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Buckler, William E. “Once a Week under Samuel Lucas, 1859-1865”. PMLA lxvii (December 1952) pp.924-941.
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Elwell, Stephen. “Editors and Social Change: A Case Study of Once a Week (1859-80).” Innovators and Preachers: The Role of the Editor in
Victorian England
Joel H. Weiner, ed.
Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1985. pp.
23-42
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Scholarly Commentary
Introduction
Once a Week.London: [Bradbury and Evans 1859-1869], [James Rice 1869-1873], [George Manville Fenn 1873-1880].
Following their break with Charles Dickens over his cancellation ofHousehold Words in 1859, publishers Bradbury and Evans launched Once a Week to compete with Dickens' new magazine, All the Year Round. The weekly illustrated miscellany first appeared in July of 1859, under the editorship of Samuel Lucas, and sold for three pence. Remembered now for the quality of its illustrations (by notables such as Hablot K. Browne, Holman Hunt, Keene, Leech, Millais, Sandys, and Tenniel),Once a Week never offered Dickens any strong competition from a literary or economic standpoint. However, it did publish Meredith's Evan Harrington, Charles Reade's The Good Fight, and occasional poems by Tennyson, Swinburne, and Rossetti, as well as important work by women writers like Harriet Martineau, Isabella Blagden, and M.E. Braddon. Once a Week ceased publication in 1880, following the slow but steady decline that characterized its fortunes from the beginning.
The Dictionary of National Biography indicates that DGR published illustrations in Once a Week (under the entry for George Meredith), but Buckler doubts the accuracy of this information, and no illustrations by DGR have been identified.