Eclectic Review

The Eclectic Review was published between 1805 and 1868, reviewing books in many fields, including literature, history, theology, politics, science, art, and philosophy, with its greatest emphasis upon literature. The Eclectic was among the first to review such Romantic writers as Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, as well as the Victorian novelist Dickens and the popular American writer Washington Irving. Founded by Calvinist Dissenters, the Eclectic was broadly non-sectarian, publishing writers from across the dissenting spectrum, even Evangelical Anglicans. The first significant editor was the co-founder Daniel Parken, who helped establish the popularity of the periodical; after Parken's death, Josiah Conder purchased the periodical, serving as editor from 1813 until 1836; from 1837 to 1850, Thomas Price, former minister at the Devonshire Square Baptist Church, London, 1827-37, edited the periodical, returning it to its popularity and success; in its final years, Edwin Paxton Hood and J. E. Ryland, the latter the son of John Ryland, Jr., Baptist minister at Northampton and Bristol, enjoyed considerable success as the magazine's editors. Among its leading contributors were John Foster, James Montgomery, Robert Southey, abolitionist George Thompson, James Mill, mathematician Olinthus Gregory, reformer Andrew Reed, philanthropist Thomas Chalmers, and the theologian Adam Clarke.