Periodical Writings

Lang’s first known periodical writings were in the St Leonard’s Magazine at the University of St Andrews, a hand-written weekly periodical. Lang wrote most of the articles during his years at St Andrews (1861–63) and sent copy as a “foreign correspondent” when at the University of Glasgow for a year (1863–64), where he was studying to earn the Snell Exhibition to Balliol College. After Lang left for Oxford, the St Leonard’s Magazine was “published” less frequently.

As can be seen below, some of Lang’s early known contributions to Scottish and English periodicals were written while Lang was a fellow at Merton College, Oxford (1868–75): Listed chronologically by the first article appearance, these periodicals included the North British Review (1870, 1871),  Fraser’s (1870, 1872–74), Macmillan’s (1871, 1873), the Dark Blue (1871, 1873), the Fortnightly Review (1873, 1875), the Westminster Review (1873), and The Saturday Review (1874, 1875). Lang eventually became one of the most prolific contributors to Victorian periodicals, with his work appearing in scores of publications on both sides of the Atlantic. I highly recommend scrolling down to see the great variety of his periodical contributions. (Periodicals to which Lang contributed twenty or more contributions appear in the dropdown menu for periodicals above; there are several other periodicals in the list below that just miss that cut.)

Lang’s most frequently discussed periodical writing (today) arguably appeared in the Contemporary Review and the Fortnightly Review. While these articles are undoubtably valuable, I hope such a statement won’t contribute to confining future Lang criticism. Lang’s contributions to other periodicals were greater in quantity (and influential in Lang’s own lifetime), particularly Lang’s monthly “At the Sign of the Ship” column in Longman’s (1886–1905), Lang’s anonymous contributions to the Daily News, Lang’s column in the weekly Illustrated London News (Saturdays, Jan. 1891–Sep. 1897, Sep. 1905–1912), and his weekly Friday column in the daily Morning Post (1905–1912, with columns on other days of the week [and not always regularly] from 1901). The titles below were identified using Roger Lancelyn Green’s biography (RLG), B. Meredith Langstaff’s list of articles and poems by or about Lang (BML) [not yet fully transcribed below], which is available at the St Andrews University Library Special Collections, the Wellesley Index (Wellesley Index titles are followed by an asterisk), the British Newspaper Archive (BNA), individual inquiries, and references in Andrew Lang’s letters (often as printed in the collections by Marysa Demoor (Dear Stevenson and Friends over the Ocean: Andrew Lang’s American Correspondents 1881–1912).

Troy Bassett’s At the Circulating Library prints information on Lang’s fiction that was published in book form before 1901 (thus, The Disentanglers, in Longman’s, just misses the cut). Click on each Lang title on Bassett’s site to see the serialization information. 

The Curran Index also identifies many articles by Andrew Lang. 

Victorian Web keeps a list of open-access periodicals (updated January 2023) that may include more volumes of particular titles than are lined in the pages below. 

Writing from Lang’s pen (or reviews of Lang’s writing) appeared in the following periodicals:

The Academy (Lang contributions: 1877?–1891? See Green 254–55)

African Review (Jan. 1896, from B. Meredith Langstaff list.)

Albany Review (April 1907, from B. Meredith Langstaff list.)

The American Antiquarian and Oriental Journal (Reviews of Lang’s work as listed in B. Meredith Langstaff’s list.)

The American Anthropologist (Lang contributed in 1912. See Routledge’s Selected Writings of Andrew Lang, vol. 1.)

The Anglo-Saxon Review (Lang contributed articles in 1900 and 1901. See Green 253 and B. Meredith Langstaff list.)

Anthropos (Lang reviewed J. G. Frazer’s Totemism and Exogamy in 1910; the review can be downloaded from JSTOR.)

Atalanta (1887–1898) (Lang is, at least, advertised as a forthcoming contributor in the St. James’s Gazette advertisement of the first number of this periodical (20 Sep. 1887, p. 16), edited by L. T. Meade and Alicia A. Leith.

The Athenaeum (1828–1921) (Lang contributed from 1882 onward. See Green 255 and B. Meredith Langstaff list.)

The Author (1890–present) (the publication of the Society of Authors–Lang wrote at least one review for this periodical; his frequent mentions therein and his letter to the editor in 1906 make the periodical worthy of inclusion here.)

The Bibelot (See B. Meredith Langstaff list.)

Bibliographica (See B. Meredith Langstaff list.)

Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine* (1817–1980, Lang contributed from 1889–1912) (Information on how to access the magazine’s contents is available here.)

The Booklovers Magazine (New York) (One Jan. 1903 article on Dickens: See B. Meredith Langstaff list.)

Bookman, London. (See B. Meredith Langstaff list, which lists articles from 1892 to 1910, and a reminiscence from 1912.)

Bookman, New York. (See B. Meredith Langstaff list.)

The Bookworm (London). (See B. Meredith Langstaff list–1887 poem “To the Gentlereader,” a mention in 1888 and a review of Ballads of Books.)

The Catholic World (New York) (See B. Meredith Langstaff list.)

The Century Magazine (See Green 253)

Chataqua. (See B. Meredith Langstaff list.)

Classical Review. (Lang’s articles are available on JSTOR.)

College Echoes [St Andrews] (See Green 254)

The Contemporary Review* (1866–1988, Lang contributed from 1882–1909. See Green 252–53.)

The Cornhill Magazine* (1860–1975, Lang contributed from 1876–1911.)

The Columbian Magazine (See B. Meredith Langstaff list.)

Cosmopolis. [Paris.] (See B. Meredith Langstaff list.)

The Cosmopolitan. (See B. Meredith Langstaff list.)

The Critic (See Green 254 and B. Meredith Langstaff list.)

Current Literature (See B. Meredith Langstaff list.)

The Daily News (1846–1912) (Lost Leaders [1889], a collection of some of Lang’s anonymous Daily News writing, is available at the Internet Archive. Of course, there are the usual typos.)

Dark Blue* (1871–73) (Lang contributed in 1871 and 1873. See Green 252.)

The Edinburgh Review* (1802–1929, Lang contributed in 1896 and 1898.)

The English Illustrated Magazine (See Green 252 and B. Meredith Langstaff list.)

Everybody’s Magazine (See B. Meredith Langstaff list.)

Folk-Lore: A Quarterly Review of Myth, Tradition, Institution, & Criticism (started 1890)

The Folk-Lore Journal (1883–89, after which it became Folk-Lore)

The Folk-lore Record (1878–1882, after which it became The Folk-Lore Journal) Lang had an essay in the very first volume: “The Folk-Lore of France.”

The Fortnightly Review* (1865–1954. Lang contributed from 1873–1910. See Green 252.)

Forum (See Green 253)

Fraser’s Magazine* (1830–82, Lang contributed from 1870–1882.)

Good Words (See Green 253)

The Granta (one poem, see B. Meredith Langstaff list.)

Harper’s [New] Monthly Magazine (See Green 253 and B. Meredith Langstaff list.)

Harper’s Weekly (One article from 30 August of 1890, “Rudyard Kipling,” vol. 34, p. 688. See B. Meredith Langstaff list. Internet Archive has many digitized copies of Harper’s Weekly)

Illustrated London News (1842–1989)

The Independent (New York) (See B. Meredith Langstaff list.)

Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine [One brief article in May 1886] (See B. Meredith Langstaff list.)

The Living Age (weekly, Boston) (See B. Meredith Langstaff list.)

London (See Demoor, Dear Stevenson 6–7)

Longman’s Magazine* (1882–1905, Lang contributed from 1883–1905. See Green 252)

Macmillan’s Magazine* (1859–1907, Lang contributed from 1871 to at least 1898.  See Green 255)

The Magazine of Art, edited by W. E. Henley (See Green 256 and B. Meredith Langstaff list.)

Man, (title, from 1901–94 of the Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland) Lang’s contributions can be found on JSTOR. 

The Monthly Review (See Green 255 and B. Meredith Langstaff list.)

The Morning Post (1772–1937, when it merged with The Daily Telegraph, Lang wrote regularly for the paper from 1901 and had a weekly Friday column from 1905–1912)

Murray’s Magazine (See Green 253 and B. Meredith Langstaff list.)

The Nation (See Green 254 and B. Meredith Langstaff list.)

National Review* (1883–1960, Lang contributed in February, July, and October of 1892. See Green 256)

The Neolith (See Green 255 and B. Meredith Langstaff list. Lang contributed “Neolithic Decadence” in Feb. 1908 (II, pp. 12–15). The Neolith, for which E. Nesbit was the literary editor, lasted a mere four issues. See Julia Briggs, A Woman of Passion, p. 275. Lang, in his role as Longmans’ reader, had been instrumental in assuring the publication Nesbit’s Lays and Legends in November 1886 [Briggs 129])

New Quarterly Magazine* (1873–80) (one article in October 1878)

The New Review* (1889–97, Lang contributed from 1889–93, including the novel, The World’s Desire, co-written with H. Rider Haggard)

The New York Times (See Routledge’s The Selected Writings of Andrew Lang, vol. 2.)

The Nineteenth Century* (1877–1901, Lang contributed from 1885 to at least 1899.)

The North American Review (See Green 253 and B. Meredith Langstaff list; Lang’s contributions are also on JSTOR.)

The North British Review* (1844–71, Lang contributed in 1870 and 1871.)

The Occult Review (one article from April 1905–see B. Meredith Langstaff list.)

The Outlook? (See B. Meredith Langstaff list.)

The Pall Mall Gazette (two articles from 1882 according to B. Meredith Langstaff. Lang also wrote letters to the editor over the Rider Haggard plagiarism controversy in 1887)

The Pilot (See Green 256)

The Princeton Review (See B. Meredith Langstaff list.) Lang’s “Literary Anodynes” from the September 1888 issue is often quoted.

Punch. (See Demoor, Dear Stevenson 74, 84, 85: “Quite the Wrong Man,” Punch, no. 88, 11 Apr. 1885, p. 173, a “caricature of Henry James” [Demoor 74].) 

The Quarterly Review (1809–1967)* (See B. Meredith Langstaff list.)

Revue des etudes ethnographiques et sociologiques  (See Routledge’s The Selected Writings of Andrew Lang, vol. 2.)

St Andrews University Magazine (articles from 1863 and 1864: see B. Meredith Langstaff list.)

The St. James’s Gazette (See Green 255)

St Nicholas (See B. Meredith Langstaff list.)

The Saturday Review (1855–1938)

The Scots Observer (See Green 255)

The Scotsman (See B. Meredith Langstaff list.)

Scottish Historical Review (See B. Meredith Langstaff list. Articles are available on JSTOR)

Scribner’s Magazine (See Green 253 and B. Meredith Langstaff list.)

Smithsonian Report (one 1900 article on Psychical Research of the Century: see B. Meredith Langstaff list.)

The Spectator (See B. Meredith Langstaff list.)

The Westminster Review* (1824–1914) (one article in July 1873)

Wide Awake (Boston, MA) (one 1889 article, “Fishing in the Tweed and Yarrow.” See B. Meredith Langstaff list.)

The Windsor Magazine (See Green 253)

Wit and Wisdom (See Green 252 and B. Meredith Langstaff list.)

*Starred periodicals are a part of the Wellesley Index. For more information on many of the other periodicals see Laurel Brake and Marysa Demoor’s The Dictionary of Nineteenth-Century Journalism, Academia Press and the British Library, 2009.

A preliminary list of open-access periodicals, with links, has been created, and is updated, by Patrick Leary. If no links are provided to a periodical above, you may wish to check Leary’s list. 

Learn more about Lang’s contributions to The Author, Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, Folk-Lore, Longman’s Magazine, and The Morning Post.

This page is still in progress and was last updated on 7 April 2022. Please contact me if you know of another periodical which ought to be included in this list.