When James M. Kuist published The Nichols File of
The
Gentleman's Magazine: Attributions of Authorship and Other
Documentation in Editorial Papers at the Folger Library (Madison:
U of Wisconsin P, 1982), he provided scholars of the periodical press with
an indispensable resource: the identification of authorship of almost 13,000
hitherto anonymous articles, reviews, poems, and other items appearing in
the Gentleman's Magazine. Kuist's list, though breathtaking
in
its accomplishment, is designedly limited in scope. Confined as it is to the
handwritten attributions of authorship entered by the GM's
long-standing editor, John Nichols, members of his family, and their
associates into the office copy of the Gentleman's (now
housed
at the Folger Library), Kuist's list necessarily makes no use of a wealth of
other sources. It does not incorporate, for example, attributions found in
Nichols's two massive sets of miscellaneous material on the
eighteenth-century world of letters, the nine-volume Literary
Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century (1812-15) and the eight-volume
Illustrations of the Literary History of the Eighteenth Century
(1817-58). Neither does it include attributions of authorship for articles
bearing known pseudonyms or initials. Nor does it incorporate lists
compiled by C. Lennart Carlson, Donald F. Bond, and Albert Pailler of the
authors of poetry appearing in the early volumes of the
GM.[1] Likewise Kuist,
with two exceptions, makes no attempt to include Samuel Johnson's
contributions to the Gentleman's in The Nichols
File.[2] Furthermore, though
Kuist's list is voluminous for the period from the 1780s to 1856, when John
Nichols and his descendants dominated to varying degrees the history of the
GM, it is predictably short of material for the pre-Nichols
epoch, the period from the founding of the GM
in 1731 through the 1770s.
Since The Nichols File made its appearance in 1982,
Arthur Sherbo has twice updated Kuist's list with a substantial number of
additional attributions of authorship.[3] The following list is designed to
serve as
a further update
of Kuist, covering the period before 1778, the year John Nichols became
a principal proprietor of the
Gentleman's Magazine and thus
took the first step in the assumption of personal control over the
GM that would last nearly five decades. As very few of
Kuist's
approximately 13,000 attributions fall within the pre-1778 epoch, the
resultant addition of 859 attributions of authorship involving some 41
contributors should provide important information about the
GM's early years. In addition, the following list includes the
first full tabulation of approximately 300 reviews signed "X.," which
appeared from April 1767 through March 1773 and which have been proven
to have been the work of John Hawkesworth.
[4] The complete "X." list has never
before
appeared in print and is included here in order to make the present
compilation as comprehensive as possible.
[5]
To be of maximum service to scholars, the following update of
Kuist's list is designed to be accessible by article as well as by author. It
therefore retains Kuist's valuable device of cross-listing material, permitting
readers to look up an article by means of its chronological listing in order
to determine who wrote it, as well as to look up an author by name in order
to see a synopsis of his contributions. Shortened titles of articles appear
throughout, and entries carry the following designations:
- L: letter to Sylvanus Urban
- A: article, note, or query
- R: review
- V: poetry
- O: obituary
- S: staff item of editorial content
In the chronological table the source of each attribution appears in brackets
following the contributor's name. Those attributions assigned on the basis
of the use of known signatures bear the designation "Sig.," followed by the
relevant pseudonym or initials. Abbreviated titles used in the chronological
listing of additions to the Kuist list are as follows:
- Brett-James Brett-James, Norman G. The Life of Peter
Collinson. London: Dunstan, [1926].
-
GM Gentleman's Magazine.
-
Illust. Nichols, John. Illustrations of the
Literary
History of the Eighteenth Century. 8 vols. London,
1817-58.
-
Lit. Anec. ---. Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth
Century. 9 vols. London, 1812-15.
-
Med. Trans. Medical Transactions.
-
Phil. Trans. Philosophical Transactions.
