Yellow Book

A short-lived but most influential magazine published during the period 1894-97 and consisted of only 13 editions. It was instigated by a group of artists and writers considered largely as the 'avant-garde' of their time. These included Aubrey Beardsley, Walter Sickert, Charles Conder, D. S. MacColl, and the publisher John Lane the owner of Bodley Head. The first volume, published by Bodley Head saw the light of day on 16th April 1894. It was so eagerly received that it was printed three times to meet public demand. Early contributors included Edmund Gosse, Walter Crane, Lord Leighton and Henry James among others. Absent was writer Oscar Wilde who although a friend of Beardsley publicly decried the magazine.

All went well until Wild's arrest for public indecency in 1895 when he was seen carrying a 'yellow book'. It was wrongly assumed to be the publication in question and various contributors and an angry public demanded that Beardsley, the magazine's art editor be dismissed. Under pressure, Lane sacked Beardsley and removed all traces of the artist. The publication carried on for a further two years giving exposure to writers such as Henry James, H. G. Wells, W. B. Yeats and Arnold Bennett who was yet to become well-known. The Yellow Book was contemporaneously associated with aestheticism and decadence and, after Wilde's arrest with the then illegal practice of homosexuality.

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