Frank Leslie's Weekly
Encyclopedia
Frank Leslie's Weekly, later often known in short as Leslie's Weekly, was an American
illustrated literary and news magazine founded in 1852 and continuing publication well into the 20th century. As implied by its name, it was published weekly, on Tuesdays. Its first editor was John Y. Foster. In 1897, its circulation was estimated at 65,000, compared to only 30 copies printed of the first edition.
It was one of several magazines started by publisher and illustrator Frank Leslie
and was continued after his death in 1880 by his widow, the women's suffrage campaigner Miriam Florence Leslie
. The name, by then a well-established trademark, remained also after 1902, when it no longer had a connection with the Leslie family. It continued until 1922.
Throughout its decades of existence, the weekly provided illustrations and reports - first with woodcut
s and Daguerreotype
s, later with more advanced forms of photography - of wars from John Brown
's raid at Harpers Ferry
and the Civil War
until the Spanish-American War
and the First World War.
It often took a strongly patriotic stance and frequently featured cover pictures of soldiers and heroic battle stories. It also gave extensive coverage to less martial events such as the Klondike gold rush
of 1897, covered by San Francisco journalist John Bonner.
Among the writers publishing their stories in the weekly were H. Irving Hancock
, Helen R. Martin
, and Ellis Parker Butler
. Several notable illustrators worked for the publication, including Albert Berghaus
and Norman Rockwell
, who created covers for the magazine in its latter years.
Surviving copies of the magazine at present fetch handsome prices as collectors' items and are considered to give a vivid picture of American life during the decades of its publication.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
illustrated literary and news magazine founded in 1852 and continuing publication well into the 20th century. As implied by its name, it was published weekly, on Tuesdays. Its first editor was John Y. Foster. In 1897, its circulation was estimated at 65,000, compared to only 30 copies printed of the first edition.
It was one of several magazines started by publisher and illustrator Frank Leslie
Frank Leslie
Frank Leslie was an English-born American engraver, illustrator, and publisher of family periodicals.-English origins:...
and was continued after his death in 1880 by his widow, the women's suffrage campaigner Miriam Florence Leslie
Miriam Leslie
Miriam Leslie was an American publisher and author. She was the wife of Frank Leslie and the heir to his publishing business which she developed into a paying concern from a state of precarious indebtedness....
. The name, by then a well-established trademark, remained also after 1902, when it no longer had a connection with the Leslie family. It continued until 1922.
Throughout its decades of existence, the weekly provided illustrations and reports - first with woodcut
Woodcut
Woodcut—occasionally known as xylography—is a relief printing artistic technique in printmaking in which an image is carved into the surface of a block of wood, with the printing parts remaining level with the surface while the non-printing parts are removed, typically with gouges...
s and Daguerreotype
Daguerreotype
The daguerreotype was the first commercially successful photographic process. The image is a direct positive made in the camera on a silvered copper plate....
s, later with more advanced forms of photography - of wars from John Brown
John Brown (abolitionist)
John Brown was an American revolutionary abolitionist, who in the 1850s advocated and practiced armed insurrection as a means to abolish slavery in the United States. He led the Pottawatomie Massacre during which five men were killed, in 1856 in Bleeding Kansas, and made his name in the...
's raid at Harpers Ferry
Harpers Ferry, West Virginia
Harpers Ferry is a historic town in Jefferson County, West Virginia, United States. In many books the town is called "Harper's Ferry" with an apostrophe....
and the Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
until the Spanish-American War
Spanish-American War
The Spanish–American War was a conflict in 1898 between Spain and the United States, effectively the result of American intervention in the ongoing Cuban War of Independence...
and the First World War.
It often took a strongly patriotic stance and frequently featured cover pictures of soldiers and heroic battle stories. It also gave extensive coverage to less martial events such as the Klondike gold rush
Klondike Gold Rush
The Klondike Gold Rush, also called the Yukon Gold Rush, the Alaska Gold Rush and the Last Great Gold Rush, was an attempt by an estimated 100,000 people to travel to the Klondike region the Yukon in north-western Canada between 1897 and 1899 in the hope of successfully prospecting for gold...
of 1897, covered by San Francisco journalist John Bonner.
Among the writers publishing their stories in the weekly were H. Irving Hancock
H. Irving Hancock
Harrie Irving Hancock was an American chemist and writer, mainly remembered as an author of children's literature and juveniles in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and as having written a fictional depiction of a German invasion of the USA....
, Helen R. Martin
Helen Reimensnyder Martin
Helen Reimensnyder Martin was an American author. She was born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, studied at Swarthmore and at Radcliffe colleges; and married Frederic C. Martin in 1889...
, and Ellis Parker Butler
Ellis Parker Butler
Ellis Parker Butler was an American author.Butler was born in Muscatine, Iowa. He was the author of more than 30 books and more than 2,000 stories and essays and is most famous for his short story "Pigs is Pigs", in which a bureaucratic stationmaster insists on levying the livestock rate for a...
. Several notable illustrators worked for the publication, including Albert Berghaus
Albert Berghaus
Albert Berghaus was an important American illustrator from the period immediately prior to the Civil War up to about the 1880s/1890's. He worked for Frank Leslie's Weekly, also known as Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, producing sketches and wood engravings of important events in contemporary...
and Norman Rockwell
Norman Rockwell
Norman Percevel Rockwell was a 20th-century American painter and illustrator. His works enjoy a broad popular appeal in the United States for their reflection of American culture. Rockwell is most famous for the cover illustrations of everyday life scenarios he created for The Saturday Evening...
, who created covers for the magazine in its latter years.
Surviving copies of the magazine at present fetch handsome prices as collectors' items and are considered to give a vivid picture of American life during the decades of its publication.
External links
- Coverage of the laying of the 1858 Atlantic Cable in Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper
- "At the Gate of Klondike" by John Bonner in Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, 1858
- Covers of Leslie's Weekly
- Magazine Cover Art from Leslie's Weekly
- The San Francisco Earthquake in Leslie's Weekly
- Leslie's Weekly, Volume 133, Issue 3451. From Google books.