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London Review of Books

British magazine of literary reviews

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 10, 2026
Entity authorityQ1869064 ↗
Source-derived summary

The London Review of Books (LRB) is a British literary magazine published semimonthly that features articles and essays on fiction and non-fiction subjects, which are usually structured as book reviews.

History

The London Review of Books (LRB) was founded in 1979, when publication of The Times Literary Supplement was suspended during the year-long lock-out at The Times. The LRB's founding editors were Karl Miller, then professor of English at University College London; Mary-Kay Wilmers, formerly an editor at The Times Literary Supplement; and Susannah Clapp, a former editor at Jonathan Cape. For its first six months, the LRB appeared as an insert in The New York Review of Books. It became an independent publication in May 1980. Its political stance has been described by Alan Bennett, a prominent contributor, as "consistently radical".

Unlike The Times Literary Supplement (TLS), the majority of the articles the LRB publishes (usually fifteen per issue) are long essays. Some articles in each issue are not based on books, while several short articles discuss film or exhibitions. Political and social essays are frequent. The magazine is headquartered in Bloomsbury, London.

Editorial summary

“London Review of Books” enters the record as british magazine of literary reviews. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what London, Review and Books can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewBest approached as a cultural-object dossier: authorship and date matter, but circulation and reception often explain the wider significance. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1979, 1980—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1979. Its strongest next move is a source search built around London, Review and Books.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“London Review of Books” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, London, Review and Books provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 10, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1869064. VIAF identifies the subject as 315654728. 3 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 2 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1979 and 1980.

Critical limits

Later fame can flatten the distinction between original context, subsequent adaptation and institutional collecting history. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

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  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
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The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “London Review of Books”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow London Review of Books primary sources, London Review of Books archive and London research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “London Review of Books”?
  2. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
  3. Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “London Review of Books” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.