The Athenian Society was an organization founded by John Dunton

John Dunton

John Dunton was an English bookseller and author. In 1691, he founded an Athenian Society to publish The Athenian Mercury, the first major popular periodical and first miscellaneous periodical in England.-Early life:...

 in 1691 to facilitate the writing and publication of his weekly periodical The Athenian Mercury

The Athenian Mercury

] The Athenian Mercury, or The Athenian Gazette or The Question Project or The Casuistical Mercury, was a periodical written by The Athenian Society and published in London twice weekly between 17 March 1690 [i.e. 1691 new Calendar] and 14 June 1697...

. Though represented as a large panel of experts, the society reached its peak at four members: Dunton, Dr. John Norris, Richard Sault

Richard Sault

Richard Sault was an Englishmathematician, editor and translator, one of The Athenian Society. On the strength of his Second Spira he is also now credited as a Christian Cartesian philosopher.-Life:...

 and Dunton's brother-in-law Rev. Samuel Wesley

Samuel Wesley (poet)

Samuel Wesley was a poet and a writer of controversial prose. He was also the father of John Wesley and Charles Wesley, founders of the Methodist Church.-Family and early life:...

. The group would answer the questions of readers about any topic, creating the first advice column

Advice column

An advice column is a column in a magazine or newspaper written by an advice columnist . The image presented was originally of an older woman providing comforting advice and maternal wisdom, hence the name "aunt"...

.

History

In 1691, John Dunton founded The Athenian Society (not to be confused with several other "Athenian Societies") in order to publish a journal. This group was originally composed of a small number of friends: John Dunton and mathematics teacher Richard Sault

Richard Sault

Richard Sault was an Englishmathematician, editor and translator, one of The Athenian Society. On the strength of his Second Spira he is also now credited as a Christian Cartesian philosopher.-Life:...

, then philosopher Dr. John Norris (though he declined to be part of the Society in writing and associated to profits), quickly joined by Dunton's brother-in-law the poet Rev. Samuel Wesley

Samuel Wesley (poet)

Samuel Wesley was a poet and a writer of controversial prose. He was also the father of John Wesley and Charles Wesley, founders of the Methodist Church.-Family and early life:...

 (according to Dunton, it would eventually grow to 12 members; there is no evidence of such additional members, though). Its name, and all its subsequent related "Athenian" names, derived from a biblical reference to St. Paul in Athens: "For all the Athenians and strangers which were there spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some new thing." (Acts

ACTS

Acts or ACTS may refer to:Christianity* Acts of the Apostles , a genre of early Christian literature* Acts of the Apostles, the fifth book in the Bible's New Testament...

 17:21 KJV)

The Society was established in order to write and publish The Athenian Gazette, become The Athenian Mercury

The Athenian Mercury

] The Athenian Mercury, or The Athenian Gazette or The Question Project or The Casuistical Mercury, was a periodical written by The Athenian Society and published in London twice weekly between 17 March 1690 [i.e. 1691 new Calendar] and 14 June 1697...

with its second issue due to a legal threat, a journal sold one penny twice weekly, then four times a week. It professed to answer in print all questions received from anonymous readers on "divinity, history, philosophy, mathematics, love, poetry", and things in general; the answers (and sometimes the questions) were written anonymously by "a Member of the Athenian Society" (one of the four friends).

The new journal received a tremendous response and generated several imitations. On February 14, 1692, a young Jonathan Swift

Jonathan Swift

Jonathan Swift was an Irish satirist, essayist, political pamphleteer , poet and cleric who became Dean of St...

sent them a letter of appreciation along with an "Ode to the Athenian Society", his first published work. Concurrently to the periodical, issues of the journal were bound in calf leather and sold as The Athenian Gazette, collecting a whole volume for 2.5 shilling (about one month after the last issue collected was released), a more permanent form with indexes preferred by learned customers and distinguished women; this is why the journal is often referenced to by its original Athenian Gazette name rather than the Athenian Mercury issues.

Demise of the Society

In 1695, a glut of new titles led to the journal temporarily pausing in early 1696; in 1697, the death of Dunton's wife and the departure of Wesley after he received a promotion, led to a brief and aborted revival of the journal. It had run for 580 issues across nineteen volumes and a third: from March 17, 1691, to February 8, 1896 (19 full volumes of thirty issues, with a temporary closure between July and September 1692), then from May to June 14, 1697 (ten issues).

In 1703, Dunton sold the Athenian Mercury to publisher Andrew Bell, who collected selected and abridged parts in larger volumes called The Athenian Oracle, 3 volumes in 1703–1704, with multiple reprints. Dunton would go on to project compiling three more volumes (without serialization), releasing only the 4th in 1710. All four volumes were reprinted in 1728.

Major sources

• Berry, Helen M., Gender, society, and print culture in late Stuart England / The Cultural World of the Athenian Mercury, Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2003, ISBN 0-7546049-6-9

• Dunton, John & National Art Library (Great Britain) et al., The life and errors of John Dunton, citizen of London, J. Nichols, son, and Bentley, 1818

• Gudelunas, David, Confidential to America: newspaper advice columns and sexual education, Aldine Transaction, 2007, ISBN 1-4128068-8-7

• Locher, Miriam A., Advice online: advice-giving in an American Internet health column, John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2006, ISBN 9-0272539-2-7