The first true literary review, the Monthly Review was founded by dissenting bookseller Ralph Griffiths in 1749. Griffiths aimed for comprehensive coverage of the entire range of new publications, aspiring “to register all the new Things in general, without exception to any, on account of their lowness of rank, or price” (The Monthly Review, vol. 1, 1749, p. 238). The leading review for the half century when Griffiths served as editor, the Monthly Review provided summary and extract of all but the most specialized publications. Griffiths died in 1803, and his son George Edward Griffiths took over management. In the face of competition from rivals like the Edinburgh Review and the Quarterly Review George Edward Griffiths slowly converted to the now more familiar evaluative format. During his tenure, Ralph Griffiths assembled an expert staff of contributors, including Oliver Goldsmith, Dr. Charles Burney, and other notables in their fields, to produce a journal respected for its high intellectual standards and appealing as well for its Whig, antiestablishment perspective. It was also the first major literary review to employ women as regular contributors (Elizabeth Moody and Anna Letitia Barbauld). George Edward Griffiths attempted to maintain this high standard when he took over management, but though he tried to adapt to the changing critical environment springing from the rise of the new quarterlies, his efforts proved inadequate. The younger Griffiths relinquished control in 1825, after which the publication survived another two decades. Benjamin Nangle has assembled indexes of Monthly Review articles from marked copies running up to 1815 (The Monthly Review, First Series, 1749-1789: Indexes of Contributors and Articles and The Monthly Review, Second Series, 1790-1815: Indexes of Contributors and Articles ).