FICTION INDEX: 1896 - 1950

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The very first edition of the Daily Mail was published on February 15th, 1896. This was the first in a series of registration issues, part of a dummy-run of daily editions that were printed from this date through May 2nd, 1896. It wasn't until May 4th, 1896, that the first edition of the Daily Mail hit the streets of London, thus finally making it available to the public. A broadsheet newspaper, priced at one halfpenny, it was founded by the brothers Alfred and Harold Harmsworth. The circulation of the Daily Mail grew enormously in the first few years of its existence. For generations it was the national companion newspaper to the London Evening News, both titles under the ownership of Associated Newspapers Ltd. Having absorbed in its time such papers as the Daily Sketch and the News Chronicle, the Daily Mail was relaunched as a tabloid in 1971. The editorial headquarters of the newspaper (which along with the printing presses were originally based in Carmelite Street) were relocated in the late 1980s to the new Northcliffe House in Kensington, where they remain to this day. The Daily Mail continues to be one of the best-selling newspapers in Britain.

From the outset, the paper regularly published short stories and novels, the latter in serial form. The fiction feature, or "feuilleton", as it was known in the early days, remained a popular highlight of the Daily Mail until well into the 1930s. While some fiction has appeared sporadically in the Daily Mail in recent decades, this website is an index to all the fiction that was published in the newspaper from its beginning until the end of 1950. It was during these years that the vast majority of stories and novels were printed in the newspaper. For the first time ever, this index provides a permanent record of the long tradition of fiction in the early years of the Daily Mail.

Visitors to this website may also be interested in:

THE EVENING NEWS SHORT STORY INDEX

AN INDEX TO THE FICTION PUBLISHED IN THE STAR

With special thanks to Allen J. Hubin for providing authors' full names, pseudonyms and birth/death dates.

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Copyright © 2009 Richard Simms