Contents -- List of Illustrations -- Editors' Note -- Introduction -- I: SETTING THE SCENE -- Introduction -- [James Mill], 'Periodical Literature', Westminster Review (1824) -- [Henry Brougham], 'Progress of the People-The Periodical Press', Edinburgh Review (1833) -- [Archibald Alison], 'The Influence of the Press', Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine (1834) -- II: THE INFLUENCE OF PRINT -- Introduction -- 'The March of Knowledge: or Just Come from Seeing "Jack Sheppard" ', Penny Satirist: A Cheap Substitute for a Weekly Newspaper (1839) -- F.[anny] M.[ayne], 'The Literature of the Working Classes', The Englishwoman's Magazine, and Christian Mother's Miscellany (1850) -- [William Rathbone Greg], 'Newspaper Press', Edinburgh Review (1855) -- 'S.', 'What is the Harm of Novel-Reading?' Wesleyan-Methodist Magazine (1855) -- [William Rathbone Greg], 'False Morality of Lady Novelists', National Review (1859) -- [Henry Longueville Mansel], 'Sensation Novels', Quarterly Review (1863) -- 'Sensation Novels', Medical Critic and Psychological Journal (1863) -- 'Reading as a Means of Culture', Sharpe's London Magazine (1867) -- [Thomas Cooper], The Life of Thomas Cooper. Written by Himself (1872) -- Edward G. Salmon, 'What Girls Read', Nineteenth Century (1886) -- Netta Syrett, The Victorians (1915) -- III: THE WORD OF LAW/THE LAW OF THE WORD -- Introduction -- [James Bronterre O'Brien], 'Persecution and Imprisonment of Mr. Hetherington', Poor Man's Guardian (1833) -- 'Law of Newspapers', The Newspaper Press Directory (1851) -- 'The Copyright Question', The Times (1851) -- Collet Dobson Collet, History of the Taxes on Knowledge: Their Origin and Repeal (1899) -- 'The Queen v. Benjamin Hicklin', 29 April 1868, Law Reports: Queen's Bench, III, 1867-68 (1868).

'Prosecution for Publishing an Alleged Obscene Book', The Weekly Times: A London Newspaper of History, Politics, Literature, Science and Art (1877) -- Matthew Arnold, 'Copyright', Fortnightly Review (1880) -- IV: PUBLISHING, PRINTING, COMMUNICATION -- Introduction -- 'Friends, Brethren, and Fellow-Countrymen', Poor Man's Guardian (1833) -- [Charles Knight], 'The Commercial History of a Penny Magazine', Penny Magazine (1833) -- [John Chapman], A Report of the Proceedings of a Meeting (Consisting Chiefly of Authors), held 4 May, at the House of Mr. John Chapman, 142, Strand, for the Purpose of Hastening the Removal of the Trade Restrictions on the Commerce of Literature (1852) -- [Andrew Wynter], 'Our Modern Mercury', Once a Week (1861) -- [Andrew Wynter], 'Who is Mr Reuter?', Once a Week (1861) -- William Heinemann, 'The Hardships of Publishing', Athenaeum (1892) -- Walter Besant, 'The Rise and Fall of the "Three-Decker" ', The Dial (1894) -- V: INVESTIGATING THE POPULAR, 1840s-1860s -- Introduction -- The Editor [J. Malcolm Rymer], 'Popular Writing', Queen's Magazine: A Monthly Miscellany of Literature and Art (1842) -- J. F. Smith, The Will and the Way, from The London Journal and Weekly Record of Literature, Science and Art (1853) -- [Margaret Oliphant], 'The Byways of Literature: Reading for the Million', Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine (1858) -- [Wilkie Collins], 'The Unknown Public', Household Words (1858) -- [Bennett G. Johns], 'The Poetry of Seven Dials', Quarterly Review (1867) -- VI: READING SPACES -- Introduction -- [William Newmarch], 'Mechanics Institutions', Westminster Review (1844) -- [Angus B. Reach], 'The Coffee Houses of London', New Parley Library (1844) -- Mrs [Sarah Stickney] Ellis, The Young Ladies' Reader -- or, Extracts from Modern Authors, adapted for Educational or Family Use (1845).

Report from the Select Committee on Public Libraries (1849) -- John Naule Allen, 'Railway Reading. With a Few Hints to Travellers', Ainsworth's Magazine (1853) -- Henry Mayhew, 'The Literature of Costermongers', in London Labour and the London Poor (1861) -- Andrew Wynter, 'Mudie's Circulating Library', in Subtle Brains and Lissom Fingers (1863) -- 'A Day at the London Free Libraries', All the Year Round (1892) -- VII: AUTHORS, JOURNALISTS, REVIEWERS -- Introduction -- 'Penny-A-Liners', Chambers's Edinburgh Journal (1845) -- [George Henry Lewes], 'The Condition of Authors in England, Germany, and France', Fraser's Magazine (1847) -- Mary Elizabeth Braddon, The Doctor's Wife, from Temple Bar (1864) -- John Morley, 'Anonymous Journalism', Fortnightly Review (1867) -- [Alexander Innes Shand], 'Novelists', Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine (1879) -- W. T. Stead, 'The Future of Journalism', Contemporary Review (1886) -- [Charlotte O'Conor Eccles], 'The Experiences of a Woman Journalist', Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine (1893) -- VIII: NEWSPAPERS -- Introduction -- [Gibbons Merle], 'Newspaper Press', Westminster Review (1829) -- 'Useful Sunday Literature for the Masses', Punch (1849) -- 'The Penny Daily Paper', Chambers's Journal of Popular Literature, Science, and the Arts (1855) -- [John Chapman], 'The London Daily Press', Westminster Review (1855) -- A Journeyman Engineer [Thomas Wright], Some Habits and Customs of the Working Classes (1867) -- 'A Conservative Journalist', 'Why is the Provincial Press Radical?', National Review (1886) -- T. P. O'Connor, 'The New Journalism', New Review (1889) -- Evelyn March-Phillips, 'Women's Newspapers', Fortnightly Review (1894) -- IX: GRAPHIC MEDIA -- Introduction -- 'Our Address,' Illustrated London News (1842) -- [Catherine Gore], 'The New Art of Printing', Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine (1844).

'Illustrated Periodical Literature', Bookseller (1861) -- John Ruskin, 'Notes on the Present State of Engraving in England', in Ariadne Florentina (1876) -- Clement Shorter, 'Illustrated Journalism: Its Past and Its Future', Contemporary Review (1899) -- Further Reading -- Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- Q -- R -- S -- T -- V -- W -- Y -- Z.