Birmingham Journal (eighteenth century)

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This article is about the eighteenth century newspaper. For the nineteenth century newspaper of the same name, see Birmingham Journal (nineteenth century).

The Birmingham Journal was the first newspaper known to have been published in Birmingham, England.

Little is known of it as few records remain, but a single copy survives in Birmingham Central Library: Number 28, dated Monday May 21, 1733.[1] It is assumed from this that the first edition was probably published 14 November 1732.[2]

The newspaper was published weekly by local businessman and bookseller Thomas Warren from his house over the Swan Tavern in the High Street. Among its contributors was Samuel Johnson, whose work for the Journal while he was lodging with Warren in Birmingham in 1733 was his first original published writing.[3] James Boswell wrote of this in his Life of Johnson:

“ Mr. Warren was the first established bookseller in Birmingham, and was very attentive to Johnson, who he soon found could be of much service to him in his trade, by his knowledge of literature; and he even obtained the assistance of his pen in furnishing some numbers of a periodical Essay printed in the newspaper, of which Warren was proprietor. After very diligent inquiry, I have not been able to recover those early specimens of that particular mode of writing by which Johnson afterwards so greatly distinguished himself.[4] ”

Publication of the Birmingham Journal is known to have ceased by 1741.[5]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Johnson in Birmingham. Revolutionary Players of Industry and Innovation. Museums, Libraries and Archives - West Midlands. Retrieved on 2008-01-05.
  2. ^ Whates, Harold (1957). The Birmingham Post, 1857-1957 : a centenary retrospect. Birmingham: Birmingham Post & Mail. OCLC 2671825. 
  3. ^ Fleeman, J.D. (2000-03-02). A Bibliography of the Works of Samuel Johnson: 1731-59 Vol 1. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 3. ISBN 0198122691. 
  4. ^ Boswell, James [1791] (2006-05-12). in Osgood, Charles Grosvenor: Life of Johnson. Project Gutenberg. Retrieved on 2008-01-05. 
  5. ^ (1964) "Economic and Social History: Social History before 1815", in W.B. Stephens: A History of the County of Warwick: Volume 7: The City of Birmingham, Victoria County History, 209-222. “There was sufficient demand, too, in the 18th century for the publication of many local newspapers. The Birmingham Journal, published by Thomas Warren, was first issued in 1732, one of its contributors being Samuel Johnson. It had ceased to exist by 1741”