The two volumes cover most of Johnson’s school career and all his contributions to the magazine. Johnson entered Winchester on a scholarship in 1880 but is not mentioned in The Wykehamist until No. 172 (December 1882), when he delivered before the Debate Society “a most eloquent harangue on the general worthlessness of our landed aristocracy.“ Thereafter, he is mentioned as a participating member of the Debate Society and Shakspere Society. Oddly, Johnson opposed a resolution put forth by the Debate Society opposing the execution of Charles I., arguing that Charles had ‚“Broken every principle of the constitution,“ and ‚“that the execution had served as a wholesome warning to later kings“ (p. 115). Some time in 1884, Johnson became editor, and his unsigned editorials clearly express his interests and values, which were not shared by the vast majority of his classmates. The aesthete takes it to the hearties.
In his unsigned lead editorial in No. 189 (October 1884), Johnson alludes in passing to the first title published by Bradley and Cooper under the pseudonym “Michael Field,“ a book which few other Wykehamists can be assumed to have read: “We print elsewhere a letter from a correspondent, who evidently feels what is beyond reasonable doubt a real want. The art of dancing, in whatever light we view it, is emphatically not one unworthy of being classed with other arts. A relic of solemn enthusiasm, which according to the authoress of Callirhoe (sic) is the ‘sap of the tree of Life,’ dancing holds its own, though in the passionless external society of to-day it is very far from being so considered… .“ (Henry James would have been proud.) In No. 191 (December 1884), under the heading ‚“A Plea for a Poet’s Corner,“ he editorializes: “It is too long since The Wykehamist had any poetry, save that which is made to order, in its columns“ (p. 257). This same issue includes five original poems, some probably by Johnson. In No. 192 (16 December 1884), he indicates that, despite the popular outcry, he intends to continue printing verse (pp. 266-67). Indeed, this number includes three poems, one of which, signed “NONYMUNCULUS QUIDAM,“ and entitled “Ballad of His Critics,“ pursues the defiant theme of the editorial, with an added note of irony: “O men of muscle, will ye slay / Us worms of earth?“
The first volume is a fine copy, the binding on the second is rather distressed, spine barely hanging on and a chip missing (but preserved) from the foot of the spine. One issue of a post Johnson number (July 1893) in original wrappers, is included.
