The auction for the copyright of Bell's Life - together with all its plant - took place in Sydney on 6 October 1871.
Several weeks later, the Argus reported that: 'Bell's Life in Sydney has ceased to exist as a separate periodical, and has been incorporated with the Sydney Mail, the proprietors of which purchased the copyright this week. It is said to be their intention to chronicle in the Mail all that calls for notice in connexion with field sports and other pastimes which are worthy of record.' (Argus, 23 October 1871, p. 6)
Bell's Life in Sydney and Sporting Reviewer
Bell's Life in Sydney
George Ferrers Pickering
(editor),
Thomas Revel Johnson
(editor),
1845
Sydney
:
1845-1860
Z1270546
1845
newspaper
(11 issues)
Bell's Life in Sydney was started by Thomas Revel Johnson in 1845. George Ferrers Pickering became joint proprietor with Johnson in February 1847, and he appears to have assumed editorial responsibilities soon afterwards. The following year, the Johnson/Pickering partnership was dissolved in acrimonious circumstances, and Johnson left the newspaper. George Ferrers Pickering appears to have edited Bell's Life in Sydney from 1847 through until ca. 1868, and for most of this period was also joint proprietor (with various partners). Under Pickering's editorship, Bell's Life in Sydney became essentially a sporting newspaper, with a strong focus on horse racing. However, for much of its life it also included a theatre column, and from time to time it also published fiction and poetry, a good deal of which involved sporting and racing themes.
The Sydney Mail
The Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser
J. P. Dowling
(editor),
George Eld
(editor),
W. H. Traill
(editor),
F. W. Ward
(editor),
W. R. Charlton
(editor),
Samuel Cook
(editor),
Sydney
:
J. Fairfax and Sons
,
1860-1938
Z949966
1860-1938
newspaper
(2470 issues)
'[The] Sydney Mail, the weekly companion to the Sydney Morning Herald, was published 1860-1938. Like its rival the Australian Town and Country Journal, it was popular with both country and city readers, and combined general news with agricultural, pastoral, mining, sporting and literary features and included illustrations.'
Source: William H. Wilde, Joy Hooton, Barry Andrews, The Oxford Companion to Australian Literature (1994): 734.
