The Boy’s Own Paper

Jill Allum reflects on a family connection with the first magazine produced for boys

Front page of the first issue of The Boy’s Own Paper, dated Saturday January 18, 1879 | Photo: Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

How does an idea begin? I’m going back to 1879. My great grandfather, Ebenezer Henderson Smith, is twenty-eight. There are no comics for young people, but plenty of good storywriters.

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