What is Gentleman's Magazine?

Gentleman's Magazine is a magazine that was founded in 1731. At first it aimed to reproduce news, essays and articles from other journals and news-sheets. Gradually it began to include its own material, including literary criticism, essays and parliamentary reports
The early editions, up to and including 1869, are interesting for family historians because they contain details of many births, marriages and deaths and often other biographical details and news items about individuals
There is also a great deal of information of interest to local historians, such as articles, prints illustrating contemporary buildings, a register of current publications and much more
For examples of articles and obituaries from The Gentleman's Magazine click here
One of the regular contributors to the magazine was Dr. Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), writer of the famous work 'A dictionary of the English language', published in 1755. He submitted essays, poems, biographies and reviews. He was a friend of the magazine's founder, Edward Cave, and helped him to run it
Edward Cave is credited as being the first person to use the term 'magazine' for this genre of publication
The Gentleman's Magazine was published monthly until it ceased publication in 1914
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Page last updated: 20th October 2013