The Gem
Encyclopedia
The Gem was a story paper
published in Great Britain
by Amalgamated Press in the early 20th century, predominately featuring the activities of boys at the fictional school "St. Jim's". These stories were all written using the pen-name of Martin Clifford, the majority by Charles Hamilton
who was more widely known as Frank Richards the creator of Billy Bunter
. Many issues also included a shorter serial story (a variety of detective, school, and adventure yarns were featured); these parts of the paper were not written by Charles Hamilton.
The most famous St Jim's characters were Tom Merry
and Arthur Augustus D'Arcy better known as Gussy.
. Both the first and second series used a distinctive blue/green cover and the vast majority of stories were provided by Charles Hamilton.
In 1919, this was replaced with a white cover and over the following years, Hamilton produced a reducing number of stories until by the mid-1920's, he only provided a minority of the stories that appeared and in 1929 he produced no stories at all. Following a suggestion by enthusiast and later expert regarding the work of Charles Hamilton - Eric Fayne; a Head-master at the time then later a hotel owner, in 1931, the Gem started reprinting the early stories, beginning with the arrival of Tom Merry at St Jim's. This policy continued until spring 1939 when Hamilton was persuaded to resume writing for the paper. Notwithstanding this move, the paper folded in December 1939, the result of wartime paper shortages.
Story paper
*This article is about British Story papers. For the U.S. version, see Dime novel.A story paper is a periodical publication similar to a literary magazine, but featuring illustrations and text stories, and aimed towards children and teenagers...
published in Great Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
by Amalgamated Press in the early 20th century, predominately featuring the activities of boys at the fictional school "St. Jim's". These stories were all written using the pen-name of Martin Clifford, the majority by Charles Hamilton
Charles Hamilton (writer)
Charles Harold St. John Hamilton , was an English writer, specializing in writing long-running series of stories for weekly magazines about recurrent casts of characters, his most frequent and famous genre being boys' public school stories, though he also dealt with other genres...
who was more widely known as Frank Richards the creator of Billy Bunter
Billy Bunter
William George Bunter , is a fictional character created by Charles Hamilton using the pen name Frank Richards...
. Many issues also included a shorter serial story (a variety of detective, school, and adventure yarns were featured); these parts of the paper were not written by Charles Hamilton.
The most famous St Jim's characters were Tom Merry
Tom Merry
Tom Merry, a fictional schoolboy, was the principal character in the St Jim's stories which appeared in the boy’s weekly paper, The Gem, from 1907 to 1939...
and Arthur Augustus D'Arcy better known as Gussy.
The First Series
The first issue appeared in February 1907 and featured an adventure story. The first school story appeared in issue number 3 dated 10 March 1907 and introduced Tom Merry as a new boy at a school called Clavering College. In issue number 11, Claverling was closed down and the boys and masters transferred to St Jim's, a school which had previously featured in a boys' paper called "Pluck". From then onwards a long story of St Jim's became the main weekly feature of The Gem.The Second Series
In the week ending 15 February 1908, the Gem started a new series, prompted by Amalgamated Press starting a new School story paper called The MagnetThe Magnet
The Magnet was a United Kingdom weekly boys' story paper published by Amalgamated Press. It ran from 1908 to 1940, publishing a total of 1683 issues. Each issue contained a long school story about the boys of Greyfriars School, a fictional public school located somewhere in Kent, and were written...
. Both the first and second series used a distinctive blue/green cover and the vast majority of stories were provided by Charles Hamilton.
In 1919, this was replaced with a white cover and over the following years, Hamilton produced a reducing number of stories until by the mid-1920's, he only provided a minority of the stories that appeared and in 1929 he produced no stories at all. Following a suggestion by enthusiast and later expert regarding the work of Charles Hamilton - Eric Fayne; a Head-master at the time then later a hotel owner, in 1931, the Gem started reprinting the early stories, beginning with the arrival of Tom Merry at St Jim's. This policy continued until spring 1939 when Hamilton was persuaded to resume writing for the paper. Notwithstanding this move, the paper folded in December 1939, the result of wartime paper shortages.
External links
- Friardale Hamilton material
- Collecting Books and Magazines Detailed article
- Greyfriars Index Detailed listing of Hamilton material
- The Friars Club Enthusiasts’ Club
- Bunterzone Enthusiasts’ site
- Index of Boys Weeklies