George Orwell As I Please Tribune, 14 January 1944 The old
custom of binding up magazines and periodicals in book form seems to have gone out almost
entirely, which is a pity, for a years issue of even a very stupid magazine is more
readable after a lapse of time than the majority of books. I do not believe I ever had a
better bargain than the dozen volumes of the Quarterly Review, starting in 1809,
which I once picked up for two shillings at a farmhouse auction; but a good sixpennyworth
was a years issue of the Cornhill when either Trollope or Thackeray, I forget which, was
editing it, and another good buy was some odd volumes of the Gentlemans Magazine
of the mid-sixties, at threepence each. I have also had some happy half-hours with
Chamberss Papers for the People, which flourished in the fifties, the Boys
Own Paper in the days of the Boer
War, the Strand in its great Sherlock Holmes days, and a
book I unfortunately only saw and didnt buy a bound volume of the Athenaeum
in the early twenties, when Middleton
Murry was editing it, and T. S.
Eliot, E. M. Forster and
various others were making their first impact on the big public. I do not know why no one
bothers to do this nowadays, for to get a years issue of a magazine bound costs less
than buying a novel, and you can even do the job yourself if you have a spare evening and
the right materials. |
Copyright The Estate of Eric Blair |