Religious Tract Society
Encyclopedia
The Religious Tract Society, founded 1799, 56 Paternoster Row
Paternoster Row
Paternoster Row was a London street in which clergy of the medieval St Paul's Cathedral would walk, chanting the Lord's Prayer . It was devastated by aerial bombardment in The Blitz during World War II. Prior to this destruction the area had been a centre of the London publishing trade , with...

 and 65 St. Paul's Chuchyard, was the original name of a major British publisher of Christian literature intended initially for evangelism, and including literature aimed at children, women, and the poor.

The RTS is also notable for being the publisher of the Boys' Own Paper and Girl's Own Paper
Girl's Own Paper
Girl's Own Paper was a British story paper catering for girls and young women, published from 1880 until 1956.- Publishing history :The first weekly number of the Girl's Own Paper appeared on January 3, 1880. As with its male counterpart the Boy's Own Paper, the magazine was published by the...

.

The founders were of the same type of evangelicals who founded the London Missionary Society
London Missionary Society
The London Missionary Society was a non-denominational missionary society formed in England in 1795 by evangelical Anglicans and Nonconformists, largely Congregationalist in outlook, with missions in the islands of the South Pacific and Africa...

 and the British and Foreign Bible Society
British and Foreign Bible Society
The British and Foreign Bible Society, often known in England and Wales as simply as Bible Society, is a non-denominational Christian Bible society with charity status whose purpose is to make the Bible available throughout the world....

, for example David Bogue
David Bogue
David Bogue was a British nonconformist leader.-Life:He was born in the parish of Coldingham, Berwickshire, Scotland. After a course of study in Edinburgh, he was licensed to preach by the Church of Scotland, but made his way to London in 1771, to teach in schools at Edmonton, Hampstead and...

.

The society started by publishing tract
Tract (literature)
A tract is a literary work, and in current usage, usually religious in nature. The notion of what constitutes a tract has changed over time. By the early part of the 21st century, these meant small pamphlets used for religious and political purposes, though far more often the former. They are...

s, but rapidly expanded their work into the production of books and periodicals. Their books were mostly small but did include larger works such as the multi-volume Devotional Commentary and the massive Analytical Concordance to the Bible
Young's Analytical Concordance to the Bible
Young's Analytical Concordance to the Bible is a concordance to the Bible compiled by Robert Young first published in 1879.-Contents:* Hints and Helps to Bible Interpretation...

 of Robert Young
Robert Young (Biblical scholar)
Robert Young, LL.D., F.E.S.L. was a Scottish publisher who was self-taught and proficient in various oriental languages. He published works, the best known being a Bible translation commonly referred to as Young's Literal Translation.-Life:...

.

In 1935 the RTS merged with the Christian Literature Society for India and Africa to form the United Society for Christian Literature (USCL). In 1931, there was a change of imprint to Lutterworth Press
Lutterworth Press
The Lutterworth Press is one of the oldest independent British publishing houses. It has been trading since the late eighteenth century initially as the Religious Tract Society...

 for all RTS publications intended for the home market.

Further reading

  • William Jones, The Jubilee Memorial of the Religious Tract Society. London, The Religious Tract Society, 1850, 706 pages. Gives a full description of the first fifty years and remains the indispensable guide to the foundation of the Society
  • Samuel G. Green, The Story of the Religious Tract Society for one hundred years. London, Religious Tract Society, 1899, 216 pages. Brings the story up to the centenary, but is much less illuminating
  • Gordon Hewitt, Let the People Read . . .London, Lutterworth Press, 1949, 96 pages. Illustrations by Richard Kennedy
  • Aileen Fyfe, Science and Salvation: Evangelical Popular Science Writing in Victorian Britain. Chicago, Illinois, University of Chicago Press, 2004, 432 pages. ISBN 978-0-226-27648-9. Deals with one aspect of the Society's publishing programme
  • Dennis Butts and Pat Garrett (ed.), From the Dairyman's Daughter to Worrals of the WAAF: The Religious Tract Society, Lutterworth Press and Children's Literature. Concentrates on the contribution to children's writing from the foundation onwards.

See also

  • History of Christian Missions
  • American Tract Society
    American Tract Society
    The American Tract Society is a nonprofit, nonsectarian but evangelical organization founded on May 11, 1825 in New York City for the purpose of publishing and disseminating Christian literature. ATS traces its lineage back through the New York Tract Society and the New England Tract Society to...

  • Ebenezer Henderson
    Ebenezer Henderson
    Ebenezer Henderson , a Scottish divine, was born at the Linn near Dunfermline, and died at Mortlake.He was the youngest son of an agricultural labourer, and after three years schooling spent some time at watchmaking and as a shoemaker's apprentice. In 1803 he joined Robert Haldane's theological...

  • Clapham Sect
    Clapham Sect
    The Clapham Sect or Clapham Saints were a group of influential like-minded Church of England social reformers based in Clapham, London at the beginning of the 19th century...

  • School of Oriental and African Studies page on RTS/USCL
  • http://www.ccel.org/php/disp.php?authorID=schaff&bookID=encyc11&page=476&view= Schaff-Herzog
    Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge
    The Schaff–Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge is a religious encyclopedia. It is based on an earlier German encyclopedia, the Realencyklopädie für protestantische Theologie und Kirche. Like the Realencyklopädie, it focuses on Christianity from a primarily Protestant point of...

     article on Tract Societies with lengthy section on RTS
  • Feed the Minds - an offshoot and perhaps successor of RTS/USCL
  • George Mogridge (Old Humphrey)
    George Mogridge (Old Humphrey)
    George Mogridge was a prolific 19th century writer, poet and author of children's books and religious tracts. He is chiefly known by his pseudonym of 'Old Humphrey', under which name he published 46 works, but also used the pen-names 'Jeremy Jaunt', 'Ephraim Holding', 'Peter Parley' and 'Old...

    - one of the Society's most popular and prolific authors
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