Book Reviews 401 Simon Cooke. Illustrated Periodicals of the 1860s: Contexts & Collaborations. Middlesex, England: Private Libraries Association; New Castle, Del.: Oak Knoll Press; London: British Library, 2010. 228p. alk. paper, $75 (ISBN 9781584562757). LC 200947859. This handsomely printed and profusely illustrated book provides insight into the complex processes involved in illustrating British periodicals of “The Sixties”—that is, the period roughly from 1855 to the mid-1870s. Published to entertain and instruct middle-class readers, periodicals of this period contained serialized nov- els along with historical pieces, poetry, and articles of general interest. Among them were The Cornhill Magazine, Good Words, London Society, and Once a Week. Acknowledging that other scholars have paid close attention to these magazines’ illustrations as art, Simon Cooke chooses to emphasize the dynamic collaboration of publishers, editors, artists, authors, and engravers who were involved in produc- ing appropriate illustrations for specific literary works. In developing context for the book, the author explains how the illustrations of this period differed from those created earlier in the nineteenth century. Whereas such artists as George Cruikshank had employed art as social satire in creating prints or illustrating books, the artists of the Sixties worked in a more academic style to produce realistic drawings that were “both escapist and satirical, highly moral and overwhelmed with a sense of archaic dreaminess.” Although they found ways to express their creativity in producing illustrations of a more modern nature, these artists ultimately followed the wishes of their employers as they cor- related their drawings to passages of text. In successive chapters, Cooke explains the relationships between the artists and the publishers, editors, authors, and en- gravers with whom they worked. Publish- ers usually exercised tight control of the process of illustrating their magazines; some dispensed with editors altogether. Such artists as George du Maurier, John Everett Millais, Frederick Sandys, and Frederick Walker worked directly with George Murray Smith, publisher of The Cornhill Magazine, and with John Cassell (The Quiver) and James Hogg (London Society). Samuel Lucas, editor of Once a Week, was a notable exception to the gen- eral practice of editors serving merely as middle-managers. Artists were expected to develop drawings that adhered strictly to the directives of their employers, who did not hesitate to reject submissions or to seek new talent. Some artists, includ- ing Charles Keene, were adept at varying their style to meet the requirements of each commission. His work for Lucas in illustrating novels by George Meredith and Forrest Reid demonstrated not only his versatility but also his ability to en- hance the literary impact of the works themselves. The dynamic among authors, artists, and engravers varied according to the personalities involved. Editor Lucas dis- couraged collaboration between authors and artists, but publisher Smith fostered such relationships. Writers could be very demanding in specifying aspects of the il- lustrations for their books. Charles Reade dominated Robert Barnes, a relatively unknown illustrator, as he developed pic- tures for Reade’s novel Put Yourself in His Place. On the other hand, novelist George Eliot freely cooperated with the highly re- garded Frederic Leighton as he illustrated her book, Romola, which was serialized in The Cornhill Magazine. Engravers, who assumed the complex task of duplicating, insofar as possible, illustrators’ drawings on blocks of boxwood and then creating electrotypes from these woodcuts, had mixed results in pleasing the artists with whom they worked. Whereas Frederick Sandys took a confrontational approach in working with the engravers Dalziels Brothers, George du Mauier had a posi- tive relationship with Joseph Swain, who engraved his illustrations for M.E. Brad- don’s book Eleanor’s Victory, a book that appeared in Once a Week during 1863. 402 College & Research Libraries July 2011 In explaining these complex relation- ships, Cooke provides insights that will be valuable to the fields of librarianship, print history, and literary criticism. A sur- prising number of libraries in the United States have solid holdings of some of the magazines discussed in this book. The author’s ideas should aid scholars who study the magazines to understand their illustrations in new ways—not the least of which is the manner in which some of the illustrations enhanced the quality of the literary works in which they appeared. One only wishes that Cooke had paid at least passing attention to how the British periodicals he discusses relate to those published during the same period in the United States. Cooke’s solid scholarship, which is based on many years of collecting and studying nineteenth-century British periodicals, artists’ drawings and proofs, plates, original correspondence and business records, published memoirs, and an extensive number of secondary sources, builds on his related articles, which have appeared in Brontë Studies, Thomas Hardy Journal, Victorians Institute Journal, and Victorian Periodicals Review. The book is enhanced by the inclusion of an appendix containing annotated listings of the principal periodicals, publishers, editors, artists, and engrav- ers, and by a select bibliography and index.—Maurice C. York, East Carolina University.