New Media and the Rise of the Popular Woman Writer, 1832–1860

297 Pages·2021·32.74 MB·English

by  Alexis Easley

New Media and the Rise of
the Popular Woman Writer,
1832–1860
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New Media and the
Rise of the Popular
Woman Writer,
1832–1860
Alexis Easley
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© Alexis Easley, 2021
Edinburgh University Press Ltd
The Tun – Holyrood Road, 12(2f) Jackson’s Entry, Edinburgh EH8 8PJ
Typeset in 11/13 Adobe Sabon by
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ISBN 978 1 4744 7592 1 (hardback)
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ISBN 978 1 4744 7595 2 (epub)
The right of Alexis Easley to be identifi ed as the author of this work has been asserted in
accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, and the Copyright and
Related Rights Regulations 2003 (SI No. 2498).
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Contents
Li st of Figures vi
Acknowledgements xi
Introduction 1
1. Felicia Hemans and the Birth of the Mass-Market
Woman Poet 24
2. Eliza Cook, New Media Innovator 53
3. George Eliot, the Brontës and the Market for Poetry 97
4. Women Writers and Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal 133
5. Frances Brown and the ‘Modern’ Market for Print 171
6. Scrapbooks and Women’s Reading Practices 201
Coda 242
Bibliography 257
Index 275
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List of Figures
1.1 Ngram for ‘Mrs. Hemans’, 1800–60, Google Books,
http://books.google.com/ngrams 25
1.2 Frontispiece engraving of Felicia Hemans by Edward
Scriven after a portrait by William Edward West for
volume 1 of William Blackwood’s Works of
Mrs. Hemans (1839). © National Portrait Gallery,
London. 42
1.3 Frontispiece engraving of Felicia Hemans by Edward
Smith after Edward Robertson’s miniature of Hemans
from 1831, published in the Garland for 1839,
a Christmas, New-Year and Birthday Present.
Courtesy of HathiTrust. 45
1.4 Frontispiece engraving by Robert C. Roffe after Edward
Robertson’s miniature of Hemans from 1831, published
in the 1836 volume edition of the Mirror of Literature,
Amusement and Instruction. © National Portrait
Gallery, London. 47
1.5 Frontispiece engraving after Edward Robertson’s miniature
of Hemans from 1831, Lippincott’s Poetical Works of
Mrs. Hemans (1860). Courtesy of HathiTrust. 48
2.1 The number of Eliza Cook’s poems published in the
Weekly Dispatch, 1835–50. 58
2.2 Frontispiece portrait of Eliza Cook, Melaia, and
Other Poems (London: Tilt, 1840). 61
2.3 Cover, sheet music for ‘The Old Arm Chair, a Ballad’,
3rd edn (Boston: Oakes and Swan, 1840). Courtesy of the
Lester S. Levy Sheet Music Collection, Sheridan Libraries,
Johns Hopkins University. 63
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List of Figures vii
2.4 Cover, sheet music for ‘The Old Arm Chair, a Ballad’,
21st edn (Boston: George Reed, 1840). Courtesy of the
Lester S. Levy Sheet Music Collection, Sheridan Library,
Johns Hopkins University. 65
2.5 Staffordshire fi gurine of Eliza Cook, ca. 1850. 66
2.6 Frontispiece portrait by T. Smart, engraved by Henry
Adlard for Poems, Second Series (London: Simpkin,
Marshall, 1845). 67
2.7 Portrait of Eliza Cook, ‘The Poems of Eliza Cook’,
London Journal 1 (9 August 1845): 376. 68
2.8 Arthur Miles, group portrait, ‘Lady Blessington,
Miss Eliza Cook, and the Hon. Mrs. Norton’,
Reynolds’s Miscellany 1 (13 February 1847): 233. 69
2.9 Eliza Cook by Henry Adlard after a painting by
Wilhelm Trautschold, stipple engraving, created for
the Weekly Dispatch, 1847. © National Portrait
Gallery, London. 70
2.10 Advertisement for the Weekly Dispatch, Musical
World 22 (29 May 1847): 353. 71
2.11 Lithograph of Eliza Cook by Henry Brittan Willis
from a painting by J. Watkins, 1849. © National
Portrait Gallery, London. 72
2.12 Charlotte Cushman by Wilhelm Trautschold,
ca. 1847. Reproduced with permission of the
Folger Shakespeare Library. 74
2.13 ‘Song of November (after Eliza Cook)’, Punch Almanack,
1846, n.p. 77
2.14 Portrait of Eliza Cook, ‘Notable Living Women and
Their Deeds’, Young Englishwoman, November 1875,
p. 615. 88
2.15 ‘Dumb Crambo Junior’s Edition of the British Poets’,
Punch, 1 January 1887, p. 15. 89
3.1 George Eliot’s School Notebook, 16 March 1834,
f. 1. Courtesy of the George Eliot and George Henry
Lewes Collection, General Collection, Beinecke Rare
Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. 102
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viii New Media and the Rise of the Popular Woman Writer
3.2 George Eliot’s School Notebook, 16 March 1834, f. 26–7.
Courtesy of the George Eliot and George Henry Lewes
Collection, General Collection, Beinecke Rare Book
and Manuscript Library, Yale University. 105
3.3 George Eliot’s School Notebook, 16 March 1834,
f. 10–11. Courtesy of the George Eliot and George Henry
Lewes Collection, General Collection, Beinecke Rare
Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. 109
3.4 Salome, ‘A Fragment’, Monmouthshire Merlin,
26 April 1834, p. 4. 110
3.5 [Charlotte Brontë], ‘The Letter’, London Journal,
1 August 1846, p. 348. 121
3.6 [Charlotte Brontë], ‘Evening Solace’, Chambers’s
Edinburgh Journal, 17 March 1849, p. 176. 125
4.1 Average pay per column (in shillings) for women
contributors to Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal,
1839–55. 151
4.2 Map of the initial correspondence addresses of women
contributors to Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal,
1839–55. 157
4.3 Map of initial correspondence addresses for women
contributors to Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal residing
in central London, 1839–55. 158
4.4 Map of initial correspondence addresses for women
contributors to Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal residing
in central Edinburgh, 1839–55. The location of the
Chambers’s offi ces is fl agged with a large marker. 158
5.1 Portrait of Frances Brown (ca. 1850). Courtesy of
Patrick Bonar. 173
5.2 Engraving by Henry Thomas Ryall of The Blind Girl at
the Holy Well by F. W. Burton, 1841. Courtesy of the
British Museum. 176
5.3 Map of Frances Brown’s addresses in Edinburgh in relation
to the addresses of local publishers, 1847–52. 191
6.1 ‘Never Hold Malice’, page from the scrapbook of Arabella
Odgers, ca. 1849, #90, f. 59. Courtesy of the Harry Page
Collection, Manchester Metropolitan University. 202
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List of Figures ix
6.2 ‘Let us Love One Another’, page from the scrapbook
of Arabella Odgers, ca. 1849, #90, f. 57. Courtesy of
the Harry Page Collection, Manchester Metropolitan
University. 203
6.3 Two-page spread from an anonymous scrapbook,
John Rylands Library, ca. 1832, Ref. R133074.1.
Copyright of the University of Manchester. 208
6.4 Page from an anonymous scrapbook, ca. 1834,
#160, Harry Page Collection, Special Collections,
Manchester Metropolitan University. 210
6.5 Page from the scrapbook of Anne Wharton Stock,
1852, #98, Harry Page Collection, Special Collections,
Manchester Metropolitan University. 211
6.6 Two-page spread from an anonymous scrapbook,
1820–30, #174, Harry Page Collection, Special
Collections, Manchester Metropolitan University. 214
6.7 Two-page spread from an anonymous scrapbook,
1820–30, #174, Harry Page Collection, Special
Collections, Manchester Metropolitan University. 216
6.8 Page from the scrapbook of M. A. C., 1850, #144,
p. 6, Harry Page Collection, Special Collections,
Manchester Metropolitan University. 219
6.9 Page from the scrapbook of M. A. C., 1850, #144,
p. 26, Harry Page Collection, Special Collections,
Manchester Metropolitan University. 222
6.10 Page from the scrapbook of M. A. C., 1850, #144,
p. 24, Harry Page Collection, Special Collections,
Manchester Metropolitan University. 223
6.11 Page from the scrapbook of M. A. C., 1850, #144,
p. 169, Harry Page Collection, Special Collections,
Manchester Metropolitan University. 226
6.12 Page from the scrapbook of M. A. C., 1850, #144,
p. 52, Harry Page Collection, Special Collections,
Manchester Metropolitan University. 228
6.13 Page from the scrapbook of M. A. C., 1850, #144,
p. 90, Harry Page Collection, Special Collections,
Manchester Metropolitan University. 230
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