In 1811, the London Times bought the first model of an automated printing press - a reflection of England's first wave of industrialization over the last century, a signal of the new phase in English writing, reading and publishing in the years to come.

Over the course of the 19th century, book production would become standardized, making the quintessential Victorian literary form - the novel - accessible, not just to the upper classes, but to the middle and working classes as well.

The expansion of the British Empire led to renewed interest in translating foreign literature into English. The Victorians' so-called "invention of childhood" (accompanied by the introduction of compulsory education) also made way for a new genre - the children's book.

And the speed and volume with which a steam-powered press could print allowed newspapers and magazines to circulate on a massive scale.

The Wide World Magazine was first published by George Newnes in April 1898, with the motto, "Truth is Stranger than Fiction" emblazoned on its pink front cover every month.

In August of the same year, the magazine began running a new serial - "Adventures of Louis De Rougemont" - which the editor, William Fitzgerald, touted as "the most amazing story man ever lived to tell." The magazine, with its title shortened simply to Wide World, remained in circulation until 1965.

"At no time in our history did we - the English-speaking peoples - take such a quick, keen, and intelligent interest, as at present, in the affairs of the Wide World . . . we demand almost hourly information about all parts of the Universe - literally from China to Peru. It is not our purpose to offer any explanation of this awakening, rather do we offer the Wide World Magazine feeling morally certain its birth comes exactly at the right moment. The key-note of the magazine is struck in the motto on the cover 'Truth is Stranger than Fiction.'"
- Wide World Magazine editor William Fitzgerald, 1898