 Cover of the first issue of Sunday at Home | |
| Publisher | Religious Tract Society |
|---|---|
| First issue | May 1854 |
| Final issue | 1940 |
Sunday at Home was a weekly magazine published in London by the Religious Tract Society beginning in 1854. It was one of the most successful examples of the "Sunday reading" genre of periodicals: inexpensive magazines intended to provide wholesome religious (or religiously inspired) entertainment for families to read on Sundays, especially as a substitute for "pernicious" secular penny weeklies such as The London Journal or The Family Herald.
It was initially edited by James Macaulay, and later by W. Stevens. Macaulay and Stevens also edited The Leisure Hour, a similar periodical which debuted two years earlier and was also published by the Religious Tract Society, though Sunday at Home was more overtly religious and had a more strongly Sabbatarian viewpoint. Like The Leisure Hour, a typical issue of Sunday at Home led with a serialized piece of religious fiction, and included at least one large illustration.
In addition to the penny weekly format, the magazine was issued in monthly parts at a price of five pence (raised to 6p in 1863), and annual volumes ranging in price from around 5 to 10 shillings.
In 1862, the magazine began including colour illustrations, apparently the first penny weekly to do so.
In 1865, the magazine had an annual circulation of 130,000 copies, which increased steadily up to 1875.
Citations
- Fyfe, Aileen (2006). "A short history of the Religious Tract Society" (PDF). From the Dairyman's Daughter to Worrals of the WAAF: the Religious Tract Society, Lutterworth Press and Children's Literature. Cambridge: Lutterworth Press.
- ^ Scott, Rosemary (1992). Poetry and piety: the role of verse in mid-Victorian Sunday reading (PDF) (PhD). The Open University.
- ^ Scott, Rosemary (1992). "The Sunday Periodical: "Sunday at Home"". Victorian Periodicals Review. 25 (4).
- ^ Olsen, Stephanie (2014). Juvenile Nation: Youth, Emotions and the Making of the Modern British Citizen, 1880–1914. A&C Black. pp. 22–25. ISBN 9781472511416.