‘Framley Parsonage’ in The Cornhill Magazine

June 1860

Storage Journal AP 4 C67 V.29

London: Smith, Elder & Co

In 1859, Anthony Trollope wrote to Thackeray, the founding editor of the Cornhill Magazine, offering his services as a staff writer for the new periodical and suggesting that he might write five short stories. Trollope offered five short stories, but three days later George Smith, the Cornhill’s publisher, wrote back, offering him £1000 in exchange for a three-volume serialized novel. The first part of Framley Parsonage appeared just after Christmas 1859 (officially, the issue was January 1860). With illustrations by John Everett Millais, Trollope’s story of love, gambling, and theft was both eye-catching and compelling. The new magazine sold 120,000 copies in its first week, although figures later settled down to between 80 and 85,000 each week.