III. The Bibliographers: The Pioneer Bibliography

Abstract

In 1965 I had my initiation into Victorian periodicals when I began my dissertation on the critical reception of David Copperfield in London newspapers. At the time the study of periodicals was pretty much virgin territory, but I did have a slight introduction through two of my professors at Texas Tech. Knowing that Alan Lang Strout had done pioneering work on Blackwood's Magazine, I sat down with the run in the library and became immediately hooked. Also, I had an excellent guide in my major professor, Roger Brooks, who had used London newspapers in his dissertation on Matthew Arnold. In 1965 I spent the summer at the British Library Newspaper Library at Colindale tracking down reviews of Copperfield and then completed the dissertation in 1967. I was awed by the prospect of the vast unexplored territory of Victorian periodicals with its potential as a source for research in so many disciplines and was thrilled with the announcement of the formation of the Research Society for Victorian Periodicals. William E. Fredeman's RSVP: Proposal for Discussion (VPN, no. 5/6, September 1969, p. 5) listed a series of suggestions, the second of which was A Bibliography of publications on Victorian periodicals might appear as an annual feature of VPN, the preparation of which would be assigned to an elected or appointed RSVP bibliographer. I could see that such an annual list would be valuable to all sorts of