[W]e are determined to be an Odd Fellow : and, though it may appear strange to cut a friend, yet we are determined to give our readers a cut every week; but, at the same time, desire them to understand that we wish them to laugh at our designs. We shall not attempt to set the Thames on fire, as we intend to have no match. Our publisher says he intends to sell our pub. for a brown, but if all our readers take it to be read, and think it will drive away the blues, we shall think ourself a happy wight, and that there is nothing green about us. We shall endeavour to make ourself as entertaining as possible, and when we find there is nothing to write about, why we shall right about face (Scene the Editor's Garret, 1:2, p.1).
"The readers of the Odd Fellow are respectfully informed, that, on Saturday next, 17th December, the above publication will be changed in name and general appearance, and be issued under an entirely new management...Each number will have a fine emblematical heading, and be illustrated by wood-cuts, characteristic of the ups and downs of the Political World and the manners, customs, and foibles of society. The general contents will be greatly improved; variety, adapted to all tastes and dispositions, will be afforded, as far as practicable. Tales and Romances of passion, adventure, wonder, and peril, both by sea and land, will be made to occupy a prominent place. Sketches of men and manners; Essays on the lighter and more engaging departments of literature and science: notices of the movements in the political world; and wit and humour, both of home and foreign growth, will all, from time to time, display their various lights and shades. Reviews of new books, and dramatic and musical notices, will be duly attended to...The title in future shall be the Fireside Journal, and Penny Miscellany of Wit, Humour, Literature, Amusement, and Romance " (The Cheapest and Best Periodical in the World no 205, p.2).
Henry Hetherington published The Odd Fellow after The London Dispatch failed for lack of support. "Although this claimed to be concerned with the Society of Odd Fellows, it was entirely a literary magazine" (James, pp.26-7).
"When Henry Hetherington published thirty-two complete Sketches by 'Boz' , in The Odd Fellow , he was stopped from further piracy by the threat of legal action, and had to publish an apology" (James, p.46).
This was one of the magazines of its time that capitalized on plagiarism. Henry Hetherington also published Penny Papers for the People . James Cooke's The Bachelor Club was serialised in The Odd Fellow (James, p.58).
Source: The Waterloo Directory of English Newspapers and Periodicals: 1800-1900.
For this newspaper, we have the following titles in, or planned for, our digital archive:
- 1839–42 The Odd Fellow
