Blue Pencils and Hidden Hands: Women Editing Periodicals, 1830-1910 [Hardcover]

Sharon M. Harris (Editor), Ellen Gruber Garvey (Contributor)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 23, 2004

During the long nineteenth century, American women editors of magazines, then the dominant mass medium for information in the United States, exerted a vital force over a burgeoning community of readers and were crucial in redefining women's identities and roles in the nation's changing social and cultural landscape.

This collection of original critical essays builds on a growing body of scholarship to explore the varied editorial practices of women editors from diverse race, class, and ethnic backgrounds. Examining a broad spectrum of periodicals, including school newspapers, children's and fashion magazines, and activist political journals, the contributors delve into three major areas: women apprentices in magazine publishing; women who drew on their editorial experience to create other forms of literary, artistic, and activist expressions; and women who established careers as editors. Enriching the essays are selections from the periodicals themselves, revealing how Ann S. Stephens, Frances Wright, Pauline Hopkins, Kate Field, Zitkala-Sa, and others wielded their editorial pen to shape public opinion about such issues as woman suffrage, abolitionism, and domestic violence.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This volume offers insights into women's participation in the editorial field... the essays are well written and interesting."--Victorian Periodicals Review

"...many of the essays usefully draw attention to women who have escaped the attention of literary and publishing history or to aspects of the careers of women authors that have been ignored."--Legacy

About the Author

Sharon M. Harris is Lorraine Sherley Professor in Literature at Texas Christian University. She is the author of Rebecca Harding Davis: Writing Cultural Autobiography and the editor of Legacy: A Journal of American Women Writers. She lives in Arlington, Texas. Ellen Gruber Garvey is Associate Professor of English and Women's Studies at New Jersey City University and the author of Adman in the Parlor: Magazines and the Gendering of Consumer Culture, 1880s to 1910s.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Northeastern (June 23, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1555536131
• ISBN-13: 978-1555536138
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,766,084 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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