A new acquisition: 15 issues of T.P.’s Weekly

The archive was contacted through the website in November by Karen Churchill with the kind offer of 15 issues of T.P’s Weekly magazine, with dates in 1912, 1913 and 1914.

Karen wanted to donate them because they belonged to her aunt’s late partner, who wanted them to be sent to a museum or archive if possible. Karen found the Richard Roberts Archive online and couriered the magazines to us.

The Xmas issue from 10 November 1913, seen in our photograph, has coloured covers and copious advertising for such products as Beecham’s Pills, Frutol soap and “Chairman” tobacco. The other 14 issues are in their original ‘newspaper’ form with no covers but still with plenty of advertising on internal and final pages for such products as Bovril, Koh-I-Noor pencils and the magazine’s own T.P.’s Weekly literary training college.

This last item gives a clue to the aim of the magazine. It was Launched on 14 November 1902 as the latest publishing venture of Radical Member of Parliament T. P. O'Connor, founder of London's halfpenny The Star and the penny weekly M.A.P. (Mainly About People) (1898) and Weekly Sun (1891). Priced one penny (and threepence for the Xmas issue), T.P.'s Weekly promised "to bring to many thousands a love of letters", securing to this end contributions from a distinguished array of writers: George Bernard Shaw, Arnold Bennett, H. G. Wells and G. K. Chesterton. O'Connor delegated most of the running of the magazine to Wilfred Whitten (whose byline "John O'London" supplied the title of another contemporary literary magazine, John O'London's Weekly). Whitten was succeeded in 1914 by Holbrook Jackson, under whose editorship the journal changed its name in 1916 to To-Day. The journal folded in January 1917 and was shortly afterwards succeeded by another, unrelated magazine bearing the same name, which continued until 1924.

We are very grateful to Karen for her donation of this little-known but important literary magazine.