Cover of penny magazine of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, issue 01

penny magazine of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, issue 01

by Charles Knight

Chapter 1 of 12 Reading for All

0:00 5:06
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Running time
1 h 17 min
Language
English
Readers
Anthony Will, Beeswaxcandle, Brize C, David Lawrence, Larry Wilson and 3 others

Chapters

About this recording

The Penny Magazine of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge was published in competition to Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, which started two months earlier. Costing just one penny, it was aimed at the working class and needed broad circulation in order to survive. Initially successful, its content proved to miss the mark and be of more interest to the upper classes and folded after a couple of years. Its format was to offer short essays on a variety of topics the paternalistic publisher deemed important to its readership. (Summary by LynneT)