Cirrus@Austlit

In December 1903, Arthur Hoey Davis published the first issue of Steele Rudd's Magazine, beginning a long period as proprietor of several series of Steele Rudd magazines. Davis was widely known as Steele Rudd, the author of On Our Selection (1899) and Our New Selection (1903). Many of the stories contained in these volumes had been published previously in the Bulletin, providing Davis with a wide readership.

Offered to readers 'in the interests of Australian Literature and Art', the magazine promised 'to fill its pages with nothing but first-class work both as regards writing and drawing.' In addition to many stories by Steele Rudd, writers such as Joseph Furphy, Mary Gilmore, George Essex Evans and Victor Daley contributed stories and poetry. Ashton Murphy was announced as the primary cartoonist in the first issue, but Davis attracted contributions from many other visual artists including Norman, Lionel and Ruby Lindsay, George Taylor, Ruth Simpson and Arthur Hingston. Not entirely made up of literary content, the magazine also published articles on sport, fashion and the theatre.

The magazine had a significant rural bias, signalled immediately by its many advertisements for farm and domestic equipment. Published in Brisbane for Steele Rudd & Co., the magazine attracted many local advertisers and a number from Toowoomba near where many of Rudd's stories are set. In later issues, characters from Rudd's stories appeared in advertisements for farm equipment.

Like the Bulletin, Steele Rudd's Magazine encouraged contributions from readers, printing many in the 'Out-back Realities' section. Steele Rudd also wrote a 'Correspondence Column', responding to contributions with witty advice and caustic rejections in the manner of the Bulletin.

Davis was one of the few writers in the early 1900s who made a significant income from his writing. But overspending and poor business investments brought financial trouble. In 1905 Davis sold Steele Rudd's Magazine to J. F. Millington who then acted as editor. But by January 1906, Davis had bought back his interest in the magazine, apologizing in the January issue for the editorial policies of the previous eight months.

Steele Rudd's Magazine survived for another eighteen months. In February 1907 Davis moved to Sydney, conducting his editorial duties from there. But, despite the financial stability of the magazine, Davis was not satisfied with the salary he was drawing for the time and energy he provided. His solution was to cease publication. The last issue of Steele Rudd's Magazine appeared mid-year and Davis had returned to Brisbane by November. This was not, however, the end of Davis's career as a magazine proprietor. He revived the magazine several times during the next twenty years under variant titles, but consistently encountered financial difficulty.

When Arthur Hoey Davis (Steele Rudd) returned to Brisbane from Sydney in November 1907, he had recently ceased production of Steele Rudd's Magazine. The magazine appeared monthly between December 1903 and July 1907, bringing a modest profit, but Davis, tired of of the small return he received, decided to concentrate on his own writing. This, however, was not the end of Davis's life as a magazine proprietor. Ten years later with the help of Ashton Murphy, he revived the magazine as an annual publication.

The first issue of Steel Rudd's Annual appeared in December 1917. The editorial announced that the magazine 'will take a leading hand in featuring the love, the loyalty, the literature and art of Australia, and be a boon, a blessing and a joy for ever in the land.' Maintaining the rural focus of the earlier series, the annual continued to advertise farm equipment and other domestic products.

In addition to the serialisation of Steele Rudd's Some Memoirs of Corporal Keely, other contributors included Will Ogilvie and David McKee Wright. Artists appearing in this first issue included A. J. Hingston, Ruby Lindsay and Ambrose Dyson. In later issues, regular contributors included Edward Dyson, E. L. Anderson, Ashton Murphy and Mabel Forrest.

Most of the prose, poetry and art work exhibited the rural bias of the magazine, supporting Davis's belief in the nobility and reward that came from living on the land. This theme is most evident in the first issue where the opening article addresses the problem of compensating soldiers returning from the First World War. By stressing the benefits of the land settlement plan proposed by the Queensland Government, the article began a sustained promotion in Steel Rudd's Annual of settlement in rural Queensland. Among other articles on settlement in Queensland, the success of the land settlement plan was described four years later in the article 'Empire Defenders and Builders.'

The December issue of 1922 announced the formation of The Queensland Magazine Co. Ltd for the purpose of printing and publishing a new monthly magazine. This issue was to be the final Steele Rudd's Annual. It was replaced in April 1923 with the first issue of Steele Rudd's Monthly.

Steele Rudd and Shop Assistants' Magazine was Arthur Hoey Davis' fourth stint as proprietor of a magazine that displayed his pseudonym in the title. Moving to Sydney a year after the closure of Steele Rudd's Monthly in February 1925, Davis secured the support of the Australian Workers' Union for his new magazine. But the socialist connections and related content in the magazine deterred many booksellers from ordering the magazine. In addition to the socialist focus, Davis and his companion Winifred Hamilton also contributed articles and stories. Hamilton wrote under the pen-name 'Callisto' and Davis published a serialisation of The Romance of Runnibede, using the magazine to advertise the upcoming film version of the novel.

Like Davis' other forays into magazine publication, Steele Rudd and Shop Assistants' Magazine ran into financial difficulty. Although the magazine was a less expensive production than previous manifestations, it failed to assert its place in the magazine market. The magazine folded during 1927 and the Australian Workers's Union later sued for unpaid printing bills.

When the first issue of the new series of Steele Rudd's Magazine appeared in July 1929, it represented the fifth attempt by Arthur Hoey Davis to sustain a magazine in the Australian market. Previous series had achieved some success, reaching a wide readership, but most had ended in financial difficulty. This series, produced in Sydney, was Davis' last term as proprietor of a magazine.

Like previous series, the first issue declared the interests of the magazine in an editorial:

'Steele Rudd's' will be conducted strictly along the lines of ability, national service, morality and commonsense. It will not be a purveyor of social personalia of the self-seeker, photographic and feminine idiosyncracies, movie-star painted absurdities and claptrap. Pictures or personal paragraphs in its pages will be printed only of people who have distinguished themselves by achieving something worth while in one form or another, excepting, of course, in cases of entertaining and useful satire.'

Without advertisements for farm equipment, the new Steele Rudd's Magazine did not immeditely exhibit the rural focus of its predecessors. The prose and poetry, except for several prominent examples from Steele Rudd and Henry Mostyn, also exhibited less of a rural bias. Contributions included a portrait of Ireland, an article on socialism by former Prime Minister Billy Hughes, a discussion of women's rights by Winifred Hamilton, and articles on the timber industry and immigration.

Only several issues of Steele Rudd's Magazine were produced, the venture apparently suffering financial difficulty as the Depression began to take hold. Nevertheless, it remains a significant part of the series of magazines published under the name of Steele Rudd between 1903 and 1930.