Edward Cave came up with the idea of publishing a magazine that would appeal to a general audience and address a wide variety of topics.
Today, in 1754, Edward Cave, the originator and publisher of the first magazine in world history, has died in the modern sense of the word. His magazine was called The Gentleman’s Magazine. It is interesting that Cave, by all accounts, was the first to use the name magazine for a magazine, probably modeled on military warehouses. By the way, the word magazine in terms of storage in English came from Arabic.
Edward Cave was born in 1691 in the city of Newton, central England. At a young age, he was involved in various jobs and came up with the idea of publishing a magazine that would appeal to a general audience and address a wide variety of topics (without specializing in a narrow area, such as scientific journals). In 1731 Cave began publishing The Gentleman’s Magazine, which soon became the most widely read and popular periodical in England.
Interestingly, even the famous Samuel Johnson, one of the most learned men in Britain in the 18th century, wrote for Cave’s magazine. On the contrary, it seems that at one time writing for The Gentleman’s Magazine was a major source of revenue for Johnson. Edward Cave even made a fortune with his magazine. He personally wrote for the magazine under the pseudonym Sylvanus Urban. Cave died on this day in 1754, at the age of 63. His magazine continued to be published until 1922.
