In 1890, after six years of working for
George Newnes,
C. Arthur Pearson left to form his own publishing business. Within three weeks of forming C. Arthur Pearson Ltd in 1890, the company began publishing the
periodical journal ''
Pearson's Weekly'', the first issue of which sold a quarter of a million copies. In January 1894, Pearson launched the women's magazine
Home Notes, with the aim of dominating the penny magazine market. In 1896, Pearson launched ''
Pearson's Magazine, a monthly magazine which specialized in speculative literature, political discussion, often of a socialist bent, and the arts. In 1898, Pearson founded The Royal Magazine, a monthly literary magazine which remained in publication until 1939. London Opinion was launched in 1903, running until 1954, when it merged with Men Only'' (started in 1935). Pearson also participated in the early British comics publishing business, launching
Big Budget in 1897 and ''
Dan Leno's Comic Journal'' in 1898. Pearson was in the book business from 1897 to around 1945. In the latter years of the 19th century, Pearson published a number of notable first editions, including
H. G. Wells'
The Invisible Man (1897),
Bram Stoker's
Miss Betty (1898), and
Baroness Orczy's ''
The Emperor's Candlesticks'' (1899). Pearson published books by such writers as
Winifred Graham,
Percy F. Westerman,
Norman Hunter,
Fâ’iz El-Ghusein,
Robert Leighton,
Marie Connor, and
Catherine Christian. In 1898, Pearson purchased the
Morning Herald, and in 1900 merged it into his new creation, the
halfpenny Daily Express. The
Express was a departure from the papers of its time and created an immediate impact by carrying news instead of only advertisements on its front page. Pearson was successful in establishing papers in provincial locations such as the
Birmingham Daily Gazette. Pearson came into direct competition with the
Daily Mail and in the resulting commercial fight almost took control of
The Times, being nominated as its manager, but the deal fell through. In 1904 Pearson purchased the struggling
The Standard and its sister paper the
Evening Standard for
£700,000 from the Johnstone family. He merged the
Evening Standard with his ''
St James's Gazette and changed the Conservative stance of both papers into a pro-Liberal one, but was unsuccessful in arresting the slide in sales and in 1910 sold them to the MP Sir Davison Dalziel, and Sir Alexander Henderson. The Daily Express'' eventually passed, in November 1916, under the control of the Canadian–British tycoon Sir Max Aitken, later
Lord Beaverbrook. Reflecting its founder's support of the
British Boy Scout movement, C. Arthur Pearson Ltd was responsible for a number of Scouting publications, including
The Scout magazine, launched in 1908; the
Scouting for Boys handbook, published in various editions beginning in 1908; and ''
The Wolf Cub's Handbook'', by
Robert Baden-Powell, founder of the worldwide scouting movement (1916). Beginning to lose his sight due to
glaucoma despite a 1908 operation, C. Arthur Pearson was progressively forced from 1910 onwards to relinquish his newspaper interests.
Imprint of George Newnes Ltd Pearson himself retained a cooperative relationship with his old employer,
George Newnes Ltd, and by 1914, C. Arthur Pearson Ltd had essentially become an imprint of Newnes. With Pearson's death in 1921, this arrangement was formalized, and in 1929 Newnes purchased all outstanding shares of Pearson's company. The Pearson imprint focused mostly on magazines from the 1930s through the 1950s, known for ongoing titles like
Home Notes and
London Opinion, as well as
Men Only. Pearson dipped into the pulp magazine market with short-lived titles like
Scoops (1934) and
Fantasy (1938–1939). ''
Pearson's Magazine, Pearson's Weekly, and The Royal Magazine'' were all canceled in 1939, on the eve of
World War II. Notable comics titles published by Pearson in the 1950s and early 1960s included the
romance comics Mirabelle,
The New Glamour, and
Marty; and the
Picture Stories and
Picture Library series.
Acquisition by Odhams and then IPC; closure By 1959, Newness/Pearson was considered one of London's three leading magazine publishers — along with
Odhams Press and the
Hulton Press; that year Odhams acquired both of its rivals. In 1961, Newnes/Pearson became part of the
International Publishing Corporation. The Pearson imprint disappeared sometime around 1965. == Notable publications ==