Overview

A summary of the history of the Sandyford Church Literary Association is available on our sister website, Glasgow’s Literary Bonds (see ‘Additional Notes’ below).

This was a first attempt at a magazine from this association, and either it was not a success or further issues have not been preserved. It contains thirteen articles written in different hands, with blank pages at the end of the volume for readers ‘to briefly record any remarks or criticism which they may have to make on the various papers’ (Preface). These pages are blank, so readers evidently did not respond as hoped. The editorial preface mentions the ‘youthful inexperience’ of writers and the ‘disadvantages against which we strive’, asking readers not to view contributions ‘in the strong light of professional standards.’

The magazine contains interesting accounts of ‘Local Government in India’ by a writer who worked in the British civil service and of churchgoing in Canada, in ‘On the Verge of the Backwoods’. The unsigned ‘Sitting on a Volcano!’ is particularly notable: it responds to Rev. Andrew Mearns’s famous pamphlet ‘The Bitter Cry of Outcast London’ in highlighting the plight of the poor, in Glasgow as well as London, but disagrees with his call for greater mission activity and religious education; arguing that good housing, food and clothing are the primary needs and that religion is secondary.

The magazine also contains a report on the Sandyford Church Literary Association and its activities, highlighting a rise in numbers, improvement in participation, and successful new monthly meetings involving the whole congregation. This report also mentions joint debates held with St George’s Literary Association and the Park Literary Institute (see ‘Additional Notes’ below).

The magazine includes travel writing and accounts of work overseas, description of Scottish places with some illustrations, articles on steam navigation, Shakespeare, ‘Newspaper Politics’ and a satirical semi-fictional account of poetic ambition, ‘A Budding Bard.’

Name of Club, Society or Group That Produced the Magazine

Sandyford Church Literary Association (Glasgow)

Date of Existence

1879-?

Date of Magazine

1883

Number of Issues

1

Manuscript/Published Magazine

Manuscript

Contents and Contributions

Art/Illustrations (original); Articles (non-fiction); Editorial; Essays; Fiction/Narrative; Readers’ Criticisms (pages left blank); Report; Title page

Repository

Mitchell Library Special Collections

Reference

642424

Additional Notes

See also entry for Sandyford Church Literary Association on our sister website, Glasgow’s Literary Bonds.

See also entries for Free St. George’s Literary Association, and The Park Literary Institution on Glasgow’s Literary Bonds.

Overview

A summary of the history of the New Literary Club (which later became the Literary Twenty-One Club) is available on our sister website, Glasgow’s Literary Bonds (see ‘Additional Notes’ below).

There is one (extant) issue of this club’s magazine, which clearly carries on the format and style of the previous issues that were produced by the group under its former name, the New Literary Club, with several of its old members staying on. (See entry for New Literary Club Magazine.)

There are 107 pages in this issue. At the front, there is a list of 20 members with their respective addresses. The 15 contributions (see accompanying photo of the ‘Contents’) are mostly prose pieces with only one original poem; an article on Robert Burns, however, transcribes extracts of several of his poems. The artwork in this issue is in various media, the most common being watercolour. There are also several photographs.

Of interest is a recurring feature called a ‘Page of Confessions’, which is a list of ‘favourite’ items that must be filled in (e.g. ‘Your favourite Author’; ‘Your favourite Book’, etc., ending with ‘What is the height of your ambition’). There are three examples of these ‘confessions’ in this issue. While one contributor professed to love Charles Lamb and the Bible, another’s reported favourite author was the French Renaissance writer and philosopher, Michael Sieur de Montaigne (1533-1592) and favourite book was The Compleat Angler (1653). One example of the ‘Page of Confessions’ also appears in The Holyrood Magazine, which was produced later.

Name of Club, Society or Group That Produced the Magazine

Literary Twenty-One Club (Glasgow)

Date of Existence

21 Apr. 1896-26 Mar. 1898

Date of Magazine

1896

Number of Issues

1

Manuscript/Published Magazine

Manuscript

Contents and Contributions

Art/Illustrations (original); Articles (non-fiction); Circulation List; Editorial; Essays; Frontispiece; Map; Music; Photographs; Poem (original); Poem (republished material); Readers’ criticisms (pages left blank); Sketch; Table of Contents

Repository

Mitchell Library Special Collections

Reference

(Note: The records for this club are housed together with the records of The Holyrood Club (891047))

Additional Notes

See also entry for New Literary Club (later became Literary Twenty-One Club) on our sister website, Glasgow’s Literary Bonds.