Review of Reviews - The Review of Reviews

The Review of Reviews

The Review of Reviews was started in January, 1890 by W.T. Stead and Tit-Bits proprietor Sir George Newnes. It was originally to be called the Six Penny Monthly and Review of Reviews, but this was changed at the last minute. According to Stead, it was "the maddest thing" he had yet done, on account that the venture had been decided on only a month before.

The Review mirrored Stead's own over-active imagination and was written almost exclusively by him. Along with the dozens of magazine and book reviews it contained, it also included a running commentary of world events entitled, "The Progress of the World", and a character sketch of a current "celebrity". The first issue was an instant success, and opened with numerous facsimiled welcome messages which Stead had courted from various dignitaries of the time. However, Stead's relationship with Newnes came under strain when the latter strongly objected to Stead's scathing character sketch of The Times newspaper (eventually published in March).

Perhaps seeing this discord as a sign of things to come, Newnes severed ties, exclaiming that the whole venture was "turning his hair grey". After buying out Newnes's share, Stead shaped the Review after his own image. With article titles such as "Baby-killing as an Investment" and "Ought Mrs. Maybrick to be Tortured to Death?", Stead showed he had lost none of the sledge hammer force of his journalistic days. He also involved the Review in social work, setting up the "Association of Helpers" and even an adoption agency called "The Baby Exchange".

Stead was an early supporter and speaker of the language Esperanto and devoted one page to its promulgation in every issue.

In 1891-92, Stead founded the equally successful American and Australian editions of the Review, and, in London, he added to his success with other literary triumphs, such as Stead's Penny Poets and "Books for the Bairns", all published under the Review's auspices. However, in spite of such apparent successes, without the business-like Newnes to guide him, Stead frequently drove the Review to death's door, despite the best efforts of his business manager, Edwin H. Stout.

This was particularly the case during the Boer War (1899–1902), when his pro-Boer stance caused sales to slump to critical levels. Stead's attempt to recoup his losses, with the launch of the ill-fated The Daily Paper, was a complete failure and, almost bankrupt, he suffered a nervous breakdown. The Review somehow limped on, buoyed up by a narrow but devoted subscription base. But, following the loss of Stead in the Titanic disaster, it lost much of its force and, in c. 1917, was sold for just £25000. It was eventually merged with World magazine and renamed the World Review in 1940. One of its latter editors was Lovat Dickson.