All the Year Round was a periodical publication previously titled Household Words which ran from 1850 to 1859, then taken over by Charles Dickens and W.H Wills starting in 1859 (with Dickens owning seventy-five percent and Wills only twenty-five percent.) Though Dickens had contributed many journalistic pieces and had serialized his novel Hard Times in the previous journal, his priorities shifted in taking over All the Year Round. Many new periodicals were coming onto the scene, with 114 magazines coming out in 1859 and many more in the years following. Safe to say, Dickens had a lot of competition when creating this new periodical, trying to tap into the aesthetic of Household Words while changing its format to attract a broader audience. While the first journal emphasized more social commentary in the front pieces of the periodical, Dickens instead focused on placing authors’ serial fiction in the front, of course including his own compositions. Dickens started with publishing a re-installment of A Tale of Two Cities to boost initial sales. He then first published his famous novel Great Expectations starting December 1, 1860 and running through August 3, 1861 in thirty-six weekly installments. It was then published as a three-volume novel in October 1861. Along with his own publications, Dickens’ good friend Willkie Collins’ published many works in the periodical, including serializing his novel The Woman in White. Many other authors (such as Elizabeth Gaskell) published in the periodical, with most authors being unequally paid based on gender and Dickens’ preference rather than the success of the novel. Still, in total twenty-seven novels appeared during the years Dickens edited it. Along with changing the format, after Dickens and Wills became part owners of the periodical they also covered all expenses to get maximum profit and maximum coverage. The pair circulated up to 300,000 periodicals around Christmas for their special editions and were regularly around 100,000 copies—more than double that of Household Words. Dickens composed and edited All the Year Round until his death in 1870. After Dickens’ death his son Charles Dickens Jr. took over and took full ownership, buying out Wills’ twenty-five percent share. Dickens Jr. remained the chief editor until 1888, and the periodical officially ceased publication in 1893.
Works Cited:
Allinham, Phillip V. "All the Year Round: An Introduction." The Victorian Web, 2015, https://victorianweb.org/periodicals/ayr/intro.html.
For further reading:
- All the Year Round: an Introduction
- Archival Editions of All the Year Round
- Installments and Chapter Numbering of Great Expectations in the First Book Publication