Ashton, Rosemary - 142 Strand

Physical address of John Chapman, writer, publisher and editor of the influential Westminster Review.
A quarterly, it was an outlet for progressives and radicals, questioning Victorian society and Faith.
Incubator of Victorian titans including Thomas Huxley, Herbert Spencer, Marion Evans, James Froude, Harriet Martineau, too many more.
As a journal of intellectual thought, WR never made money.
Indeed, countless pages are devoted to Chapman’s unceasing quest to find backers and donations.
Chapman himself is inspiring as well infuriating.
He possesses vision, but lacks focus. Rather than mend faults, he makes excuses. In financial matters, he is totally hopeless. He holds his wife in contempt, cheats on her with several women.
For all that, he kept the Westminster ongoing for 40+ years.
Ashton’s book is informative, though chronology proves a merry skip-around.
Readers leap ahead five or ten years, then swing back, only to touch upon earlier incidents.
Most of the “names” are bygone and may be forgotten save by English majors and Victorian fans.