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Joseph Snell Wood (4 January 1853 – 20 December 1920), usually known as J. S. Wood, was a business man and journalist in London. For some twenty-five years he was the editor, chairman, and managing director of ''The Gentlewoman'', a prominent illustrated paper for women which he had founded in 1890, and he was also chairman of Press Printers Limited. ==Life== Born in Stepney,〔''England & Wales Birth Index, 1837–1915'', vol. 1c for 1853, p. 504: "Wood, Joseph Snell, (District ) Stepney, Jan–Feb–Mar 1853"〕 the first son of another Joseph Wood, by his marriage to Elizabeth, a daughter of Andrew Snell, of Sandford, Devon,〔 Wood's early work was connected with a variety of charitable hospitals in London. From 1888 to 1916 he was Deputy Chairman of the Royal Irish Industries Association, which helped people working in cottage industries in Ireland.〔 In 1890, Wood established a new illustrated paper for women, ''The Gentlewoman'', which he managed.〔Douglas Brooke Wheelton Sladen, ''Twenty Years of My Life'' (1915), p. 201: "J. S. Wood, the founder and managing director of the Gentlewoman, and one of the real founders of the Primrose League, was often from the beginning at our at-homes, with his pretty Italian wife, and his daughters as they grew up. We used to meet them in the season at Ranelagh, too. Wood has been much more than a founder and editor of newspapers, for he has been connected with the management of several of our most important charities, and has himself been instrumental in raising a quarter of a million for them."〕 This became the focal point of Wood's publishing career, and ''The Gentlewoman'' was successful in attracting many well-known writers of the day.〔''Truth'', vol. 44 (1898), p. 261: "''The Gentlewoman'' has gained for itself a reputation and position of stability which is without parallel in the history of any similar Journal, having regard to the number of years it has been established. Its high tone and artistic and literary excellence have made it a popular weekly newspaper."〕 At the very outset, he showed an innovative touch by serialising a novel in the paper's first twenty issues, unusual in two ways: not only was it written by readers of the paper, instead of professional writers, but a different reader wrote each chapter. In 1891 this notion was developed further when he commissioned a serial novel called "The Fate of Fenella",〔Edward Jewitt Wheeler, ed., ''Current Opinion'', vol. 9 (1892), p. 156: "An amateur novel appeared in the first twenty numbers of the ''Gentlewoman'', each chapter of which was written by a different reader of the magazine; this proved so successful as to suggest to the editor the scheme of having a novel by professionals conducted on the same plan; the result has been a work of fiction called ''The Fate of Fenella''"〕 for which twenty-four writers including Arthur Conan Doyle, Bram Stoker, and Mrs Trollope each produced one chapter "without any plan or collaboration".〔'Christmas Numbers' in ''The Times'', issue 33508 dated 15 December 1891, p. 6: "the ''Gentlewoman'' has... the beginning of a novel, produced under exceptional conditions, "The Fate of Fenella". Each chapter has been written by a different person, and that, we are officially assured, without any plan or collaboration. Miss Helen Mathers opens the ball, and will be followed, in the order they are named, by Mr. J. H. McCarthy, Mrs. Trollope, Mr. Conan Doyle, Miss May Crommelin, Mr. F. C. Phillips, "Rita", Mr. Joseph Hatton, Mrs. Lovett Cameron, Mr. Bram Stoker, Miss Florence Marryatt, Mr. Frank Danby, Mrs. Edward Kennard, Mr. Richard Dowling, Mrs. Hungerford, Mr. Arthur à Beckett, Mr. H. W. Lucy, Miss Jean Middlemass, Mr. F. C. Burnand, and Mr. Manville Fenn. The results of so peculiar an experiment will be awaited with some curiosity".〕〔(The Fate of Fenella ) from ''The Spectator'' dated May 1892, at spectator.co.uk, accessed 21 February 2014〕 In 1894 Wood founded the Society of Women Journalists, which only two years later had more than two hundred members.〔F. Elizabeth Gray, ''Women in Journalism at the Fin de Siècle'' (2012, ISBN 1137001305), (p. 18 ), footnote 25: "The Society of Women Journalists was founded in 1894 by Joseph S. Wood, editor of the Gentlewoman. By 1896 membership numbered more than 200."〕 A Conservative in politics, he was a member of the Carlton Club〔 and of the Grand Council of the Primrose League,〔'Death of Mr. J. S. Wood' (obituary) in ''The Times'', issue 42600 dated 22 December 1920, p. 13〕 of which Douglas Sladen called him "one of the real founders".〔 To celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria, Wood wrote and published ''The Gentlewoman's Record of the Glorious Reign of Victoria the Good''.〔''National Union Catalog'', vol. 672 (Mansell, 1980), p. 269〕 In 1902, the novelist Marie Corelli wrote to Wood as editor of ''The Gentlewoman'' to complain that her name had been left out of a list of the guests in the Royal Enclosure at the Braemar Highland Gathering. Wood replied that her name had been left out intentionally, because of her own stated contempt for the press and her past objections to the snobbery of those who liked to appear in the "news puffs" of society events. He printed both letters in full in the next issue of ''The Gentlewoman''.〔Teresa Ransom, ''The Mysterious Miss Marie Corelli: Queen of Victorian Bestsellers'' (2013), (p. 100 )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「J. S. Wood」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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