ABSTRACT
The idea of founding a “London Magazine” to rival Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine occurred to at least two publishers at about the same time. As Baldwin, Cradock, and Joy were launching their famous London Magazine, Gold and Northhouse began publishing their LONDON MAGAZINE; and Critical and Dramatic Review (usually designated Gold’s London Magazine to distinguish it from its longer-lived rival). It published two volumes under that name in 1820 and (after merging with the Theatrical Inquisitor, q.v.) published two more volumes in 1821 as London Magazine and Theatrical Inquisitor. The reviews themselves show how Gold’s London Magazine struggled for identity against Baldwin’s, taking issue with the opinions of the rival London Magazine just as that periodical battled Blackwood’s, though both London Magazines were politically liberal and were sympathetic to Romantic poetic theory.
