literary landscapes.
While our perception of nineteenth-century American literature is largely dominated by a few men, novels, and schools of thought, nineteenth-century print culture was a largely heterogeneous scene that boasted not one but two main spheres of production. Indeed, although it has been largely ignored by modern surveys of the era in favor of the book publishing industry, the second sphere—the literary journal—was not only a profoundly influential aspect of American letters through which thousands of voices spoke and were celebrated, but was also equally as significant as the book publishing industry in the formation of America’s literature.
remapping print culture.
Nathaniel Hawthorne. EDEN Southworth. Edgar Allan Poe. Fanny Fern. Herman Melville. Susan Warner. Walt Whitman.
Half of these names are well-known to us—the male names. Yet during their lifetimes, these men achieved only moderate success—or none at all—while the women were lauded for their contributions to literature. EDEN Southworth serialized over sixty novels in literary journals and was the best-selling novelist of her generation. Fanny Fern was the highest paid columnist in the U.S. in 1855. Susan Warner wrote the first “best-seller” in U. S. history.
These facts should alert us that, in our attempts to reconstruct the landscape of nineteenth-century American literature, we have succeeded only in creating a landscape that would have been foreign to the participants of the time. The distance of time, certainly, has allowed us to evaluate particular offerings for their timelessness; equally, however, it has also enabled us to centralize our focus on those select pieces at the expense of a true understanding of the politics and poetics of that era’s print culture.
In the nineteenth century, the “great American novel”—so beloved by modern scholarship—did not exercise unparalleled sway over the reading public; instead bound books shared that power with the literary journal. Indeed, records from the time demonstrates that periodicals far outstripped bound books at the press, producing a profound volume of material that was avidly read by the newly literate republic. These journals both responded to and dictated the tastes of the reading nation, thus exerting a continuous influence over that nation’s reception of printed volumes. Contributors to literary journals were as highly esteemed as authors of books and often engaged a far wider readership, achieving celebrity status with a national audience.
Indeed, authors found it almost impossible to achieve a widespread readership for their books unless they first cultivated a loyal readership through America’s journals. Nearly every famous author of the nineteenth century began or at least participated in the journalistic scene: Edgar Allan Poe was first and last a magazinist, editing five periodicals during his lifetime. Walt Whitman began his career in New York’s journals. Mark Twain penned columns long before crafting his famous explorations of American nostalgia. Journals were at once their own institution within print culture and a gateway into that culture’s books.
women in print.
Just as the literary journals of this era have been overshadowed by their bookish competitors, so too have the female authors of this era been largely overshadowed by their male counterparts. Indeed, while most of the volumes that have been extracted and exalted from this century were written by men, the 1800s witnessed an explosion in women’s literary output, an expansion that would form the bedrock of women’s achievement of full standing in the twentieth century and one that was directly linked to the phenomenon of the periodical.
By the mid-1800s, the “authoress” had become an acceptable role for a woman. Book-writing was an activity that could be accomplished from home and, provided women undertook such a task with the expression of their emotions rather than a desire for fame, as their guiding motive, could be executed in keeping with feminine protocols. Producing a book was no small task, however, especially given the many household duties attendant upon women in the Victorian milieu, duties which reduced women’s ability to engage in sustained output. The literary journal, with its abbreviated demands, thus provided the perfect entry for women to engage consistently with the production of print culture by airing their writing and cultivating their reputations on an equal footing with men.
Moreover, while the activity—writing—remained the same, the literary journal involved far more progressive production schedules and reimbursements than the book industry and thus proved a significant though unsuspected step towards vocational equality. Whereas books were produced slowly and irregularly, journals caught their contributors up in a whirlwind of deadlines and salaries that, for women, approached scandalously near to the accoutrements of employment. The journal thus enacted a dynamic movement towards salaried careers for women, a movement upon which women capitalized. Indeed, women took full advantage of the journal’s leverage, writing columns, editing periodicals, and carving out spaces for themselves as poets, novelists, and moralists, before loyal local and even national audiences.
Nor was women’s influence within this industry confined to the materials they printed. Indeed, during this era, the literary establishment was not equivalent to the publishing industry and was based upon a wider discourse surrounding the creation of culture. One primary manifestation of this publishing culture was the phenomena of the literary salon. These salons, where artists alternatively mingled, conversed, and debated with one another, were frequented by both male and female writers. Moreover, women not only participated in but also actively hosted these salons; salons, thus, were platforms of discourse between and realms of influence for women. It was under their oversight that the “great men” of their time met and formed alliances, and it was on their terms that both female and male authors were accepted into literary standing.
In this way, America achieved a literary establishment whose nature reflected the diversity of its population; these journals provided a platform through which literal thousands of voices, both male and female, might be expressed and celebrated. This era thus achieved a heterogeneity undreamt of by our modern conceptions of its culture, a heterogeneity that is captured perfectly by a snapshot of its literary salons and the women who joined men in attending them.
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