University of Virginia Library

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.