— 1912 —


Issue: April 1912, vol. 33, no. 196, page 405-411. Price: 6d. Type: MO3. Title: Cupid Librarian. A mid-Victorian idyl. Author: Clara Martin

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Issue: August 1912, vol. 34, no. 200, page 187-188. Price: 6d. Type: MO2. Title: A sob in the shadows. A charming fancy with its serious side. Author: None (Fresh Air Fund appeal)

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Issue: August 1912, vol. 34, no. 200, page 199. Price: 6d. Type: MO1. Title: The Merrythought. The plain truth. "Do you like my diamond engagement ring, dear? Yes, but a plain gold one is safer"..

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Issue: August 1912, vol. 34, no. 200, page 202-211. Price: 6d. Type: MO3. Title: A pink reel of silk. Author: Hazel Phillips Hanshew

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Issue: September 1912, vol. 34, no. 201, page 315. Price: 6d. Type: MO1. Title: The Merrythought.

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Issue: October 1912, vol. 34, no. 202, page 375-378. Price: 6d. Type: MO2. Title: The lamp-post of Battlebay. Author: Charles McEvoy

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Issue: October 1912, vol. 34, no. 202, page 431. Price: 6d. Type: MO1. Title: The Merrythought.

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Issue: November 1912, vol. 34, no. 203, page 521-533. Price: 6d. Type: MO7. Title: Mohammed Maroudi's Motor. Author:Arthur Train

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— 1913 —


Issue: February 1913, vol. 35, no. 206, page Cover. Price: 6d. Type: CO1. Title: Cover.

[The cover drawing was a competition to come up with the best caption. The result was published in May. The image is taken from a photocopy of the cover.]

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Issue: March 1913, vol. 35, no. 207, page 331-344. Price: 6d. Type: MO2. Title: The Saving of Cynthia. Author: Kate Jordan

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Issue: May 1913, vol. 35, no. 209, page 497-502. Price: 6d. Type: MO2. Title: The Fan. Author: William Caine

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Issue: May 1913, vol. 35, no. 209, page 511. Price: 6d. Type: MO1. Title: The Merrythought. Author: Monthly feature

[The result was published of the cover drawing competition set in the February issue, with a small line drawing of the cover by Blampied. The best caption was: Keeping her hand in sent by Mrs V.W. Ritson, 6 Passo Aqueducto int. 1, Genoa, Italy. Well done Mrs Ritson. She won a prize of £5, equivalent to £500 today. Her husband, Maurice, was a Surveyor who worked for Lloyd's Register of Shipping, in Genoa. She was born Victoria Honoria Blanche Wilberforce Clarke on 12th October 1875 in Karachi, and married Maurice in 1907, in London. She died in May 1938 in Surrey eight years after Maurice, aged 62 y.]


Issue: June 1913, vol. 35, no. 210, page 617. Price: 6d. Type: MO1. Title: The Merrythought.

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Issue: July 1913, vol. 36, no. 211, page 10-16. Price: 6d. Type: MO3. Title: The Masked Dancer. Author: Johnson, Martyn

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Issue: October 1913, vol. 36, no. 214, page 423. Price: 6d. Type: MO1. Title: The Modern Way. Author: J Brammall Shrewsbury

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Issue: October 1913, vol. 36, no. 214, page 437. Price: 6d. Type: MO1. Title: The Merrythought.

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Issue: December 1913, vol. 36, no. 216, Christmas number, page 691-699. Price: 6d. Type: CO4. Title: Sayonara. Author: Mrs Clayton Sedgwick Cooper

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— 1914 —


Issue: January 1914, vol. 37, no. 217, page 23-30. Price: 6d. Type: MO4. Title: Posters. Author: Archibald Sullivan

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Issue: April 1914, vol. 37, no. 220, page 414-420. Price: 6d. Type: MO2. Title: The Understudy. Author: Charles McEvoy. [No image available.]


Issue: May 1914, vol. 37, no. 221, page 474-481. Price: 6d. Type: MO4. Title: The Fusser. Author: Archibald Sullivan [No image available.]


Issue: June 1914, vol. 37, no. 222, page 655. Price: 6d. Type: MO1. Title: Love at the horse-show. Author: Dorothy Rose [No image available.]


Issue: August 1914, vol. 38, no. 224, page 165-169. Price: 6d. Type: MO3. Title: Brains and curls. Author: Clare Thornton.

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Issue: September 1914, vol. 38, no. 225, page 310-311. Price: 6d. Type: MO1. Title: Can you write a love letter?. Author: Kathleen.

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Issue: November 1914, vol. 38, no. 227, page 513-515. Price: 6d. Type: MO1. Title: Cameos of the War. For France! Author: Emily Davis.

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Issue: December 1914, vol. 38, no. 228, Christmas issue with special war supplement, page 637-638. Price: 1/-. Type: CO1. Title: Mademoiselle Renee, Millinder Author: Harold Ashton.

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Issue: December 1914, vol. 38, no. 228, Christmas number with special war supplement, page 709-714. Price: 1/-. Type: MO7. Title: The tale of five bright buttons. Author: Captain H.H. Jones.

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— 1915 —


Issue: April 1915, vol. 39, no. 232, page 419. Price: 6d. Type: MO1. Title: The Merrythought. A la Mode. Fair Chatelaine: "I'm glad to see you back again. Where have you been all zis time?" The Furry one: "In hospital at Boulogne geting censored, madame". F.C.: "Censored?". T.F.O.: "Yes - had several important parts cut out". [No image available.]


Issue: July 1915, vol. 40, no. 235, page 80-85. Price: 6d. Type: MO3. Title: The Unheroic Sort. Author: W. Heath Marriner. [No image available.]


Issue: October 1915, vol. 40, no. 238, page 418-422. Price: 6d. Type: MO1. Title: Broken Chains. Author: Clare Thornton.

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— 1916 —


Issue: January 1916, vol. 41, no. 241, page 100-101. Price: 6d. Type: MO4. Title: The Merrythought. Then and -- Now! Once the cut of his morning coat was Algernon's sole concern, While Maisie's marv'llous modishness caused many a heart to burn - - Now Algy's fearf'ly exercised about the fit of his mask, While Maisie makes munitions, and is quite 'wrapped up' in her task.

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Issue: June 1916, vol. 41, no. 246, page 614-618. Price: 6d. Type: MO1. Title: A cigarette. Author: Caine, William. [No image available.]


— 1918 —


Issue: March 1918, vol. 45, no. 267, page Cover. Price: 9d. Type: CO1. Title: Author: None.

[The image is taken from a photocopy of the cover. The dancer is Anna Pavlova in her divertissement Rondino which she first performed in New York in January 1916 at the house of Mrs William Aster. The original drawing was sold at Sotheby's auction of Ballet & Theatre Material on 4th March 1982, lot 353. It is stated in the catalogue that the drawing is based on photographs taken in 1916 by Herman Mishkin. They were in black and white so Blampied imagined a colour scheme. The drawing was sold again at Bonhams Channel Islands Sale in Jersey on 16th April 2007, lot 275.]

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Issue: July 1918, vol. 46, no. 271, page 26-32. Price: 1/-. Type: MO3. Title: Old Wine. Author: Francois. [No image available.]