Fly Leaves. Christmas Number 1887 [with] Spring, Summer and Autumn Numbers for 1888.

HARKNESS, Edith and others

Published by Manuscript, 1887 - 8.

About this Item

4to. pp. 479; illustrations. Contemporary half crushed morocco. The Autumn 1888 number has an article outlining the history of the magazine. 'Fly Leaves' began in 1882 when on January 30th of that year the first number appeared with four subscribers: Miss Edith Harkness [b. 1866], Mrs Julia Mary Fearon b. 1841], Miss Woodward and John Francis Fearon [b. 1869]. The Miss Woodward lived in St. Leonard's where Julia Fearons' sister Alice lived. Mrs Fearon may have been in the way of supervisor to the youngsters as they went about producing their publication. Fly Leaves went through several stages: initially it was laboriously copied out for the then, very few readers, but the success of the venture and the increase in readership required that more copies were made. Initially this was done by purchasing a hektograph, a Victorian copying machine. This was, however, expensive and it was decided that a solitary copy would be made and sent out, making its way round the members as they forwarded it to each other within a couple of days of receiving and reading it. The format changed too. There were 46 members who subscribed to the Christmas number and from the start contributions were solicited from young and older members in the form of drawings and stories. More than most family magazines of the period Fly leaves is an interesting example of how seriously the 'publishers' took the idea. prizes were inaugurated for stories and drawings. At one point a "critic" was added to the magazine "whose opinions of the various articles, stories, poems and drawings" was thought to enhance the development of the contributors. The magazine also carried advertisements of a humorous nature "Mr Ritewrot" offering services on "Success in literateur." An original series of pencil sketches entitled "My brother at a dance" is an affectionate chafing of a young man's embarrassing choice of a dance partner. Among the original drawings are two coloured pencil sketches of a ladies' cricket match and other black and white drawings from the Victorian tradition of nonsense from which Lewis Carroll and Edward Lear emerged including a very Carrollian poem titled "The Beadle and the Barrister." The history of the magazine referred to above, includes extracts from earlier issues, now presumed lost, including an account by Major Thomas Henry Kavanagh V.C. on "The Defence of the Residency at Lucknow" which appeared in two issues of the magazine, but unfortunately the author did not live to complete it. Kavanagh died in 1882.

Seller Inventory # 47017

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Fly Leaves. Christmas Number 1887 [with] Spring, Summer and Autumn Numbers for 1888.
• Publisher: Manuscript, 1887 - 8.
• Binding: Soft cover