| Editor | Mary-Kay Wilmers |
|---|---|
| Categories | Literature, history, ideas[1] |
| Frequency | 24 per year |
| Circulation | 56,816 |
| Publisher | Nicholas Spice |
| First issue | 1979 |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Website | www.lrb.co.uk |
| ISSN | 0260-9592 |
The London Review of Books (or LRB) is a British journal of literary and intellectual essays. Published semi-monthly (24 times a year), it has the largest circulation of any literary magazine in Europe and is considered the leading journal edited by a woman in the Western world.[2][3]
Contents |
The LRB was founded in 1979, during the year-long lock-out at The Times.[2]
Its founding editors were Karl Miller, then professor of English at University College London, Mary-Kay Wilmers, formerly an editor at The Times Literary Supplement, and Susannah Clapp, a former editor at Jonathan Cape. For its first six months, it appeared as an insert in the New York Review of Books.[4] In May 1980, the London Review became an independent publication with an orientation described by one of its leading contributors as "consistently radical".[5]
Unlike The Times Literary Supplement (TLS), the majority of the articles the LRB publishes (usually fifteen per issue) are long essays. Some articles in each issue are not based on books, while several short articles discuss film or exhibitions. Political and social editorials or essays are frequent.
Mary-Kay Wilmers took over as editor in 1992. Average circulation per issue from 1 January 2009 to 31 December 2009 was 48,555.[2]
In January 2010, The Times, from which it emerged during the lock-out, claimed that the London Review of Books was £27m in debt to Wilmers' family trust, although the trust had "no intention of the lender seeking repayment of the loan in the near future".[6]
In 2011, when Pankaj Mishra criticised Niall Ferguson's book Civilisation: The West and the Rest in the London Review of Books, Ferguson threatened to sue for libel.[7][8]
One notable feature of the LRB is its "lonely hearts" personal adverts. They are a long established part of British culture and have spawned two books and a Twitter account.[9]
An independent bookshop opened in Bloomsbury in May 2003. A coffeehouse of cakes opened in November 2007.[2]
Notable contributors have included:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Here you can share your comments or contribute with more information, content, resources or links about this topic.