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The Home

BEADLE'S SECOND VENTURE in the publishing line was a monthly magazine for women: The Home, a Fireside Monthly Companion and Guide for the Wife, the Mother, the Sister and the Daughter (Fig. 150). It was an octavo, 9 ½ by 6 inches in size. Each number contained about 54 pages enclosed in wrappers of a grayish tan color. The magazine was illustrated by full-page and smaller woodcuts and later by tinted lithographs and steel engravings. The latter, apparently, were obtained from other magazines, for many of them are marked "Engraved especially for the Ladies' Repository," "Godey's," "Peterson's," etc. There were two volumes annually, and the price was 25 cents a copy or $2.50 a year. Nine semiannual volumes were issued, from January, 1856, to June, 1860.

The first announcement⁽¹⁾ of the new magazine was a prospectus laid in the December, 1855, number of the Youth's Casket, and review copies were out as early as December 18.⁽²⁾ Erastus F. Beadle, alone, was the publisher of the first six numbers,⁽³⁾ and Mrs. H. E. G. Arey,⁽⁴⁾ at that time editor of the Youth's Casket, was editor. The publishing office was 199 Main Street, Buffalo.

In May, 1856, the office of the Home was removed to 277 Main Street, over Irwin P. Beadle's new book store, and the June number of the magazine shows on the wrappers that Beadle & Adams were now the publishers.⁽⁵⁾ As mentioned in Part II, Erastus Beadle had more or less given up his interest in the publishing business during the latter part of 1856, and had gone to Omaha in August to see about opening a real estate office⁽⁶⁾ He probably retained a nominal interest in the firm, and resumed active participation when the magazine moved to New York, January, 1859, for the announcement in the final number in June, 1860, is signed by him alone, as publisher.

The demand for the new magazine was greater than anticipated. As with all Beadle's publications, it was the intention to be able to supply back numbers. In the March number of The Home, 1856, is the announcement that the "January number will be reprinted because the first issue is completely sold out." Accordingly, a reprint of this number was issued as a supplement in June.

Each semiannual volume contains from 288 to 296 pages and some illustrations. The title of the magazine remained the same during the entire time it was published in Buffalo and for the first year after the office was moved to New York and Mrs. Victor became the editor. The last volume, however, from January to June, 1860, was entitled Beadle's Home Monthly. It may be that at this time Erastus Beadle resumed full charge, but with the June number he gave up its publication to devote more of his time to the "Dime Publications" of the firm of Irwin P. Beadle & Co.

Serial stories only are listed below.

Fig. 150. The Home
Nine Volumes were issued from January, 1856, to June, 1860.
NATURAL SIZE
† The tint block should be grayish tan, not brownish.

Notes

¹	See page 444 for a description of the second series.
²	The Saturday Journal, No. 419, gives 1360 words as the average per column.
³	New York Times, May 11, 1920.
⁴	Frank H. Severance (Randm Notes on the Authors of Buffalo, Publications of the Buffaclo Historical Society, IV, Buffalo, 1896, 339-379) makes the statement that Mrs. Arey "established" the Home. She was editor but Beadle established it. He also makes the statement that in 1859 Mrs. Arey and Mrs. C. H. Gildersleeve became the editors of the Home Monthly, which "was the Home enlarged." This is incorrect, for when hte Home was moved to New York and Mrs. M. V. Victor made editor, Mrs. arey at once started a rival magazine in the old Home offices and with a name as closely resembling the original as she dared. See under "History of the Firm," in the book, for the years 1855 to 1860.
⁵	See Part II of this book, for the year 1856.
⁶	To Nebraska in '57. August 19, 1856, et seq.

† Correction made as per Volume 3.

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