Annuals

Annuals, the name given to a class of sumptuous books, much in demand during the first half of the present century, for Christmas, New-year, and birthday presents. They were usually illustrated with good engravings, and often contained prose and poetry by most of the best writers of the day. The first of them, the Forget-me-not, was begun in London in 1822. The following year, two others made their appearance, Friendship's Offering and The Graces, the latter containing a series of elegant poems on the Months by the Rev. Dr Croly. The Literary Souvenir, however, commenced in 1824 by Mr Alaric A. Watts, was the first really beautiful book of this kind, and after its appearance the annuals became every succeeding year more and more attractive. It was followed by the Amulet, started by Mr S. C. Hall, and edited by his wife; the Winter's Wreath, a provincial annual; and the aristocratic Keepsake, commenced in 1827 by Mr Charles Heath, an eminent engraver. The last was published at a guinea, instead of the usual twelve shillings of former annuals, and was throughout one of the most successful of its class. Its first editor was Mr W. H. Ainsworth, and among his successors were Lady Emmeline Stuart Wortley and the Countess of Blessington. In its second year, Scott refused the editorship at a salary of £800, but had £500 for a few contributions. The first volume of the Book of Beauty, begun in 1833, and long one of the best of the series, was written by Letitia E. Landon; its second and all succeeding issues by the Countess of Blessington. Other annuals were the Picturesque Annual, Hood's Comic Annual, the Children of the Nobility, the Juvenile Album, the Musical Bijou, the Drawing-room Scrap-book (the last edited at first by Letitia E. Landon, afterwards by Mrs Howitt, and latterly by Mrs Norton), the Juvenile Scrap-book, the Oriental Annual, the Historical Annual, the Gift, and the Token; the last three, American productions. For several years, nearly £100,000 per annum was expended on the production of annuals, and 150,000 copies of them were yearly sold. The sale of the Forget-me-not alone was at one time 20,000 copies. In 1829 no fewer than seventeen were published. In 1840 their number had dwindled to nine. From this time the demand for the annual steadily declined. Publishers no longer found them safe speculations, and gradually discontinued them. They dropped out, one by one, like spent rockets, from the literary firmament. The Literary Souvenir had been discontinued in 1834, after the publication of ten volumes. The Forget-me-not, the first in the field, saw its twenty-second year. The Book of Beauty and the Keepsake (of 1856) were the last of their race. Innumerable Christmas Annuals are now published; but these are cheap collections of tales and poems, illustrated with woodcuts. They are accordingly quite unlike the old annuals, and are similar to the extra Christmas numbers issued by many of the monthly magazines.