was, as its first subtitle suggests, “a miscellany of original literature in poetry and prose” founded and edited by Edmund Routledge (1844–1899). Modeling itself upon the , , and the , the tried to capitalize on the popularity during the 1860s of monthly periodicals, which, as Thackeray claimed, “afford to the reading public the greatest part of the modern literature which it demands” (2). Debuting along with Thackeray's Magazine in 1867, predominantly published serial fiction along with literary essays, poetry, and illustrations. It drew contributors from the stable of writers already publishing with George Routledge & Sons, and the young Edmund Routledge vigorously pursued many more, including William Michael Rossetti and Algernon Swinburne. (WMR, in a letter to Swinburne, called “[t]he most groveling of publications” [Peattie 181].) Other notable contributors included Henry Kingsley, W.S. Gilbert, Tom Hood, and Annie Thomas (a.k.a. Pendler Cudlip).

Having become a partner in his father's business in 1865, Edmund Routledge likely developed to expand his editorial work beyond the company's successful reprints and magazines for children (Mumby). —named for the address of its office on Ludgate-Hill—was published in London and New York, as George Routledge & Sons had a Manhattan office (416 Broome Street) for distribution and access to American writers (Sutherland 84; Barnes). The plan to include trans-Atlantic contents aimed to appeal to both markets, as is made perfectly clear in a full-page advertisement in (10 August 1867): “It is our earnest desire that Britannia should shake hands with Columbia intellectually, and that both should shake hands with us financially” (189). The advertisement plays on the name Broadway, claiming itself as an “International magazine” that bows to the international spirit of the age. But Gohdes claims that remained “merely a London journal which devoted more than the average amount of space to American topics and which included a few [American] contributions” (60-61).

advertisement suggests the magazine's perhaps unfocused editorial direction: “‘THE BROADWAY’ is our Title, and our Scheme is as broad as our Name”. Routledge wanted his magazine to be widely popular and made sure his prospectus had few sharp edges: “The tone of our periodical will be decidedly entertaining, recreative, and light: that is to say, we shall endeavour to be sociable without being frivolous; and if we occasionally aim at being instructive, we shall most scrupulously avoid being indigestible. Politics we shall eschew: politics being dull things, which few understand, and fewer still are any better for understanding” (189). With its “light” tone, Routledge's magazine casually dismisses the vogue for rational recreation and offers instead the polite but knowing pleasures of a cosmopolitan literary miscellany. Ellegård claims that the magazine's readership was “predominantly feminine” and middle class (33). The frontispiece of a bound copy of the magazine seems to illustrate this: a pair of well-dressed young women in a rose bower sharing an issue of .

demonstrated no particular affiliation with an aesthetic movement, but it did publish WMR's interesting exercise in applied Pre-Raphaelite poetics, “ ”. Routledge contacted WMR twice in 1867 to ask for his contributions, interested more in WMR's cultural cache than in any particular offerings. However, unimpressed by the magazine's “broad scheme”, WMR declined Routledge's first offer, “instancing their prospectus as of itself enough to warn off any human writer”, as he wrote to Swinburne (Peattie 181). Routledge decided to shift his editorial policy and promised WMR in a second letter that would seek out increasingly distinguished contributors. WMR consented, offering his long narrative poem “” and an article on John Ruskin (printed as “” in March 1868). But WMR severed ties with the magazine in December 1867, annoyed by Routledge's irreverent treatment of Swinburne (Peattie 189).