ABSTRACT
Fraser's Magazine induces in the biographer of William Maginn some of the anxieties that the editor experiences when faced with the notorious paper bags in Carlyle's Sartor Resartus. By late 1829, Maginn, William Fraser, Hugh Fraser, and others were hatching plans for the pugnacious monthly periodical that would become Fraser's Magazine for Town and Country. Maginn was busy in the run-up to the launchin January he broke several engagements with Lockhart and failed to send promised material to Blackwood. Early on a decision was made that Fraser's, like Blackwood's, would be officially edited by a nonentity, a pseudo-person. In Blackwood's, space eventually shrinks to the parlor of Ambrose's tavern where the dining, drinking, and conversation take place among a few drouthy cronies. Blackwood's rowdy old friend was behind a competitor in which he could trace signed or unsigned contributions by many Maga stalwarts.
