Good Words

Good Words was a 19th-century monthly periodical in the United Kingdom. It was established in 1860 by Scottish publisher Alexander Strahan.[1] Its first editor was Norman Macleod. After his death in 1872, it was edited by his brother, Donald Macleod,[2] though there is some evidence that the publishing was taken over at this time by W. Isbister & Co.[3]

Good Words

Vol 1 title page, 1860.
Editor	Norman Macleod
Frequency	Monthly
Year founded	1860
Final issue	1910
Language	English

Read without sin

Good Words was directed at evangelicals and nonconformists, particularly of the lower middle classes. The magazine included overtly religious material, but also fiction and non-fiction articles on general subjects, including science.[4] The standard for content was that the devout should be able to read it on Sundays without sin.[5] It became known as a "fireside read", which could be shared and enjoyed by adults and children, servants and masters.[6]

Good Words was known for its illustrations, by such artists as John Everett Millais and Arthur Boyd Houghton and engraved by the Brothers Dalziel.[6]

Circulation

In 1863, Norman Macleod wrote that the magazine had a circulation of 70,000.[1] In the following year, it advertised itself as having a monthly circulation of 160,000, although that number is probably exaggerated.[7][8]

In 1906, Good Words was amalgamated with the weekly Sunday Magazine, and published in that format until 1910.[9]

References

1. R. H. Super (1990). The Chronicler of Barsetshire: A Life of Anthony Trollope (University of Michigan Press) pp. 150–155.
2. Eyre-Todd, George. "Donald Macleod" in Who's Who in Glasgow in 1909. Retrieved 1 June 2011.
3. Collections Princeton University.
4. Judith Wittosch Malcolm. "Good Words", The Oxford Reader's Companion to Trollope (R. C. Terry, ed., Oxford University Press, 1999) pp. 219–221.
5. James Pope-Hennessy (1978). Anthony Trollope (Phoenix Press paperback ed., 2001) pp. 261–263.
6. Simon Cooke, PhD. "Good Words", The Victorian Web. Retrieved 27 March 2020.
7. Sutherland, John. Untitled review of Patricia Thomas Srebrnik's Alexander Strahan: Victorian Publisher. Nineteenth-Century Literature, vol. 42, no. 1 (June 1987), pp. 120–126. Available for download via JSTOR. Retrieved 1 June 2011.
8. Gray, Donald. Untitled review of Patricia Thomas Srebrnik's Alexander Strahan: Victorian Publisher. Victorian Studies, vol. 31, no. 1 (Autumn 1987), pp. 141–144. Available for download via JSTOR. Retrieved 1 June 2011
9. The New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature, ed. by George Watson. Cambridge University Press, 1969. Vol. 3, column 1849.

External links

Media related to Good Words at Wikimedia Commons

• Good Words archive at HathiTrust