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THE CHARM: A MAGAZINE FOR BOYS AND GIRLS. ILLUSTRATED WITH NUMEROUS ENGRAVINGS London: 1852 -1854. (Cundall, Joseph). (Craik, Dinah Marie Mulock). THE CHARM: A MAGAZINE FOR BOYS AND GIRLS. ILLUSTRATED WITH NUMEROUS ENGRAVINGS London: Addey and Co, 1852 -1854. An almost, presumed complete run, 20 of 21 monthly parts from May 1852 - January 1854 ( missing part 10 of February 1854). Uniform, yellow typographic covers, Addey publisher's lists generally found on rear cover and sometimes a publisher list for Chapman and Hall on its verso, Each volume unpaginated, generally 30-35 pages. Contains the first appearance of Dinah Marie Craik (aka Miss Mulock)'s THE LITTLE LYCHETTS. Editorship is unidentified in the magazine, but scholar Ruari McLean in "Joseph Cundall: A Victorian Publisher. (Pinner, UK: Private Libraries Association, 1976, page 75) includes The Charm Annuals in his list of Cundall books. In his entry for the first volume - The Charm 1853 - he notes: "Foreword signed 'J. C.'." He further notes, referring to the 1853 Annual that: "This was the publication in Annual form of a sixpenny monthly periodical edited by Cundall from 1852 to 1854." Indeed in the issue for January 1853, the editor notes that cloth covers for binding Volume 1 of THE CHARM are now ready and mat be had of all booksellers. Price 1s" We could not confirm that any library has these in discrete parts. We could find only one library Massey College, Robertson Davies Library, Toronto -- that lists its entry for The Charm as periodical, although the listing specifies 3 volumes, which might impliy binding as annuals. As a book entry, THE CHARM can be located in only four British libraries and Trinity in Dublin. The unaccredited editor's statement verso front cover Part 1 posits The Charm's purpose: "No periodical addressed to Young People, with any pretensions to first-class merit exists at the present time: still, we are led to believe that an entertaining and instructive work, carefully edited, and well illustrated, would be received with much favor" Called THE CHARM because of its intended charms of "variety. novelty.(and) art" The most notable literary feature in THE CHARM is the first appearance of Dinah Marie Craik (aka Miss or Mrs Mulock)'s THE LITTLE LYCHETTS in 13 chapters appearing from January 1853 through January 1854. (Sadly, the only part we are missing is for chapter 2 in the February 1853 issue), Craik is identified in the contents not by name but as "the author of 'A Hero' and 'Cola Monti' ", which are two of her early works. She remains best known for JOHN HALIFIX, GENTLEMAN (1857). THE LITTLE LYCHETTS first appeared in book form in 1859, published by George Routledge. Indeed, later in the 1850s, Routledge published several volumes which repackaged the stories from The Charm, in cloth-bound format, but printed in colours to imitate paper-bound yellowbacks. Besides Craik, other contributors to THE CHARM MAGAZINE were: Harriet Myrtle, Alfred Elwes, Frederica Graham, R. Reineck, J. H. Pepper, Madame de Chatelain, and Caroline Gilman. The 20 parts are decently preserved. Paper spines are flaking on some and one copy has a broken spine, a few covers have separated or loosened. Each "part" identified by Part number and month/year of publication, along with sixpence price bottom of front cover. The cover also carries the Addey imprint, an oval with a profile perhaps of Liberty. An almost complete set of a short-lived, Victorian juvenile magazine. Rare.
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