Samuel Orchard Beeton

Samuel Beeton, 23 years, 1854

Samuel Orchard Beeton (born March 2, 1831 in London , † 1877 ) was an English publisher and editor of magazines and periodicals. His name is best known to this day through his marriage to cookbook author Isabella Beeton .

Life

Front cover of the first issue of The Englishwoman's Domestic Magazine , 1852

Fashion drawing from The Englishwoman's Domestic Magazine , 1869

Isabella Beeton , 1860

Samuel Beeton, 1860

childhood and education

Samuel Beeton was born in 1831 in Cheapside , London, the son of the businessman and later owner of the Dolphin Pub, Samuel Powell Beeton . The mother, Helen Orchard, died just a year after he was born. His father remarried in 1834, but in 1836 Samuel Beeton was given to his grandmother Lucy Beeton in Suffolk. After spending time in the small rural boarding school Pilgrim's Hall Academy in Essex, Samuel Beeton began working for a paper merchant in London in the late 1840s. At that time he was probably living again in the Dolphin, his father's pub on London's Milk Street. According to cautious hints from his relatives, Sam Beeton was not a sad child during this time as a young employee and thoroughly enjoyed the London nightlife. It cannot be ruled out that he became infected with syphilis at this time and that the infection may later be passed on to his wife, Isabella .

Entry into the publishing industry

As a paper dealer, Sam Beeton made numerous contacts with other young men who worked in the paper, printing and publishing industries, including the editor Frederick Greenwood , with whom he later worked for many years, his brother, the journalist James Greenwood , who later worked with numerous works published in Samuel Beeton's publishing house, and James Wade , who printed many of Beeton's publications.

In 1852, Samuel Beeton joined the printers and publishers Salisbury and Clarke , who had specialized in reprinting existing texts. The then rather vague copyright law made this possible in a more or less legal way. In particular, texts published in the USA could be reprinted in England without any problems, as there was no copyright agreement between the states until 1891. Shortly after Beeton's entry into the business, Salisbury and Clarke participated in an English edition of Uncle Tom's Cabin , which became a great commercial success in countless editions and editions. This edition was in turn reprinted by seventeen other English publishers. However, since Beeton and Clarke had expanded and supplemented the text, the copyright intervened in their favor, so that they could request the publication of the reprints and sell them under their own title page. The follow-up band A Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin , which Beeton also tried to secure, turned out to be a catastrophic failure, which fell far short of the expected sales figures.

Also in 1852 the first issue of The Englishwoman's Domestic Magazine was published for two pence. Unlike the existing fashion or women's magazines such as The New Monthly Belle Assemblee , Beeton's women's magazine was not aimed at the wealthy upper class, but rather at the aspiring middle class. Cooking, sewing, raising children, gardening and home remedies for illnesses were regularly recurring topics. In addition, however contemporary novels as a serial novel published, there was writing contests for readers whose contributions were also printed advice in love and life issues ( "Cupid's Bag"), as well as general articles about the life of the woman, the fussy in the guise confirmation Conservative role models secretly, later increasingly expressed more openly, spread emancipatory thoughts. From March 1857, Isabella Beeton also worked on the magazine. She wrote primarily about fashion, but also about household and cooking, and was jointly responsible for a redesign of the magazine, which now appeared in a larger format with colored fashion drawings and embroidery instructions and was sold for 6d. In addition, readers could order finished paper patterns from the publisher. The fact that the fashion drawings and patterns are mostly missing in the examples preserved today shows their popularity.

In 1855 Samuel Beeton had another magazine, the Boy's Own Magazine reissued. Articles on nature, sports, science experiments, historical figures and exotic adventures were intended to attract a young male readership. Like The Englishwoman's Domestic Magazine before it, this magazine caught the spirit of the times and sold well.

Marriage to Isabella Beeton

After a year of engagement, the wedding took place in July 1856 with Isabella Beeton, the stepdaughter of the printer and publisher Henry Dorling from Epsom . Around the same time, Beeton tried to launch another publication , the Boy's Own Journal , which, however, was only able to survive on the magazine market for a short time.

Myra Browne (right) and her family. Myra continued Isabella Beeton's work at the publishing house and raised her children. Rumor has it that her own son Meredith (center) was a biological son of Samuel Beeton.

Works

Logo of the SO Beeton publishing house

Magazines

• The Englishwoman's Domestic Magazine , 1852-77, ed. 1852–56 by Samuel Beeton, 1856–60 by Samuel and Isabella Beeton, 32 pages, published monthly, edition 5,000 (1852) - 50,000 (1857), Verlag SO Beeton.
• Boy's Own Magazine 1855–1871, published by SO Beeton.
• Boy's Own Journal , SO Beeton.
• Boy's Penny Paper , SO Beeton.
• The Queen , SO Beeton.
• Sporting Life , SO Beeton.
• The Weekly Dispatch , SO Beeton.
• The Young Englishwoman , SO Beeton.
• Myra's Journal of Dress and Fashion , Verlag Weldon & Co.
• Myra's Mid-Monthly Journal and Children's Dress , Verlag Weldon & Co.

Books (selection)

• Beeton's Historian , London: SO Beeton, 1860.
• The Book of Garden Management and Rural Economy , London: SO Beeton, 1861.
• Beeton's Dictionary of Universal Information , ed. together with John Sherer, London: SO Beeton, 1862.
• Beeton's Book of Birds , London: SO Beeton, 1862.
• Frederick Wood: Beeton's Cricket Book , London: SO Beeton, 1866.
• Beeton's Dictionary of Universal Biography , London: Ward, Lock & Tyler, 1869.
• Beeton's Book of Needlework , London: Ward, Lock & Tyler, 1870.
• Beeton's Medical Dictionary , London: Ward, Lock & Tyler, 1871.
• Beeton's Hand-Book of the Law Realting to Divorce and Matrimonial Causes , London: Ward, Lock & Tyler, 1871.
• Beeton's Complete Letter-Writer For Ladies , London: Ward, Lock & Tyler, 1873.

literature

• Kathryn Hughes The Short Life & Long Times of Mrs Beeton London: Harper Perennial, 2006. ISBN 1841153745