The Eclectic Review - Editors and Contributors

Editors and Contributors

The publishing history of the Eclectic can be divided into four periods. During its first year, the periodical was edited by Samuel Greatheed, a Dissenting minister; however, it was co-founder and fellow Dissenter Daniel Parken who built up the readership and contributor list of the periodical while he served as editor from 1806 to 1812. He was also responsible for what Basker calls "the policy of enlightened, non-demoninational (if not ecumenical) editorial policies" at the Eclectic. After Parken's death in 1812, Theophilus Williams took over editorship of the periodical. It almost collapsed until it was purchased by Josiah Conder in 1813, with whom the second major period began. Conder continued editing the periodical until 1836, financing it himself and often writing entire issues. From 1837 until 1855—the third period—Thomas Price edited the periodical (with the exception of one three-month period when William Linwood tried to take over the editorship). According to Basker, "Price reinvigorated the Eclectic", specifically by rigorously adhering to a neutral position on religion, by expanding the topics covered to include foreign publications, and by lowering the price from two shillings to eighteen pence. His aim was to appeal to families. As his health declined, Price co-edited with William Hendry Stowell from 1851 to 1855 and during 1855 with his successor, Jonathan Edwards Ryland. The last period of the Eclectic's history, described by Basker as its "most unstable", began with Price's departure. An anonymous editor took over from Ryland and changed the Eclectic into a miscellany. Edwin Paxton Hood took over as editor in January 1861, changing the periodical back to a book review, increasing the size of each issue, and lowering the price still further. According to Basker, these last years were successful and the periodical produced "some of its finest review journalism".

About 60 of the contributors to the Eclectic have been identified. Basker writes that "few...were particularly famous, even in their own day". Only two or three are still notable today: James Mill, the father of philosopher John Stuart Mill; the poet and friend of Lord Byron, James Montgomery; and man of letters, Edwin Paxton Hood. However, as Basker points out "although the rest may be forgotten today, it is nonetheless true to say (as one of its editors said in the 1830s) that 'the pages of the have been enriched by the contributions of many of the most powerful intellects of the age'". Among these were the mathematician, scientist, and theologian Olinthus Gilbert Gregory, the theological scholar Adam Clarke, the abolitionist George Thompson, the reformer Andrew Reed, and the theologian, scientist, and philanthropist Thomas Chalmers.