“W. T. Stead and the Eastern Question (1875-1911); or, How to Rouse England and Why

In the funeral tribute to his personal friend who had died aboard the Titanic, Lord Milner portrayed Stead as ‘a ruthless fighter, who had always believed himself to be “on the…

Two Minds With but a Single Thought’: W. T. Stead, Henry James, and the Zancig Controversy

This article examines the strange correspondences between the work of two writers, Henry James and W. T. Stead, whose authorial voices are ostensibly very distinct from each other. While Stead…

‘Julia Says’: The Spirit-Writing and Editorial Mediumship of W. T. Stead

‘If I am remembered at all a hundred years hence, it will be as Julia’s amanuensis!’1 In 1909, W. T. Stead converted his old offices in Norfolk Street, just off…

Old v. New Journalism and the Public Sphere; or, Habermas Encounters Dallas and Stead

Though the phrase the ‘New Journalism’ did not become current in British periodicals until the later 1880s — the earliest recorded instances appear to date from articles issued around the…

‘No one pretends he was faultless’: W. T. Stead and the Women’s Movement

I. Introduction Mr. Stead’s frankness is the frankness of friendship. He is the Sir Galahad, the King Arthur whose chivalry is beyond question, for it has extended to something more than…

The Significance of the Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon

In 1885 W. T. Stead intervened in the campaign against organized prostitution in England which Josephine Butler had been leading for fifteen years. The principle of legalized prostitution had been…